Sustainable Refining of Vegetable Oil Made Easy with a Designer Phospholipase C Enzyme

The increasing demand pressures the vegetable oil industry to develop novel refining methods. Degumming with type C phospholipases (PLCs) is a green technology and provides extra oil. However, natural PLCs are not active under the harsh conditions used in oil refining plants, requiring additional unit operations. These upfront capital expenditures and the associated operational costs hinder the adoption of this method. Here, we present a process based on ChPLC, a synthetic PLC obtained by consensus sequence design, possessing superior thermal stability and catalytic properties. Using ChPLC, crude soybean oil degumming was completed at 80 degrees C in 30 min, the temperature and residence time imposed by the design of existing oil refining plants. Remarkably, an extra yield of oil of 2% was obtained using 60% of the dose recommended for PLCs marketed today, saving upfront investments and reducing the operational cost of degumming. A techno-economic analysis indicates that, for medium size plants, ChPLC reduces the overall cost of soybean oil enzymatic degumming by 58%. The process presented here facilitates the implementation of enzymatic technologies to oil producers, regardless of their processing capacity, bringing potential annual benefits in the billion-dollar range for the global economy.

Automated summary

The increasing demand in the vegetable oil industry has led to the development of novel refining methods. One such method is degumming with type C phospholipases (PLCs), although natural PLCs are not active under the harsh conditions used in oil refining plants. This hindrance is overcome by using ChPLC, a synthetic PLC with superior thermal stability and catalytic properties. The implementation of ChPLC reduces overall costs and brings potential annual benefits in the billion-dollar range for the global economy.