JP2002030295A - Fractionating method for edible oil and fat - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem which crystallization of oils and fasts is inefficiently and extremely time-consuming. SOLUTION: This fractionation method for edible oils and fats is characterized in that raw material oils and fats comprising plural oil and fat components different in composition are melted or dissolved and the raw material oils and fast are simultaneously pressurized cooled so that a part of crystal of the oil and fat components is crystallized and the crystallized solid fats are separated. A crystallization time is extremely shortened by pressurization in the crystallization of oils and fast and the fractionation of oils and fats can be continuously and efficiently carried out.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a method for separating edible oils and fats, and more particularly, to a method of separating edible oils and fats such as natural oils and fats which are raw materials of processed oil and fats used in the confectionery and bakery industries. The present invention relates to a method for separating a fat component in a raw material fat containing a plurality of different fat components.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Oils and fats used in the confectionery and bakery industries as raw materials for processed fats and oils such as margarine and shortening include animal oils such as milk fat, beef tallow, lard, fish oil, palm oil, and the like.
Natural raw materials such as vegetable oils such as palm kernel oil, coconut oil, rapeseed oil, corn oil, and soybean oil are used.
These raw fats and oils have different fat and oil compositions such as fatty acid composition depending on the place of production and season. If the fat composition of the raw materials is different in this way, the physical properties and quality of the processed fat / fat food produced therefrom will also change, making it impossible to make a certain product when performing confectionery and bread, which is a major problem. . Therefore, usually, the raw material fat is hardened by hydrogenation treatment to a certain level, or by separating certain components in the raw material fat, even if the fat composition of the raw material fat varies to some extent, It has been devised to be able to produce processed fats and oils with physical properties and quality.

[0003] As a method for separating fats and oils, a solvent separation method using a solvent, a method using a surfactant, and the like have been conventionally performed. The solvent separation method is generally a method in which fats and oils are dissolved in a solvent such as alcohol, acetone, and hexane, and the separation is performed by utilizing a difference in solubility of the fats and oils component due to a difference in temperature. The processing capacity increases, and care must be taken in handling the solvent, which makes industrialization difficult. Further, the method using a surfactant also has a problem in wastewater treatment or restrictions in the Food Sanitation Law in Japan, and there is still a problem in industrialization. On the other hand, a solvent-free fractionation method that does not use any solvent or surfactant has been studied for a long time, and this method utilizes a difference in the melting point of crystals for each fat component having a different composition to crystallize a certain fat component depending on the temperature. It is to separate the solid oil and liquid oil that have been crystallized and crystallized, but after cooling the oil and fat, it is necessary to stand for a long time until the crystallization is completed, so that it takes a lot of time to separate. Is a problem.

[0004] Further, in the above-described conventional methods of solvent fractionation, a method using a surfactant, and a solventless fractionation method, the crystallization step is performed by a batch method regardless of which method is used. Inevitably, it is industrially inefficient, and there has been a long-awaited need for the development of a method capable of performing continuous and efficient separation.

[0005]

As described above, the method for separating fats and oils is not limited to various methods.
At present, many problems remain for industrial treatment. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for efficiently separating fats and oils that conventionally required a long time, and more specifically, to increase the crystallization speed during crystallization, thereby continuously and continuously shortening the fats and oils in a short time. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a method that can efficiently perform the separation of the above.

[0006]

As described above, in the method of separating fats and oils, the greatest problem is that crystallization of the fats and oils, that is, crystallization of the melted or dissolved fats and oils, takes a long time. Therefore, the present inventors have conducted intensive studies on measures for increasing the crystallization rate of fats and oils, and as a result, the crystallization start temperature of fats and oils is increased by applying pressure during crystallization, and the crystallization time is shortened. As a result of repeated investigations and thoughts that the separation time could be reduced by using the physical phenomenon called, the crystallization time was significantly reduced by cooling and applying pressure during crystallization, and continuous The present inventors have found that the separation of fats and oils can be carried out, and have completed the present invention. That is, the method for separating edible fats and oils according to claim 1 involves melting or dissolving raw fats and oils containing a plurality of fats and oils components having different compositions, and performing pressurization and cooling on the raw fats and oils at the same time to partially remove fats and oils. After crystallizing the crystals, the crystallized solid fat is separated.
Further, the method for separating edible fats and oils according to claim 2 comprises heating and melting raw fats and oils containing a plurality of fats and oils components having different compositions, and simultaneously applying pressure and cooling to the melted raw fats and oils, so that the fats and oils of some fats and oils components are obtained. This is a solventless fractionation method characterized by separating a crystallized solid fat and a liquid oil after crystallizing the crystals. The method for separating edible fats and oils according to claim 3 is the method for separating edible fats and oils according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the molten raw fats and oils are continuously pressurized and cooled, and the crystallized solid fat and liquid are separated. This is a method of continuously separating oil and oil.
Furthermore, the method for fractionating edible fats and oils according to claim 4 is based on claims 1 to
3. The method for separating edible fats and oils according to any one of the above items 3, wherein the pressurizing pressure is 10 MPa or more. The method for separating fats and oils according to the present invention as described above, by cooling and pressurizing the melted or dissolved raw material fats and oils, terminates the crystallization in a very short time, thereby continuously and efficiently separating the fats and oils. Can be.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a detailed embodiment of the present invention will be described. Raw material fats and oils used in the present invention are not particularly limited as long as they are edible fats and oils used for ordinary processed fats and oils, and include animal oils such as beef tallow, lard, milk fat, fish oil, and liver oil, rapeseed oil, corn oil, soybean oil, and cottonseed oil. Vegetable oils such as, palm oil, palm kernel oil, coconut oil, and their hydrogenated oils,
Single or mixed edible oils and fats generally used such as transesterified oils can be used. These raw material fats and oils are subjected to deoxidation, decolorization, deodorization and the like according to a conventional method, purified, and then subjected to a separation treatment.

