REFINING OF OILS

REFINING OF OILS

- Oil refining process is used to remove phospholipids, free fatty acids, and
odors and to improve oil color.
- Oil refining involves many thermodynamic processes such as mass and heat
transportation phenomena, where a food engineer or chemical engineer can
help to improve oil quality and processing efficiency.
REFINING OF OILS

 Oil refining
- Is an essential process for transforming crude oil into marketable products
such as fuels, lubricants, and kerosene.

- A typical oil-refining process consists of several processing units such as

distillation, cracking, coking, reforming, and post treatment and refining of
the products. The operation of these processes requires large amounts of
thermal energy and results in the release of significant amounts of CO2
from different sources in the refinery.
 TYPES OF REFINING OF OILS

1.Deodorization
2.Steam refining
3.Alkali Refining
4.Oil bleaching
5.Hydrogenation
Deodorization

- Is a steam-distillation process to remove free fatty acids and volatile

components present in crude edible oil at this stage of processing. These
unwanted substances negatively affect the odor, flavor, color and stability of
the final product.
Steam Refining

- Steam refining of fatty oils to reduce the partially high free fatty acid
content of certain crude oils before conventional refining.
- This pretreated oil could then be steam refined and simultaneously steam
deodorized to produce high quality finished edible oil.
Alkali Refining

- An alkaline solution, such as a dilute, aqueous sodium hydroxide, is then

added to the tank. This solution neutralizes the citric acid and forms soaps
around the mucilage and remaining free fatty acids.
- Alkali refining is a very effective method for capturing mucilage and other
impurities, but the drawback is that it flushes free fatty acids from the oil.
While reducing the number of free fatty acids is beneficial to create clear,
light-colored oil that yellows less over time, it is necessary to have a certain
amount of free fatty acids in the oil to improve wetting of pigments and
flexibility of the paint film.
OIL BLEACHING

- Is a step in the process of crude oil refining.

- In the bleaching technology, bleaching earth is applied to crude oil,
minimizing its content of pigments (e.g., carotenes and chlorophylls),
heavy metals, and the phosphorus remaining after degumming. This
improves the appearance and taste of the oil.
HYDROGENATION

- Plant oils contain a large percentage of unsaturated fatty acids and hence
tend to become rancid. These unsaturated glycerides in oil can be
converted to more saturated glycerides by the addition of hydrogen. This
process is known as hydrogenation.
- Hydrogenated fat is manufactured from vegetable oils by the addition of
molecular hydrogen to the double bonds in the unsaturated fatty acids in
the presence of nickel. The double bonds take up hydrogen and saturated
fatty