Membrane process for premium quality expeller-pressed vegetable oils

<p align="justify">Studies were conducted with expeller-pressed groundnut and sun flower oils in a
magnetically stirred at membrane batch cell with five di€erent types of non-porous polymeric composite membranes, to improve the oil quality. The phospholipid contents of membrane permeates of groundnut and sun flower oils were
lower than 360mg kg-1. The maximum reductions in Lovibond yellow and red color values were 75.6 and 50% in groundnut oil, and 77.9 and 77.8% in sun-flower oil, respectively. The oxidation products were rejected to the extent of
26.5±40.3%. There was an increase in tocopherol content in permeates to the extent of 34±72.2% due to preferential permeation. Negative rejection of free fatty
acids (FFA) resulted in a small increase in FFA content in permeates. The results suggest that the membrane process can be used as a single-step process for the
production of premium quality edible oil. However, permeate flux needs to be improved for industrial adoption.</p>