SCI和EI收录∣中国化工学会会刊

Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering ›› 2023, Vol. 59 ›› Issue (7): 61-71.DOI: 10.1016/j.cjche.2022.10.007

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Enrichment of nervonic acid in Acer truncatum Bunge oil by combination of two-stage molecular distillation, one-stage urea complexation and five-stage solvent crystallization

Yingxi Gao, Jiayi Shi, Jie Wang, Fan Zhang, Shichao Tian, Zhiyong Zhou, Zhongqi Ren   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
  • Received:2022-07-23 Revised:2022-10-18 Online:2023-10-14 Published:2023-07-28
  • Contact: Zhiyong Zhou,E-mail:zhouzy@mail.buct.edu.cn;Zhongqi Ren,E-mail:renzq@mail.buct.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22125802 and 22078010), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (2222017) and Big Science Project from BUCT (XK180301). The authors gratefully acknowledge these grants.

Enrichment of nervonic acid in Acer truncatum Bunge oil by combination of two-stage molecular distillation, one-stage urea complexation and five-stage solvent crystallization

Yingxi Gao, Jiayi Shi, Jie Wang, Fan Zhang, Shichao Tian, Zhiyong Zhou, Zhongqi Ren   

  1. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
  • 通讯作者: Zhiyong Zhou,E-mail:zhouzy@mail.buct.edu.cn;Zhongqi Ren,E-mail:renzq@mail.buct.edu.cn
  • 基金资助:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22125802 and 22078010), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (2222017) and Big Science Project from BUCT (XK180301). The authors gratefully acknowledge these grants.

Abstract: Nervonic acid is the world's first and only potent substance that can repair damaged nerve fibers and promote nerve cell regeneration with high nutritional value. The wide variety of fatty acids in plant oils and fats with similar structures makes the large-scale separation and purification of high-purity nervonic acid very difficult. A new combined process of molecular distillation, urea inclusion and solvent crystallization was established to prepare high-purity nervonic acid with the mixed fatty acids obtained after saponification and acidification of Acer truncatum Bunge oil as raw materials. First, according to the difference in the mean free path of fatty acids, molecular distillation was used to separate and remove C16 saturated fatty acid of palmitic acid and four C18-C20 fatty acids of stearic, oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids. The content of C16-C20 fatty acids decreased from 72.92% to 19.22% after two-stage molecular distillation processes, in which the contents of saturated fatty acid of palmitic acid decreased to about 0.5%. Then, according to the difference in carbon chain length and saturation of fatty acid, the contents of C22-C24 saturated fatty acids of tetracosanoic and docosanoic acids decreased to 0.21% and 0.07% by urea inclusion with urea/free fatty acid preparation by saponification (SPOMFs) ratio as 0.6. In addition, all saturated fatty acids were basically separated. Finally, according to the difference in the solubility of fatty acids in solvents, the C18-C20 unsaturated fatty acids of oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids and C22 unsaturated fatty acid of erucic acid were removed by solvent crystallization. The content of C18-C20 unsaturated fatty acids decreased to less than 5% with pentanol as the solvent after the first stage solvent crystallization. The content of erucic acid decreased to 3.47% with anhydrous ethanol as the solvent after the second to fifth stage solvent crystallization. The combined process of molecular distillation, urea inclusion and low temperature crystallization innovatively adopted an efficient, simple and easy-to-industrial solvent crystallization method to separate erucic and nervonic acids, obtaining nervonic acid with purity of 96.53% and final yield of 47.99%.

Key words: Nervonic acid, Acer truncatum Bunge, Molecular distillation, Urea complexation, Solvent crystallization

摘要: Nervonic acid is the world's first and only potent substance that can repair damaged nerve fibers and promote nerve cell regeneration with high nutritional value. The wide variety of fatty acids in plant oils and fats with similar structures makes the large-scale separation and purification of high-purity nervonic acid very difficult. A new combined process of molecular distillation, urea inclusion and solvent crystallization was established to prepare high-purity nervonic acid with the mixed fatty acids obtained after saponification and acidification of Acer truncatum Bunge oil as raw materials. First, according to the difference in the mean free path of fatty acids, molecular distillation was used to separate and remove C16 saturated fatty acid of palmitic acid and four C18-C20 fatty acids of stearic, oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids. The content of C16-C20 fatty acids decreased from 72.92% to 19.22% after two-stage molecular distillation processes, in which the contents of saturated fatty acid of palmitic acid decreased to about 0.5%. Then, according to the difference in carbon chain length and saturation of fatty acid, the contents of C22-C24 saturated fatty acids of tetracosanoic and docosanoic acids decreased to 0.21% and 0.07% by urea inclusion with urea/free fatty acid preparation by saponification (SPOMFs) ratio as 0.6. In addition, all saturated fatty acids were basically separated. Finally, according to the difference in the solubility of fatty acids in solvents, the C18-C20 unsaturated fatty acids of oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids and C22 unsaturated fatty acid of erucic acid were removed by solvent crystallization. The content of C18-C20 unsaturated fatty acids decreased to less than 5% with pentanol as the solvent after the first stage solvent crystallization. The content of erucic acid decreased to 3.47% with anhydrous ethanol as the solvent after the second to fifth stage solvent crystallization. The combined process of molecular distillation, urea inclusion and low temperature crystallization innovatively adopted an efficient, simple and easy-to-industrial solvent crystallization method to separate erucic and nervonic acids, obtaining nervonic acid with purity of 96.53% and final yield of 47.99%.

关键词: Nervonic acid, Acer truncatum Bunge, Molecular distillation, Urea complexation, Solvent crystallization