Novel Separation Techniques for Isolation and Purification of Fatty Acids and Oil By‐Products

Although TAGs are the predominant molecular form of edible fats and oils, it might be necessary to subject them to separation according to their chemical composition or to modify them in different ways. Principles of separating fatty acids are based on specific properties of each acid or acid group. Two major properties (vapor pressure and melting point difference) are used in developing separation techniques. The vapor pressure of a mixture of fatty acids varies significantly with the chain length of fatty acids involved, which is used in fractional distillation as a means of separating short- and long-chain fatty acids. However, vapor pressure does not change much with the degree of unsaturation. In the other method, the melting point of fatty acids changes considerably with the degree of unsaturation, which could be used to separate a mixture of fatty acids into saturated and unsaturated components. By changing the temperature of the mixture, fatty acids can be separated according to the degree of unsaturation at their respective crystallization temperature. Keywords: fatty acid; triacylglcerols; chromatographic separation; countercurrent chromatography; crystallization; distillation; soapstock; hydrolysis; esterification