Saudi Journal of Engineering and Technology (SJEAT)
Volume-3 | Issue-08 | 503-514
Original Research Article
Phytosanitary Decontamination of Crude Rapeseed Oil by Instant Multi-Flash Autovaporization (MFA)
Cherif Jablaoui, Colette Besombes, Bassem Jamoussi, Hanen Ben Ismail, Larbi Rhazi, Karim Allaf
Published : Aug. 30, 2018
Abstract
Despite their well-known harmfulness to human health, pesticides persist
largely used for plant cultivation. These molecules are highly resistant to degradation by
plant metabolism, while their presence, even as traces is dangerous at phytosanitary
quality and environment impact. Now, due to regulations and quality standards, food
industries seek to control these contamination risks and conduct research on
technologies able to efficiently eliminate pesticide residue traces. Since the mechanisms
of eradicating molecules are classified in three ways of evaporation, dissolution, and
thermal degradation; the decontamination process should depend on three important
factors: i/ the nature of the products (composition and technological/structural aptitude),
ii/ the nature of the pesticides (volatility, solubility, and thermal stability), and iii/ the
type of the disinfection process. The instant treatment operations have the particularity
of 1/ weak thermal degradation because of HTST (high-temperature/short-time) nature;
2/ frail solubilizing by using the steam instead of liquid soaking as heating fluid, and 3/
favorable elimination of vapor molecules through the instant autovaporization.
Therefore, the present study aims at the application of the multi-flash autovaporization
MFA technology in the treatment of tetrachloro-m-xylene, aldrin, γ-chlordane and
dieldrin pesticide residues in the case of rapeseed oil (brute). This resulted in drop-down
levels of 45.2%; 30.6%; 32.2%; and 29.2%, respectively for the initial concentrations of
5, 4.51, 1.98 and 3.98 (10-2 mg/kg of oil), respectively. Far from a real optimization of
the operation, 51-cycle MFA at a heating temperature of 50 °C reduced the total
pesticide concentration from 15.39 to 9.99 (10-2 mg/kg oil) .