Deacidifying rice bran oil by solvent extraction and membrane technology

Crude rice bran oil containing 16.5% free fatty acids (FFA) was deacidified by extracting with methanol. At the optimal ratio of 1.8:1 methanol/oil by weight, the concentration of FFA in the crude rice bran oil was reduced to 3.7%. A second extraction at 1:1 ratio reduced FFA in the oil to 0.33%. The FFA in the methanol extract was recovered by nanofiltration using commercial membranes. The DS-5 membrane from Osmonics/Desal and the BW-30 membrane from Dow/Film Tec gave average FFA rejection of 93–96% and an average flux of 41 L/m²·h (LMH) to concentrate the FFA from 4.69% to 20%. The permeate, containing 0.4–0.7% FFA, can be nanofiltered again to recover more FFA with flux of 67–75 LMH. Design estimates indicate a two-stage membrane system can recover 97.8% of the FFA and can result in a final retentate stream with 20% FFA or more and a permeate stream with negligible FFA (0.13%) that can be recycled for FFA extraction. The capital cost of the membrane plant would be about $48/kg oil processed/h and annual operating cost would be about $15/ton FFA recovered. The process has several advantages in that it does not require alkali for neutralization, no soapstock nor wastewater is produced, and effluent discharges are minimized.