New technology of Tianjin University of technology makes waste vegetable oil "good medicine"

Recently, Xie Yaohui, an undergraduate of the school of environment and chemical engineering of Tianjin University of technology, and other researchers developed a new technology that can turn the waste residue of vegetable oil into a treasure The research team found that vegetable oil residue is rich in phytosterols (about 20% ~ 35% of the weight of residual oil) and fatty acids (about 30 ~ 45% of the weight of residual oil) However, the composition of vegetable oil residue is complex, in which sterols and fatty acids exist in the form of compound Traditional separation and purification technologies such as crystallization and distillation can not achieve the extraction and comprehensive utilization of sterols and fatty acids in the residue In the research group, the fatty acid sterol ester was decomposed into free sterol by catalytic decomposition to realize the crystallization separation of sterol; meanwhile, the fatty acid glyceric acid was also decomposed into free fatty acid, and then it was further esterified into biodiesel by catalytic esterification to realize the comprehensive utilization of fatty acid in residual oil It is understood that phytosterol is a kind of natural substance with important physiological value, which can be used as the raw material of steroid hormone drugs to reduce blood lipid, fight cancer and prevent prostate diseases Biodiesel is a kind of green renewable energy, which is made from vegetable oil or animal oil by esterification or transesterification with low molecular weight alcohol China is a big oil producing country If we use nearly ten thousand tons of residual oil produced in China every year to extract sterols and prepare biodiesel, the economic benefits will be about 150 million yuan, and at the same time, the emissions of nearly ten thousand tons of waste residue will be reduced The economic and social benefits will be considerable.