State of art of the application of membrane technology to vegetable oils: A review

The purpose of this review has as objective to present the applications and the recent development of membrane technology in the vegetable oil processing. It approaches fundamentals aspects in the processes of separation by membranes as well as present the related works in the degumming, dewaxing, deacidification, solvent recovery, pigment removal, concentration of minor components and separation of emulsions. Its shows that oils processing with membranes, done under low temperatures, with substantial exclusion of stages, presents a promising alternative to conventional method towards the achievement of cost-effective processes that are technically advanced and less noxious to environment. (c) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.