Production of High Oleic Palm Oils on a Pilot Scale

Abstract

objective of our study and the publication was to provide information on characteristics and composition of a high oleic oil obtained through the process of interesterifying palm oil with methyl oleate. Because of the newly developed biodiesel industry, palm-based methyl ester is readily available. For our work, methyl oleate was purchased; we did not conduct fractional distillation of palm methyl ester. The full process of starting from basic oil to methyl ester, followed by distillation was therefore not included, nor mentioned, but we expected interested parties would likely look into the full process if the industry has palm biodiesel product, or one may just start from appropriate raw materials. The reacted ester recovered from the process has many potential applications in biodiesel and oleochemical industries. It can also be recycled. All of these aspects were considered in our work in order to enhance the economic viability of the process, although not mentioned, because the paper was not written as a result of a graduate student thesis.Concerning Table 1. Dijkstra has rightly pointed out that columns 4 and 5, showing values for FAME before and after mixing, do not accurately show the composition of the 50:50 blend of palm olein and methyl oleate and that this is due to incompleteness of the reaction in the analysis of FAME, especially when methyl oleate was present in the mixture. These two columns were inadvertently placed into the table by mistake and we did not discuss the values in the two columns. The discussion was based on comparing the feed oil and the high-oleic oil obtained. From the table, the high-oleic palm oil (HOPO) composition did not deviate too far from the calculated average mixture.When discussing the results of the fatty acid compositions before and after randomization, we actually referred to the comparison of the feed oil and the HOPO, and not to the data from the two columns representing before and after reaction.For FAME preparation, the sample size was about 0.05 g. The reagent used was 0.5 M sodium methoxide and is therefore a liquid. We did not mention the details for preparing sodium methoxide because it is a commonly known reagent prepared from sodium metal and methanol. The mixture separated into two layers when water was added.The standard deviations of Tables 1 and 5 were generally higher than those of Tables 3 and 6. This is because data from Tables 1 and 5 were from pilot plant experiments, while Tables 3 and 6 were from laboratory experiments. The variability in the pilot-plant experiments was higher than in the laboratory experiments where better control can be achieved. The laboratory experiments were included at a later stage when requested by the reviewers