Effect of Coolant Temperature on Progressive Freeze Concentration of Refined, Bleached and Deodorised Palm Oil

This study focused on the possibility of separating refined, bleached and deodorized palm oil (RBDPO) into olein and stearin by using progressive freeze concentration (PFC) as an alternative method to replace the conventional fractionation process. PFC has the potential to be a more effective technique for olein-stearin separation, with minimal changes in the product’s quality for producing high quality edible oil. Apart from that, it requires fewer unit operations compared to conventional methods. In this research, the parameter of coolant temperature was selected to investigate the performance of PFC using stainless steel crystallizer. In order to determine the system efficiency, effective partition constant (K) was investigated, while the quality of the oil was evaluated by iodine value (IV), slip melting point (SMP) and the percentage of olein yield. From the results, all the determinant parameters were found to be optimum at the coolant temperature of 28°C. At this optimum point, K value, IV, SMP and olein yield were found to be 0.2715, 55.84 wijs, 23.10°C and 67.8537%, respectively.