Vegetable oils derived from rapeseed and its genetic variant canola, are conventionally extracted from oilseeds by means of an organic solvent, typically hexane. Concerns regarding the toxicity of hexane have meant safer and more environmentally friendly solvents such as terpenes are becoming attractive. In this research, the degumming of canola oil/terpene mixtures using ultrafiltration is considered as a critical step in such an extraction process. Polysulfone (PSF) and polyethersulfone (PES) membranes were found to be ineffective in this application, as the oil appeared to cause swelling of the membrane structure. This meant that the original flux could not be restored after cleaning. Conversely, a ceramic membrane (MWCO 5 kDa) provided stable behaviour over several cycles of operation when cleaned with pure solvent at high cross velocity at 40 °C. This membrane showed high phospholipid retention (95 ± 2%), although some oil was also retained (16 ± 3%). Cymene emerged as the most attractive of the three terpenes tested, with higher permeate flux and phospholipid rejection than limonene or pinene.

Industrial relevance

While hexane has been traditionally used for oilseed extraction, toxicity concerns are likely to restrict its industrial use in the future. This article provides information to engineers and food scientists on the use of terpenes as an alternative solvent. In particular, the potential for ultrafiltration to be used in degumming of canola oil/terpene mixture is assessed. Our research shows that polymeric membranes are unlikely to be useful at scale in this application, as they are not readily cleaned for reuse. Conversely, a ceramic membrane of 5 kDa pore size provides the necessary rejection of phospholipids. There is some oil retention, that might require a downstream recovery step. The best results were obtained with cymene, suggesting this is a good target for industrial use.

中文翻译：

---

使用超滤膜和生物衍生溶剂对菜籽油进行高效脱胶

通常通过有机溶剂，通常为己烷，从油籽中提取得自菜籽及其遗传变异低芥酸菜籽的植物油。有关己烷毒性的担忧意味着更安全，更环保的溶剂（如萜烯）正变得越来越有吸引力。在这项研究中，采用超滤技术对低芥酸菜子油/萜烯混合物进行脱胶被认为是此类萃取过程中的关键步骤。发现聚砜（PSF）和聚醚砜（PES）膜在该应用中无效，因为油似乎会引起膜结构膨胀。这意味着清洁后无法恢复原始焊剂。反过来，当用纯溶剂在40°C下以高交叉速度清洗时，陶瓷膜（MWCO 5 kDa）在多个操作循环中提供了稳定的性能。该膜显示出高的磷脂保留率（95±2％），尽管也保留了一些油（16±3％）。Cymene成为测试的三个萜烯中最吸引人的，其渗透通量和磷脂截留率均高于柠檬烯或pin烯。

行业相关性

尽管传统上已将己烷用于油料籽提取，但对毒性的担忧很可能在将来限制其工业用途。本文向工程师和食品科学家提供有关使用萜烯作为替代溶剂的信息。特别地，评估了在低芥酸菜子油/萜烯混合物的脱胶中使用超滤的潜力。我们的研究表明，聚合物膜在这种应用中不太可能大规模使用，因为它们不容易清洗再使用。相反，孔径为5 kDa的陶瓷膜可提供必要的磷脂排斥能力。有一些油retention留，可能需要下游回收步骤。异丙基苯获得了最好的结果，表明这是工业用途的良好目标。