SOLVENT SCREENING USING UNIFAC METHOD TO INVESTIGATE THE DEODORIZATION OF SOYBEAN OIL USING A LIQUID SOLVENT
Removal of secondary oxidation products from edible oils, currently achieved by steam stripping in the deodorization process, may be conducted under mild conditions with a liquid solvent. Solvent screening can be used to determine more suitable solvents for removing undesirable compounds. In order to pre-investigate the removal of hexanal, 2,4-decadienal and hexanoic acid, odor compounds for soybean oil, solubility data of pseudoternary systems were predicted using UNIFAC at 298.15 K for 16 organic solvents in Aspen Plus. Two versions of UNIFAC were considered, Magnussen et al. (1981) and Hirata et al. (2013), this last one specifically adjusted for lipid technology systems. In general, the results indicated that 7 solvents presented a separation region (type I or II), with different mutual solubilities for the solvent/diluent pair. This simulated screening provided guidance for sets of experiments involving liquid-liquid equilibria that is being currently under investigation.