Liquid fat solidification system

2003/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Teknologia

Without any chemical change, the Indian Institute of Science has developed a solidification system of liquid fats. The mixture of any saturated fatty acid of 10-31 carbon atoms in a ratio of 1/5 to vegetable oils has shown that liquid fat is gelified and solidified.

This system has interesting applications such as the food industry, cosmetics or cleaning liquid fuel spills. Currently, the food industry uses hydrogenation to solidify vegetable oils, obtaining products such as margarines or cheese. Hydrogenation, however, is expensive and, as the proportion of saturated fatty acids increases considerably, these products are less healthy than original vegetable oils.

The new system prevents the saturation of fatty acids. It also serves to solidify oil, diesel, kerosene and other fuels. The mixture of these fatty acids with fuel allows to stop the pouring and easily clean the pouring.