Combining phospholipase A1 with monoacylglycerol lipase for crude vegetable oil degumming through improved oil-water separation

Degumming is essential to eliminate undesired phospholipids from crude vegetable oils before being processed into high-quality products. The degumming efficiency is hampered by the separation of oil and water. To overcome this problem, we introduced an innovative enzymatic degumming strategy for various vegetable oils (rice bran, peanut and flaxseed oil) by combining phospholipase A1 with monoacylglycerol lipase. Compared to using phospholipase A1, the combination of the two enzymes significantly reduced phosphorus content, indicating better hydrolysis of phospholipids. Additionally, the primary hydrolysates by the combined enzymes were glycerylphosphorylcholine and glycerylphosphorylethanolamine that were more affinitive to water to improve oil-water separation and oil yield. Characteristic markers obtained from Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis model confirmed the advantages of combined enzymes over single enzyme. This advantage of combined enzymes was further validated in a simulated degumming process. Our findings provide a new enzymatic degumming strategy to expand the toolkit for crude oil refinery.