Design of a molecular distillatory and study of temperature, flow rate of feed and methylation on Extraction of DHA and EPA from fish oil

Omega-3 fatty acids are important in pharmaceutical and food industries. Eicosapentaenoic (EPA) and DocosaHexaenoic (DHA) essential fatty acids are important for growth and health. Studies on different regions of the world have shown that Eskimos and Inhabitants of the Mediterranean are suffering from heart disease much lower than the others. Fish cellar such as clupeonella delicatula, tuna fish and salmon are good examples of the richest sources of these fatty acids. There are different methods for separation and concentration of these fatty acids. Simple distillation, molecular distillation and supercritical fluid extraction, extracted with urea complex, extraction with lipase and absorption chromatography arethe most important methods. Extraction method with falling film molecular distillation apparatus is one of the economical technique. This device was designed and built in order to study the effective parameters on extracted omega-3 fatty acids. Effects of feed methylation, feed temperature,distillation chamber pressure and feed flow rate on product purity were investigated later. It was determined that without methylation separation, distillation efficiency is decreased. The best performance product was therefore produced with acceptable purity at 230ºC. The separation does not occur in vacuum pressures, higher than 0.1 mmHg. The statistical analysis has shown that differences between data are logic.

Design of a molecular distillatory and study of temperature, flow rate of feed and methylation on Extraction of DHA and EPA from fish oil Keywords:

molecular distillation , Omega-3 fatty acids , EPA and DHA , methylation , clupeonella delicatula , fish oil