Film Evaporation under Vacuum for Dehydration and Deodorization of Coconut Oil

Author : Gesmundo, Maria Glen Suello
Major Adviser : Lozada, Ernesto P.; Acda, Reynaldo I.
Committee Members : Abrigo, Casiano S. Jr.; Movillon, Jovita A.
Year : 1995
Month : April
Type : Thesis
Degree: BS
Related Articles:
Keywords:
This manuscript can be accessed: By the general public

Abstract

A film evaporator under vacuum for dehydration and deodorization of coconut oil was fabricated and evaluated. The evaluation was based on the Percent Free Fatty Acid (%FFA), Percent Moisture Content (%MC) and volume of distillate collected of coconut oil operated at temperatures of 120 °C, 140 °C, 160 °C, 180 °C, 200 °C, 220 °C, 240 °C at constant absolute pressure of 5 in Hg. The effect of pressure on %FFA, %MC, and volume of distillate were also determined.

Results showed that when temperature was increased at constant absolute pressure,  %FFA and %MC decreased while volume of distillate collected increased.  Higher temperatures showed signs of discolorations. From %FFA of 0.3178% and moisture content of 2%, at temperature of 240 °C, %FFA decreased to 0.2393% while %MC was 0.2530%. When operated at constant temperature of 200 °C at different absolute pressures of 5, 10, 15 in Hg, the results showed that increasing the pressure increases %FFA and %MC but decreases the volume of distillate.

Among the operating conditions tested, temperature of 200 °C and 25 inHg vacuum provide the best operating conditions giving %MC of 0.2724% and %FFA of 0.2625%.


Go back to Research Abstracts