Abstract:
Margarine is a widely used raw material in the food and bakery industry. A successfully novel technique for refined palm olein hydrogenation to free trans-fat margarine production using non-thermal dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma has been demonstrated. The new green method does not use chemicals as a catalyst, thus making it extremely environmentally friendly. This also performs well at room temperature and atmospheric pressure making it easier to manage. Two-electrode arrangement patterns were studied in this research: parallel plate and needle-in-tube. The results showed that using the parallel plate electrodes, 1.44% trans-fat (was detected) and a trans-fat generation rate of only 0.07% per percent reduction in iodine, 6.12 times lower than conventional margarine production methods use chemicals as a catalyst, operated at high temperature and pressure. At the same time, the needle-in-tube electrode arrangement did not detect trans-fats and had a higher reaction rate than the parallel-plate configuration. Zero trans-fat is the main objective of this research study. Thus, the needle-in-tube was more suitable for margarine production by hydrogenation than the parallel-plate configuration. Production estimates were made considering only the cost of raw materials, electricity and H2 gas. The parallel-plate DBD plasma costed 1.56 USD per liter, which was 8.25 times cheaper than the needle-in-tube DBD plasma, which costed 12.87 USD per liter. Consequently, the majority of the cost was electricity. This method was compared to commercially available margarine in Thailand priced at 2.40 4.50 USD per liter, demonstrating cost effectiveness. Moreover, the production efficiency can be improved by designing a high voltage, high-frequency power supply with lower power consumption.