Monoglyceride and Diglyceride Production Through Lipase-Catalyzed Glycerolysis and Molecular Distillation

Distilled glycerides are obtained through distillation of the system mono-diglycerides which is produced from the esterification reaction between a triglyceride with glycerol. In this work, monoglycerides (MG) and diglycerides (DG) are produced through lipase-catalyzed glycerolysis of soybean oil using Candida antarctica B in a solvent-free system. To separate the products of the reaction in order to obtain essentially MG and an oil of DG, it is necessary to use a suitable process in order to preserve the stability of the components and to keep the products free of inappropriate solvents. So, after 24 h of enzymatic reaction, the mixture of acylglycerols and fatty acids was distilled into a centrifugal molecular distiller, since it provides a free solvent and lower temperature environment to increase the desired product concentration. Starting from a material with 25.06% of triglycerides (TG), 46.63% of DG, 21.72% of MG, 5.38% of free fatty acids (FFA), and 1.21% of glycerol, the MG purity in the distillate stream was 80% at evaporator temperature (T _E) equal to 250 °C and feed flow rate (Q) equal to 10.0 mL/min. At these conditions, the MG recovery was 35%. The material collected in the residue stream presented DG-enriched oil with TG unhydrolyzed, residual MG, and low acidity (29.83% of TG, 53.20% of DG, 15.64% of MG, and 1.33% of FFA), which is suitable to replace TG oil in the human diet.