The present invention relates to processes for extracting lipid from vegetative plant parts such as leaves, stems, roots and tubers, and for producing industrial products such as hydrocarbon products from the lipids. Preferred industrial products include alkyl esters which may be blended with petroleum based fuels.

Products produced from distillers corn oil include once refined corn oil product, food grade corn oil product, and free fatty acid product which may be used in a variety of applications. The products have varying specifications for free fatty acid content and moisture content. The applications include food, feed, additives, and manufacture of industrial products.

Methods for producing oil from fats and oils having high free fatty acid content are provided. In the method, fats and oils are treated with a mixture including an alcohol to result in a low-free fatty acid oily phase and an alcohol phase. The mixture may also include an alkali. The alcohol may be a monohydric alcohol and an aqueous alcohol, such as an aqueous alcohol having a concentration of at least about 15% alcohol-by-weight. The low-free fatty acid phase may include oil and at least one impurity. The low-free fatty acid phase may be cooled, and the oil may be separated from the at least one impurity. Fats and oils amenable to such a method may include, but are not limited to, waste fats, waste oils, high acid grease, high acid tallow, sorghum heat oil, and corn oil, such as corn oil produced at an ethanol production plant.

A method for reducing mineral oil content in edible vegetable oil includes the following steps carrying out the molecular distillation on the edible vegetable oil having mineral oil exceedance; mixing water, the vegetable oil and an emulsifier with stirring to form an unstable emulsion; standing the emulsion for 1 to 5 hours for layer separation to form oil phase and emulsified phase, or oil phase, emulsified phase and water phase, and then separating different phases; freezing the oil phase after stirring, and then treating the oil phase with high-voltage pulsed electric field followed by ultrafiltration to obtain a vegetable oil I; subjecting the emulsion phase to low-temperature plasma treatment and then to high-voltage pulsed electric field treatment to break emulsion, drawing the upper oil phase for ultrafiltration followed by molecular distillation to obtain a vegetable oil II.

The present invention relates to processes for extracting lipid from vegetative plant parts such as leaves, stems, roots and tubers, and for producing industrial products such as hydrocarbon products from the lipids. Preferred industrial products include alkyl esters which may be blended with petroleum based fuels.

A method for producing a carotenoid enriched fatty acid composition includes: reacting an oil including free fatty acids and carotenoids with a basic solution; withdrawing, separately from the oil, an extraction solution including at least a portion of the free fatty acids, at least a portion of the carotenoids, and the basic solution; acidifying the extraction solution to produce an aqueous phase and a fatty acid phase, the fatty acid phase including the free fatty acids and the carotenoids of the extraction solution; and separating the fatty acid phase from the aqueous phase.

The present disclosure relates to a microbial oil and/or derivative thereof, wherein the oil is produced by an oleaginous yeast. The disclosure also relates to blended fat compositions comprising a vegetable oil and an edible microbial oil. The disclosure further relates edible microbial oils and derivatives, and to food products comprising an edible microbial oil and/or a derivative thereof, and/or a blended fat composition, and methods of producing such food products. The microbial oil may serve as vegetable oil alternatives and be processed and/or derivatized by any number of means known in the art.

Methods for producing oil from distillers corn oil having high free fatty acid content are provided. In the method, distiller's corn oil is treated with a mixture including an alcohol to result in a low-free fatty acid oily phase and an alcohol phase. The mixture may also include an alkali. The alcohol may be a monohydric alcohol and an aqueous alcohol, such as an aqueous alcohol having a concentration of at least about 15% alcohol-by-weight. The low-free fatty acid phase may include oil and at least one impurity. The low-free fatty acid phase may be cooled, and the oil may be separated from the at least one impurity using membrane filtration.

A process for recovering tocotrienols/tocopherols, carotenoids and sterols from crude vegetable oil, characterised in that prior to the recovery steps, the amount of the free fatty acids in the oil is reduced to 3.50% by weight by distillation or neutralization.

The invention relates to a continuous process for fractionating a suspension chosen from a microalgal biomass or milk.