As a specific method of separation, any method may be used as long as pressure and cooling can be performed simultaneously.
In the case of the solvent-free separation method, for example, first, the raw material oil and fat melted at about 60 ° C. is continuously supplied to a pressure vessel, and the crystallization is completed by pressurizing and cooling, and temporarily held in a cushion tank. After that, fat crystals and liquid fat can be continuously separated using a cylindrical vacuum drum filtration device. The pressure vessel used for this crystallization is designed so that pressurization, temperature adjustment and stirring can be performed simultaneously.The contents in the vessel can be pressurized and slowly stirred from the vessel wall. The contents can be cooled. For the pressurization method, a pressure may be adjusted by providing a throttle valve such as an orifice at the outlet, or pressure may be generated between two pumps by adjusting the flow rate using two pumps such as a gear pump and a piston pump. Or any other conceivable method. Pressurized pressure, pressurized time, cooling temperature can not be specified unconditionally because the optimal value differs depending on the raw material composition of the edible fat and oil used, the melting point of the crystal to be separated, the composition,
Usually, the pressurizing pressure is preferably 10 to 150 MPa, and the pressurizing time is preferably 1 minute or more. However, the cooling temperature varies depending on the melting point of the crystal of the fat component to be separated, the pressurizing pressure to be treated, and the like. If the pressure is less than 10 MPa, the effect of promoting crystallization of fats and oils is often insufficient. In addition, the treatment may be carried out at a high pressure exceeding 150 MPa, but there is no further improvement in the crystallization promoting effect, and the pressurization at a pressure higher than necessary is economically preferable from the viewpoint of safety. Absent. The pressurizing time is determined in consideration of the pressurizing pressure, temperature, oil and fat composition, and the like, but if it is less than 1 minute, crystallization is often insufficient. Regarding the cooling temperature, by applying pressure, it is possible to perform processing at a temperature higher than the temperature at which crystallization starts at normal pressure, so that strong cooling is not particularly necessary. Normally, if the cooling is performed so that the product temperature becomes 20 ° C. or less, the amount of crystals becomes too large, and it becomes difficult to separate the crystals. It should be noted that a seed crystal may be added before the crystallization, so that the crystallization can be further promoted. Also,
After performing the pressure crystallization treatment, crystals may be further grown in a cooling unit as needed. Stirring at the time of pressure crystallization is more preferably performed as slowly as possible within a range in which the cooling is uniformly performed, so that the crystals become coarser and the separation becomes easier.

The separation device may be any device as long as it can be continuously processed. In addition to the illustrated vacuum cylindrical drum filtration device, a centrifugal separation device, a filter press, and the like may be used in combination to perform the separation continuously. .

In the method for separating fats and oils according to the present invention as described above, the crystallization is completed in a very short time by cooling and pressurizing the melted or dissolved raw fats and oils to continuously and efficiently separate the fats and oils. Since the method can be performed, if a method of adding a surfactant is used, solid-liquid separation becomes easier, and the purity and yield of the fractionated product can be improved. Furthermore, if a solvent used for normal solvent separation such as hexane and acetone is used, crystallization is further promoted and separation becomes easier, so that the present method can be applied to solvent separation.

[0011]

The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to examples and comparative examples below, but the present invention is not limited by these examples. In the Examples and Comparative Examples, “parts” all indicate “parts by weight”.

