Raisio Nutrition Ltd

Sami Kaatrasalo

Jari Ekblom

Leena Koponen

Ville Nieminen

Timo Suominen

The invention relates to a process for recovering sterols and a fraction rich in fatty acids and resin acids from tall oil pitch, said process comprising a) saponifying the tall oil pitch with an alkali to hydrolyse esters included in the pitch to free alcohols and organic acids in salt form, b) acidulating the saponified pitch with a mineral acid to convert the organic acids in salt form into free organic acids and to form an organic phase and an aqueous phase; wherein mineral acid is provided in an amount to produce an aqueous phase with a pH value of at most 3.8, c) separating the aqueous phase with a pH value of at most 3.8 from the organic phase, d) evaporation fractionating the organic phase in a thin film evaporator to obtain a distillate rich in fatty acids and resin acids and a bottom fraction rich in sterols, e) evaporation fractionating the bottom fraction to obtain a distillate rich in sterols, and f) subjecting the sterols in the sterol-rich distillate to crystallisation purification, wherein the process excludes a step of adding alkali between step c) and step d).

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Raisio, Finland

Sami Kaatrasalo