Interesterificação química do óleo de palma e do óleo de palmiste na presença do catalisador heterogêneo DAPTS-MCM-41

Abstract

The role of lipids in human nutrition has been intensely debated in recent decades. This context reinforces the concern with uncontrolled intake of trans fats because of their negative health implications. The interesterification is an important alternative to modify the consistency of oils and fats without causing the formation of trans isomers, as in the partial hydrogenation process of fats. The chemical interesterification process involves the use of metal catalysts such as alkylates, alkali metals and alkali hydroxides in combination with glycerol. Such catalysts, addition of highly toxic, are extremely susceptible to inactivation by water and free fatty acids, and are affected by peroxides, carbon dioxide and oxygen, and require additional process steps such as neutralization of the caustic catalyst. Heterogeneous catalysts are presented as promising substitutes for homogeneous catalysts. Such catalysts have the advantage to significantly reduce the number of product purification steps, as well as the possibility of being reused, thus enabling the production by continuous process. This work has as main objective the evaluation of chemical interesterification reaction of palm oil, palm kernel oil and mixtures thereof in the presence of heterogeneous catalysts of the MCM-41 type modified with organic bases. To this a molecular sieve of the MCM-41 type was synthesized and subsequently functionalized with the base 3-ethylenediamine (trimethoxy)propyl silane (DAPTS). This material was characterized by the techniques of X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and textural analysis, where the results showed a good synthesis of molecular sieve and also showed the anchoring base on its surface. The evaluation of the physical properties of the reaction products were performed by determining the solid fat content (SFC) and the melting point, which show significant changes in these parameters. The incompatibility shown by the mixtures were minimized after interesterification. The iodine value and fatty acid profile of the interesterified blends showed no significant variation, showing so there were no undesirable reactions in the process. The triacilglicerídica composition of the interesterified blends were evaluated and showed significant differences of starting materials, especially for the presence of saturated fatty acids in sn-2 position of the triacylglycerol, pointing again to the activity of DAPTS-MCM-41 catalyst in the reaction studied.