Buletinul Institutului Politehnic din Iași Secția Chimie și Inginerie Chimică ISSN: 2537-2947
ISSN-L: 0254-7104
2025, Volume 71(75), Issue 3 (September), pp. 145 - 153
Modern Approaches to Vegetable Oil Fractionation
NICOLETA-OANA DEMOSTENE, National University of Science and Technology
POLITEHNICA Bucharest, Romania,
nicoleta.demostene@stud.chimie.upb.ro BIANCA SIMEDREA, National
University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA Bucharest, Romania PETRICĂ IANCU, National University of Science and Technology POLITEHNICA
Bucharest, Romania OANA PARVULESCU, National University of Science and
Technology POLITEHNICA Bucharest, Romania ROXANA TARPAN, Ovidius
University Constanta, Romania TĂNASE DOBRE, National University of
Science and Technology POLITEHNICA Bucharest, Romania
Abstract This study analyses the fractionation of vegetable oils
using the methods known up to this point and examines the use of these
fractions in various industries. Emphasis was placed on sunflower oil due to
its high-oleic acid content, which has health benefits. As a novel
fractionation method, the work primarily focuses on molecular distillation,
a method that leads to high purities, advantageous for heat-sensitive or
easily degradable substances and has been studied up to pilot scale until
now. Three sunflower oil samples were subjected to experimental and
empirical analysis. The results were compared with available literature data
and process simulators outputs. Keywords: vegetable oils, oil
fractionation, sunflower oil, molecular distillation, methanol
transesterified oil fractionation