Enzymatic Interesterification: Confirmation Experiments Following a Fractional Factorial Design

CONSUELO PACHECO; GUILLERMO H. CRAPISTE; MARÍA E. CARRÍN

Phoenix

Encuentro; 101th AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo; 2010

AOCS

In the present work the effect of certain reaction parameters over the enzymaticinteresterification of fully hydrogenated soybean oil and liquid soybean oil was studied. The experiments were performed with a fractional factorial design with two replicates. The design factors considered were: enzyme concentration (A), immobilized enzyme type (B), reaction time (C), substrate mass ratio (D), temperature (E), agitation level (F) and moisture content (G). The reaction products were analyzed with respect to melting point (mp) and byproducts content (free fatty acids, mono- and diglycerides). It was determined that the reaction conditions to obtain minimal m.p. and minimal byproducts generation should be: 5% enzyme (w/wsubst), Lipozyme RM IM, 24 h, 70% oil (w/w), 65ºC, low agitation level and absence of molecular sieves. Confirmation assays to verify the values predicted by both models at these conditions were performed and the obtained results fell inside their corresponding prediction intervals.