Cleaner production technologies for the palm oil industry

✍ Scribed by Chiew Wei Puah; Yuen May Choo; Ah Ngan Ma; Cheng Hock Chuah

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 446 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0956-666X
• DOI: 10.1002/lite.200600015

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

This paper discusses some potential cleaner production technologies for the palm oil industry. These include supercritical fluid extraction, short path distillation and membrane separation. Over the last two decades, palm oil and minor components especially phytonutrients such as carotenoids, tocols (tocopherols and tocotrienols), sterols, squalene and phospholipids have received much attention for their nutritional properties. The recovery of these phytonutrients is a challenging task because (i) some of them (e. g. carotenoids and vitamin E) are sensitive to heat, light and air; (ii) they are of different polarity, from non‐polar (e. g. squalene) to relatively polar (e. g. phospholipids) and (iii) they are of differing molecular weights. Suitable technologies are needed to recover all these phytonutrients without damage. The paper discusses the latest development of these technologies.