2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Development of an oil fractionation method by using the dielectric properties of kinked molecules

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23658203
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Agricultural environmental engineering
Research Institution	Kobe University
Principal Investigator	TOYODA KIYOHIKO 神戸大学, (連合)農学研究科(研究院), 教授 (30144603)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	不飽和度 / 誘電定数 / 損失係数 / 緩和周波数 / 脂肪酸組成 / 温度依存性
Research Abstract	Fractionation of fats and oils based on fatty acid composition is widely used in various applications. Unsaturated fatty acid has kinks at cis-bond. Unsaturation degree of fatty acid strongly affects its dielectric property at radio frequency range at which molecule rotation is caused. Loss factor changes near the relaxation frequency largely. The author got an idea of developing a fractionation method by control of internal heating and dielectrophoretic force under an electric field at an appropriate frequency. Measured dielectric constant increased and relaxation frequency shifted to lower frequency side with an increase in the unsaturation degree. Temperature decrease resulted in the shift of measured relaxation frequency toward the lower frequency side. An appropriate condition of temperature and frequency may enable selective dielectrophoresis and dielectric heating, which suggested the possibility of the fractionation of fatty acids, oils and fats.