Processing of Edible Oil

(Palm Oil)
CHAPTER 3
3.2 : Degumming
Learning Outcome
• Students should be able to:
• Discuss in depth about degumming principle,
type and techniques with relevant aid and
examples

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 Theory of degumming
• Phospholipids are oil-soluble components present
in most edible oil sources.
• They are triglycerides with two fatty acid radicals
and one side chain formed by a phosphate ester.
• Phosphatides consist of polyhydric alcohols
esterified with fatty acids and phosphoric acid,
combined with a nitrogen-containing compound.
• Many of these compounds become insoluble upon
hydration and form a gummy precipitate; hence
“gums” is the term used in the edible oil industry
to describe them.

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 Theory of degumming
• In the old literature the term “phosphatides” is
often used in reference to phospholipids, and
the two terms can be used interchangeably.
• Phospholipids are key components of cell
membranes and play important roles in the
metabolic processes of plants.
• In oilseeds they also form part of the membranes
of oil bodies.
• The major phospholipids of oilseeds are
phosphatidyl choline, phosphatidylethanolamine,
phosphatidyl inositol, and phosphatidic acid.

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Structural of phospholipids

(cephaline)
(lechitin)

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Structural of phospholipids

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Theory of degumming…
• Other phospholipids, including phosphatidyl
glycerol, plasmalogen, and diphosphatidyl
glycerol, are also found in oilseeds, but in much
smaller amounts.
• The phospholipid content of crude oils varies
significantly among seed species and even
between different varieties of the same seed.
• The amount of phospholipid in the crude oil is
also influenced by the oil recovery process.

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Theory of degumming…
• Degumming is the treatment of crude vegetable
oils with water, salt solutions, or dilute acids
such as phosphoric, citric, or maleic to remove
phosphatides, waxes, and other impurities.
• Degumming converts the phosphatides to
hydrated gums, which are insoluble in oil, for
separation as a sludge by settling, filtering, or
centrifugal action

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Theory of degumming…
• Phosphatide removal is the first process for the
physical refining system; this may also be true
for chemical refining.
• However, with chemical refining, the processor
has the option of removing the phosphatides
for their by-product value as lecithin or treating
them as impurities to be removed along with
free fatty acids during caustic neutralization.

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Theory of degumming…

• Gum Conditioning
Remove phospholipids, trace
metals and pigments.
Degumming is effected by
approximately 0.1% phosphoric
or citric acid by weight of the oil.
There are many ways of
degumming as illustrated in next
slide: Figure 3.8
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Degumming

Water Degumming
• The majority of phosphatides (gums) can
quickly and easily be hydrated. In such cases
where the pressed or extracted oil contains a
considerable quantity of gums the oil is
subjected to the water degumming process
immediately after ex­traction. Here a defined
quantity of water is admixed with the oil.

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Degumming
• After a certain reaction time the hydrated
phosphatides are separated off the oil and can
be removed either by decantation (settling) or
continuously by means of centrifuges.
• In this process step the majority of hydratable
and even a small portion of non-hydratable
phosphatides is removed from the oil.

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Degumming
• The gums separated this way can be processed
into lecithin for food products or technical
purposes. The following refining stages further
reduce the gum content in the oil down to levels
required by the quality of the desired refined
product

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Water Degumming process

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Degumming
• In principle when combining and designing
further process steps a differentiation is made
between
chemical refining
physical refining

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Degumming
• During chemical refining, the free fatty acids are
neutralized by addition of the appropriate
quantity of lye. The resulting so-called
”soapstock” is likewise separated either by
decanting or - continuously - by means of
centrifuges. At this time, the non-hydratable
phosphatides are also separated.
• During physical refining it is possible to reduce
the content of gums by various procedures:
1.Dry acid degumming
2.Wet acid degumming.

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Degumming

Dry Acid Degumming

• Dry acid degumming is a process particularly
used for such types of oil having low contents of
gums, e.g. palm oil, coconut oil, palm kernel oil,
or animal fats.

