Hydrolysis of soybean oil in a subcritical water flow reactor

Subcritical water has been recently demonstrated to be a viable medium for conducting hydrolysis reactions on a variety of organic compounds. In this study, the hydrolysis of triglycerides in soybean oil to their respective free fatty acids has been affected using a flow reactor. The flow reactor permits hydrolysis to be accomplished without the need of a catalyst but requires higher temperatures than previously used in a static system to attain > 97% product conversion. Using a high pressure view cell as a diagnostic aid, it was found that the oil miscibility with water is crucial to attaining a high conversion to the free fatty acids. Water to oil ratios of 2.5:1-5:1 were found to optimal for high conversions as well as residence time between 10-15 minutes in the open tubular reactor. Such rapid hydrolysis times contrast with multi-hour conversions utilized industrially to achieve a 96-98% fatty acid yield. Although conversion of the all natural cis forms of the fatty acids to some trans form occurred, the isolated products were clear and free of degradation products, unlike previous results reported for the reaction run in a closed vessel under static conditions at these elevated temperatures (> 300 degrees C). Determination of the trans fatty acid content of aqueous hydrolyzed oils has not been previously reported, however they are of minor importance since the produced fatty acid mixtures are primarily intended for industrial utilization and not for food consumption.