Comparison of Two Different Strategies for Tocopherols Enrichment Using a Molecular Distillation Process

The objective of this study is to compare two different strategies for enriching tocopherols in soybean oil deodorizer distillate (SODD) using a molecular distillation process. The first strategy is to submit crude SODD to a sequence of molecular distillations using different temperatures without any preparation of the raw material. The second strategy is to modify chemically the raw material and submit it to a sequence of distillations. In SODD chemical modification, acylglycerol species are converted into free fatty acids (FFAs) and glycerol through a saponification reaction at 65 °C followed by an acidulation step. Crude and chemically modified SODD were submitted to five stages of molecular distillation to evaluate and compare the performance of both sequences of distillations. It was observed that the enrichment of tocopherols was 4.1 and 5.8 times higher than the original feed concentration for crude and chemically modified SODD, respectively.