Dry Fractionation of RBD (Refined Bleached and Deodorized) Palm Oil

It has been done an investigation about dry fractionation of RBD-palm oil to obtain stearin and olein fractions. Dry fractionation was conducted using a pilot plant crystallizer equipped with a high pressure filtration. Initial palm oil comprised of two major TAG, namely POP (27.88 %) and POO (24.51 %). After dry fractionation, there were accumulations of more saturated TAG in stearin fraction (POP: 31.93 %, PPP: 21.89 %). Meanwhile, more unsaturated TAG was accumulated in olein fraction (POO: 30.76%, OOO: 6.84 %). At a yield of 65 %, it was produced the olein fraction with IV: 59.7 and CP: 3.9 C. It was also found that stearin fraction had a lower iodine value (IV: 35.8) than the original palm oil (IV: 51.4) because of the accumulation of more saturated TAG. Olein fraction also showed the similar result but at the other way around. These variations of chemical composition on the palm oil and its fractions influenced their thermal behavior. The thermogram of palm oil as measured by DSC showed two melting peaks. After dry fractionation, the higher melting peak still remained in the stearin fraction (T p-stearin: 47.49 C) and the lower melting peak stayed on the olein fraction (Tp-olein: 6.01 C)