A new hypothesis about continuous distillation with striping gas and its application the physical refining of edible oils

The influence of the free fatty acid concentration in the gas inside the continuous deodorizer in continuous physical refining was studied and a hypothesis was formed to explain the results: In a continuous process of deacidification by distillation of free fatty acids at low pressure (2 - 3 mbar), high temperature (180 – 260 ºC), with stripping gas, initial free fatty acid content of oil ≤ 7.4% w/w and similar temperature for both the gas distillate inside the continuous deodorizer and the oil, in the equilibrium the ratio between the free fatty acid content of the deacidified oil and the concentration of free fatty acids in the gas inside the continuous deodorizer is constant. This hypothesis is submitted to discussion.