Nitrogen bubble refining of sunflower oil in shallow pools

High-temperature steam deodorization of sunflower oil results in the formation of unwanted by-products, such as trans isomers and polymers, and partial destruction of vitamins. There is an urgent need to develop a process that replaces steam with an inert gas such as nitrogen. The use of nitrogen bubble sparging at low temperatures has recently been reported as a technique to strip volatiles from edible oils. In this study, a hypothesis was proposed that nitrogen bubbles sparged at temperatures of 25 to 150°C are able to remove odoriferous, surface-active, or volatile contaminants from shallow pools of sunflower oil. Analysis of the composition of sunflower oil that had been sparged at 3 mbar pressure showed that both the odor and peroxide content of the oil were considerably reduced to values that are commercially acceptable. Odor improvement occurred at temperatures between 100 and 150°C, while the peroxide content reduction was achieved at a temperature of 150°C. There were no significant improvements in the free fatty acid concentration or color.