AccScience Publishing / EER / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/eer.6562
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Microemulsion-based oil extraction from canola press cake: Applicability of lecithin, Tween 80, and Span 80

Soleiman Abbasi1,2* Claire Signatovich2 Martin G. Scanlon2
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1 Department of Food Science and Technology, Food Colloids and Rheology Lab, Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Submitted: 26 November 2024 | Revised: 20 March 2025 | Accepted: 21 March 2025 | Published: 15 April 2025
© 2025 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

The present study aimed to explore the potential of bio-surfactant-based microemulsions (MEs) for extracting canola oil from canola press cake (CPC), a by-product of the oil industry. Lecithin, Tween 20, Tween 80, and Span 80, both with and without co-surfactants, were utilized to formulate ME premixes. The premixes were then combined with CPC at different ratios and subjected to centrifugation. For the Tween formulations, the effects of natural (pH 6.1) and alkaline (pH 10.0) conditions were also examined. Pure lecithin did not extract any oil, but when combined with CPC at a 1:3 ratio (CPC: premix [water:1-propanol: lecithin = 75:20:5 wt%]), approximately 50% of the oil was extracted, mostly in emulsified form. In contrast, using Tween 80 (at 70°C, with a CPC: premix ratio of 1:8 and natural pH), about 27% of residual oil from the CPC was extracted as free oil. Interestingly, under alkaline pH (10.0), Tween: water premix (0.15:99.85 wt%) at a 1:4 premix: CPC ratio resulted in the recovery of 40 – 50% of the oil from the CPC in emulsified form. These findings revealed the potential of the tested surfactants for partial oil extraction from CPC. The effectiveness of very low concentrations of Tweens under alkaline pH requires further investigations.

Keywords
Microemulsion
Plant oil extraction
Biodegradable surfactants
Canola
Lecithin
Tween
Funding
Financial support was provided by Canola Council of Canada, Alberta Canola, SaskCanola and Manitoba Canola Growers Association through the AgriScience Program (Canola Research Cluster) under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article. They further declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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