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Degumming
• After the addition of acid to the preheated crude
oil the two substances are intensively mixed. As
a reaction, flocculation takes place and the
conditioned gums are filtered off and separated
together with the bleaching earth.

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Degumming…

Advantages of dry acid degumming process:

• Economic efficiency as a result of
-low energy consumption,
- service and maintenance convenience (sturdy
and reliable control system)
- long service life (components getting in
contact with the acid are made of sufficiently
resistant material),

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Degumming…

- low space requirements,

- low initial investment costs,
• Environmental compatibility as no waste water
or soapstock are produced

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Degumming

Wet Acid Degumming

• Oils with higher contents of gums (such as corn
germ oil) are subjected to the same initial
treatment as in the dry acid degumming
process. However, after adding acid, water is
admixed to cause the gums to precipitate.
Before bleaching the gums are removed by
means of a separator centrifuge.

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Degumming

This procedure offers some advantages because

• oil qualities with higher contents of non-
hydratable gums (e.g. rapeseed oil and
soybean oil) can be processed without any
problems due to the easy separation of the
gums by the centrifuges,
• reduced bleaching earth consumption resulting
from the fact that the oil has already been pre-
degummed to a large extent.

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Degumming
• Dry or wet acid degumming are not always
sufficiently effective with regard to the reduction
of gums in the oil to the content that should be
reached before the combined deodorization and
distillative neutralization process in the course
of physical refining.
• This will be achieved by a special degumming
process we have developed.

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Degumming

Membrane Degumming
• The UF degumming process is suitable to
efficiently degum specifically sunflower seed oil,
corn germ oil, rapeseed- and soybean oil but it
is also suitable for other types of oil, which –
prior to the final steam refining - cannot be
degummed sufficiently by the conventional dry
or wet acid degumming processes to the
necessary residual gum content. UF
degumming is furthermore suitable for crude
pressed oils as well as for water-degummed
oils obtained by pressing or extraction.

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Degumming
• The basic principle of the process consists of oil
conditioning by means of acid, retention time
under a defined temperature, cooling of the
mixture with addition of caustic soda or another
flocculating agent, further retention time for
reaction of the mixture, heating and subsequent
separation of the gums in a centrifuge as well
as washing of the oil in order to eliminate any
residual gums in a second centrifugal stage.

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Degumming in Palm Oil
• Gum Conditioning
• Remove phospholipids, trace metals and pigments. Degumming
is effected by approximately 0.1% phosphoric or citric acid by
weight of the oil.
• Optimum temperature range - 80 - 90°C
• Optimum contact time - 30 minutes
• Gum conditioning is followed by caustic soda treatment or earth
bleaching.
• Neutralisation
• Caustic soda reacts with fatty acids to produce soap which is
soluble in water. Soap formed is removed by centrifugation or
by settling followed by hot water washings.
• The conditioned oil is treated at 75 - 85°C with stoichiometric
quantity of aqueous caustic soda such that the free fatty acid
plus residual phosphoric acid is reduced to 0.5%. Soap removal
is by centrifugal force. The oil is dried at 75 - 85°C under
vacuum of 711 - 738 mm Hg

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Gum Disposal
• The degumming processes described above
lead unavoidably to by-products or waste
products that have to be disposed of.
• Increase volume of waste for example: water
degumming produce lecithin in soya refining.
• It can be used as animal feed meal content.

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Gum Disposal
• Spent bleaching earth resulting from the dry
degumming process can also be disposed by
other ways.
• Therefore, energy recovery by burning the
spent earth in a specially designed fluidised
sand bed reactor (Goemans, 2004; 2005) looks
like the most attractive means of disposal

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Gum Disposal
• Gums resulting from acid degumming, acid
refining, and other degumming processes
should preferably be disposed of via their
respective meals, but this is only possible if
they arise in the crushing plant.
• If they arise in a refinery, their variable
composition and availability precludes them
from being processed into added value
products (De Kock, 1991) for which no markets
exist as yet.

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