Food Lipids: Chemistry, Nutrition, and Biotechnology

1. The basic oleochemical business is a coproduct-balanced, commodity operation.
Profitability is dependent on tight control of manufacturing processes
and costs, and on maximizing the value of every product produced
as a result of the splitting process.
2. These industries are process driven. The plants have been designed around
and optimized for profitability based on a relatively narrow range of feedstock
composition. In the case of lauric fats, coconut, and palm kernel, the
balance of the fatty acid streams produced dictates the profitability of the
total operation. Major shifts in fatty acid distribution in the feedstock disrupt
this balance and require changes in the way the end products are
treated as saleable items. To clarify this point, note the difference in fatty
acid composition of laurate canola versus palm kernel oil and coconut oil
as shown in Table 3.
As can be seen, laurate canola does not contain as much C12 as either coconut oil
or palm kernel oil. In addition to decreased levels of this fatty acid, note also the
total absence of the medium chain fatty acids, C8:0 and C10:0, typically present in
the tropical fats. Specific markets for these medium chains have been developed, and
their sales contribution is important to the overall profitability of the splitting operation.
The approach, then, to achieve utility within the existing framework of the
massive oleochemical complex, would be to develop triglycerides having such massive
doses of C12:0 that coproduct values would be obviated in standard feedstock
sources. This would mean the development of triglycerides having C12:0 levels
greater than 85%. Is such a goal possible utilizing this technology? The answers are
not yet known, but the research still required is not trivial—as discussed above—
and the impact of achieving such high levles of a specific fatty acid on the viability
of the resulting plant is not known.
What has been learned from this exercise?
1. High expressions of specific fatty acids in plant triglycerides should be
considered only in the context of alternative sources of such fatty acids,
and the coproduct value of the rest of the components.
2. Supply limitations as drivers for specific fatty acids can be a viable foundation
for product development if current sources of feedstock triglycerides
do not necessarily offer cost offsets because of the value of coproducts.
Table 3 Fatty Acid Composition (%) of Laurate Canola versus Coconut,
Palm Kernel, and Canola Oils
Fatty acids Laurate canola Coconut oil Palm kernel oil Canola
Lauric 38.0 49.0 47.0 0.0
Myristic 4.0 17.5 16.0 0.1
Oleic 31.0 5.0 16.5 61.5
Linoleic 11.0 1.8 2.5 20.0
Other 16.0 26.7 18.0 18.4
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Copyright 2002 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.