(Example 1) Solvent-free separation of raw oils and fats was performed using the continuous separation step shown in FIG. In the drawing, reference numeral 1 is a raw material tank, 3, 5, 6, and 8 are scraping-type heat exchange units (A1 to A4 units), 4 is a piston pump, 7 is a gear pump, 9 is a cushion tank, and 10 is a vacuum cylindrical drum. Filtration device, 11 is a scraping knife of vacuum cylindrical drum filtration device 10, 12 is a solid fat recovery tank, 13
Denotes a liquid oil recovery tank, and reference numeral 2 denotes a pipe connecting each tank and unit. The deacidified and decolorized palm oil is charged into the raw material tank 1, heated and melted at 60 ° C., and heated in the heat exchange units 3, 5, 6, 8 (A1 unit to A4 unit) according to the process flow shown in FIG. ° C and by adjusting the flow rate of the two pumps 4 and 7 to reduce the amount of oil and fat being cooled between the two pumps.
The oil and fat after being pressurized to MPa and depressurized was held in the cushion tank 9 at 35 ° C. for about 10 minutes. Thereafter, solid fat and liquid oil were continuously separated by the vacuum cylindrical drum filtration device 10 and collected in the respective recovery tanks 12 and 13.
The time required during this time was about 25 minutes.

(Comparative Example 1) Using the continuous separation process shown in FIG. 1, deacidified and decolorized palm oil was charged into the raw material tank 1, and
Melted by heating at 0 ° C. and following the process flow shown in FIG.
After cooling to 40 ° C. in the heat exchange unit (A1 unit to A4 unit) without any particular pressurization, the liquid was kept in the cushion tank 9 at 35 ° C. for about 10 minutes. The solid fat could not be separated due to insufficient precipitation of the crystals.

Comparative Example 2 Deoxidized and decolorized palm oil was charged into a raw material tank, heated and melted at 60 ° C., cooled to 35 ° C. with slow stirring, aged for 48 hours, and then vacuum cylindrical drum. The liquid oil and the solid fat were separated by a filtration device. The time required during this time was about 50 hours.

Table 1 shows the characteristics of the palm oil used as the raw material fat and the liquid oil and the solid fat obtained in Example 1 and Comparative Example 2.
Summarized in Tables 2 and 3 show the solid fat content (SFC) of the liquid oil obtained in Example 1 and Comparative Example 2 and the fatty acid composition by gas chromatography.

[0016]

[Table 1]

[0017]

[Table 2]

[0018]

[Table 3]

From these results, the continuous solventless separation method of the present invention performed in Example 1 can separate liquid oil and solid fat in the same manner as the conventional solventless separation method performed in Comparative Example 2. It was found that the separation time was greatly reduced, and the separation could be continuously and efficiently performed. In addition, it was also found that it was difficult to continuously perform solvent-free separation when the pressure treatment was not performed.

[0020]

According to the present invention, in the separation of fats and oils containing a plurality of fats and oils components having different compositions such as natural fats and oils as raw materials for processed fats and oils, the crystallization time is increased by applying pressure during crystallization. It is greatly shortened, and it is possible to continuously perform a separation treatment, and it is possible to industrially continuously and efficiently separate oils and fats. Further, according to the solvent-free continuous separation method according to the present invention, without using a solvent or a surfactant,
Edible fats and oils can be industrially continuously and efficiently separated.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a process explanatory diagram showing an example of a solvent-free continuous separation process for fats and oils according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: raw material tank, 2: piping, 3: scraping type heat exchange unit (A1 unit), 4: piston pump, 5: scraping type heat exchange unit (A2 unit), 6: scraping type heat exchange unit (A3) Unit), 7: gear pump,
8: scraping type heat exchange unit (A4 unit), 9:
Cushion tank, 10: vacuum cylindrical drum filtration device, 1
1: scraping knife, 12: solid fat recovery tank, 13:
Liquid oil recovery tank.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 4B026 DG01 DG11 DH02 DP04 DP10 DX01 DX02 4H059 BC03 BC13 CA06 CA72 CA73 CA97 DA13 DA22 EA21

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method of melting or dissolving raw material fats and oils containing a plurality of fats and oils components having different compositions and simultaneously subjecting the raw material fats and oils to pressurization and cooling to crystallize some crystals of the fats and oils, A method for separating edible oils and fats, comprising separating the precipitated solid fat. 2. A raw material fat containing a plurality of fats and oils components having different compositions is heated and melted, and the melted raw material fats and oils are simultaneously subjected to pressurization and cooling to crystallize some crystals of the fats and oils. A solvent-free separation method for edible fats and oils, comprising separating the precipitated solid fat and liquid oil. 3. The method for separating edible fats and oils according to claim 1, wherein the pressurizing and cooling of the raw fats and oils are continuously performed, and the crystallized solid fats are continuously separated. 4. The method for separating edible fats and oils according to claim 1, wherein the pressurized pressure is 10 MPa or more.