HOMOGENIZATION-ASSISTED NEUTRALIZATION OF PALM FATTY ACID DISTILLATE (PFAD) TO PRODUCE MAGNESIUM SALT OF FATTY ACID AND ANTIOXIDANT CONCENTRATE

• Main Author: Fratiwi, Megawati
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/75736
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

<p align="justify"> Vitamin E is an antioxidant with high economic value. One of the ingredients that produce vitamin E is palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) because it contains 0.5%-b vitamin E due to thermal treatment in the deodorization unit of the crude palm oil (CPO) refining process. The process of isolating vitamin E has been carried out by combining several methods such as neutralization, extraction, and purification, but this method is inefficient because free fatty acids (FFA) are carried in the Mg-PFAD salt and antioxidant concentrate. The presence of FFA content indicates that not all FFA are converted to vitamin E. neutralization stage. One of the processes that can be developed to reduce the FFA content is to combine homogenization and neutralization processes. This study aims to determine the effect of homogenization and neutralization processes on the acquisition of acid number, concentration of total tocopherol, and antioxidant activity of Mg-PFAD salt and concentrate. This research consists of four process stages: homogenization, neutralization, extraction, and evaporation. The main focus of this research lies in the process of homogenization. The operating conditions varied, including time (4–10 minutes), homogenization speed (4000–8000 rpm), and neutralization time (30 minutes) in the advanced stage using the best conditions for the homogenization process. The characteristics tested in the study were analysis of the acid number, analysis of total tocopherol concentration, and analysis of the antioxidant activity in vitamin E concentrates. The homogenization process in 10 minutes with a homogenization speed of 8000 rpm is the best operating condition which can reduce FFA up to 97.5% from the initial PFAD, and produce FFA levels in Mg-PFAD salt of 2.07–3.4%, FFA conversion up to 94% and a concentration of 37.54–44.14 mg total tocopherol/g Mg-PFAD. These conditions resulted in a yield of Mg-PFAD salts of 2.16 g Mg-PFADex/g PFAD and antioxidant concentrates of 72.41 mg/g Mg-PFADex concentrations. Mg-PFAD salt has moderate antioxidant properties (<150 ppm) and very strong final concentrate (<50 ppm).