Ultrafiltration-based degumming of crude rice bran oil using a polymer membrane

摘要

Membrane technology has been gaining momentum in industrial processes, especially in food technology. It is believed to simplify processes, reduce energy consumption, and eliminate pollutants. The objective was to study the performance of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and polyethersulfone (PES) polymeric membranes in the degumming of the miscella of crude rice bran oil by using a bench-scale tangential filtration module. In addition, oil miscella filtration techniques using hexane and anhydrous ethyl alcohol solvents were compared. All membranes showed the retention of phospholipids and high flow rates. However, the best performance was observed using the 50-kDa PVDF membrane in miscella hexane solvent, with a 95.5% retention of the phosphorus concentration (by a factor of 1.4), resulting in a permeate with 29 mg.kg(-1) of phosphorus and an average flow rate of 48.1 L.m(-2).h(-1). This technology can be used as a low-pollution, economical alternative for the de-gumming of crude rice bran oil, being effective in the removal of hydratable and non-hydratable phospholipids, resulting in oils with a low phosphorus content.