title: Desolventizing of soybean oil/azeotrope mixtures using ceramic membranes.
abstract: This work investigates the use of ceramic membranes with different molecular weight cut-offs (MWCOs: 5, 10 and 20 kDa) to desolventize azeotropic solvent mixtures (ethanol/n-hexane and isopropyl alcohol/n-hexane) from soybean oil/azeotrope micelles. Results show that a decrease in the MWCO of a membrane and an increase in the solvent mass ratio in the mixture resulted in a significant reduction in the permeate flux. The 20 kDa membrane presented the highest permeate flux, 80 and 60 kg/m2h for the soybean oil/n-hexane/isopropyl alcohol and soybean oil/n-hexane/ethanol azeotropes, respectively, for an oil to solvent ratio of 1:3 (w/w). The highest oil retention was found using the n-hexane/isopropyl alcohol azeotrope, around 25% in the membrane with the lowest MWCO, that is, 5 kDa. It is shown that the azeotropic mixtures provided intermediate characteristics compared to the original pure solvent behavior.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Food Engineering , URI Erechim , Erechim , Brazil.
authors.forename: Jonas R M
authors.initials: JRM
authors.lastname: de Melo
authors.affiliation: b Department of Chemical and Food Engineering , UFSC , Florianópolis , Brazil.
authors.forename: Lidia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tiggeman
authors.affiliation: b Department of Chemical and Food Engineering , UFSC , Florianópolis , Brazil.
authors.forename: Katia
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Rezzadori
authors.affiliation: a Department of Food Engineering , URI Erechim , Erechim , Brazil.
authors.forename: Juliana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Steffens
authors.affiliation: a Department of Food Engineering , URI Erechim , Erechim , Brazil.
authors.forename: Marshall
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Palliga
authors.affiliation: b Department of Chemical and Food Engineering , UFSC , Florianópolis , Brazil.
authors.forename: J Vladimir
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: b Department of Chemical and Food Engineering , UFSC , Florianópolis , Brazil.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Luccio
authors.affiliation: a Department of Food Engineering , URI Erechim , Erechim , Brazil.|c UFSM , Cachoeira do Sul , Brazil.
authors.forename: Marcus V
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5252-0735
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Tres
mesh_terms: D019840:2-Propanol; D002516:Ceramics; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D012997:Solvents; D013024:Soybean Oil
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D012997:Solvents; D013024:Soybean Oil; D019840:2-Propanol
keywords: Ceramic membranes; azeotropes; desolventizing; organic solvents; soybean oil