Integrated process for extracting vitamin E with high purity from the methylated oil deodorizer distillate

An enhanced process integrating an extraction with ionic liquid (IL) as solvent and a two-step reextraction is proposed to recover high purity vitamin E from the methylated oil deodorizer distillate (MODD). Conditions for the extraction with solvent [C 6 MIm]Ac were optimized and its reusability was investigated. A crude concentrated vitamin E phase (extract phase) was acquired with some co-extracted fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). In order to remove the co-extracted FAME and obtain the high purity vitamin E, a two-step reextraction process was designed, where n -hexane was proved to be the most promising solvent with the selectivity of 728.01 and partition coefficient of 18.92 to methyllinoleate. Based on the proposed process, high purity vitamin E could be finally obtained from both the model MODD (purity of 99.26%) and two different practical MODDs (purity   >   79.08%) with [C 6 MIm]Ac as extractant and a small amount of n -hexane and water as reextractants. It means that the integrated extraction process with high performance is a promising method for recovery of vitamin E from MODDs.