Remove FFA Bab 1 AzmirJamaludinMFKSG2012CHAP1

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Research background
Palm oil is an edible oil that has been used widely in food industry. It is
originally produced from crude palm oil (CPO) which has gone through several
treatment or refining processes. The CPO consisted of triglyceride (TG) which is the
major component in palm oil, digylceride, monoglyceride, free fatty acid (FFA) and
minor components such as carotenoids, tocopherols, sterols, phosphatides, triterphenic
and aliphatic alcohols. The presence of FFA in CPO has become a problem in the
refining process (Kaimal et al. 2002). The higher content of FFA will result in higher
refining losses and possible bleachability problems. These factors will affected the
removal process of color pigment, dirt, trace metal and various organic impurities that
promote oxidation in palm oil. In order to convert CPO into an edible form, FFA must
be removed or decreased to an acceptable level.
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Nowadays, there are two methods that have been used widely in refining process
which are chemical approach using alkali refining and physical approach using
distillation. However, these methods have been limited to several disadvantages such as
high energy consumption, high cost expenditure, high neutral oil losses and also
contributed to environmental pollution (Manjula et al, 2009). Due to these problems a
new method which is Organic Solvent Nanofiltration (OSN) has been studied to remove
FFA from CPO. According to Livingston, 2008, this method used only 3 MJ of energy
for pump operation while in distillation method, extensive energy is required to operate
the heating and cooling process leading to high energy and cost losses.
OSN is a novel method of refining palm oil. In this method, FFA will be
separated from the mixture of palm oil with the presence of organic solvent using OSN
membranes. These membranes have the molecular weight cutoff (MWCO) of 200 to
1000 Dalton. Solute with smaller molecular weight and high affinity to the membrane
will pass to the permeate while the solute with bigger molecular weight and low affinity
will be in the retentate. The flux and rejection of FFA and TG are influenced by various
parameters. In this research, the concentration of FFA and type of organic solvent used
are studied to determine the flux and rejection thus determining the feasibility of OSN in
removing FFA from CPO.
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1.2 Problem statement
FFA in CPO has given many problems in refining process. Due to this problem,
various methods had been introduced purposely to remove or level down the FFA
content such as alkali process (chemical method) which uses chemical to neutralize the
crude oil and distillation process (physical method) that is the most common method
used nowadays.
The chemical refining process also known as alkali refining is relatively simple
and removes free fatty acids and residual phosphatides almost completely. During the
alkali refining process however, there are always considerable losses of neutral oil,
sterols, tocopherols and vitamins. Furthermore, disposal and utilization of the resulting
soapstock may cause environmental pollution problems. In physical refining approach,
distillation at high temperature at 260°C and pressure at 55 bar is used to evaporate the
FFA from CPO, which is energy-intensive.
The usage of OSN membrane to separate FFA from palm oil has a great potential
to the palm oil industry. The concept is rather simple and yet cost effective as it can be
operated at ambient temperature. It also has no damage to minor compounds in palm oil.
However, the separation efficiency of this method has to be studied to determine the
feasibility of OSN to remove FFA from palm oil.
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1.3 Objective
The objective of this research is to study the feasibility of Organic Solvent

Nanofiltration (OSN) by varying the concentration of FFA in feed and the type of
solvent used to remove FFA from CPO.
1.4 Scope of Study
The scopes of the study are to investigate the removal of FFA from palm oil
using OSN by varying the concentration of FFA (0.0895, 0.1790, 0.2685, 0.3580 g/ml)
in the feed and type of solvent used (acetone and hexane). The results of data are the
rejection and flux of FFA after filtration.

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CHAPTER I

1.1 Research background

1.2 Problem statement

The objective of this research is to study the feasibility of Organic Solvent

1.4 Scope of Study

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