Process for purifying sucrose fatty acid esters having a high hydrophilic-lipophilic balance

摘要

A process for recovering, in a purified form, sucrose fatty acid esters having a high HLB included in a reaction mixture formed by a reaction of sucrose and a fatty acid alkyl ester in an organic solvent as reaction medium in the presence of a catalyst, which comprises adjusting the reaction mixture from which a part of the organic solvent may be previously removed and to which water is added to form an aqueous solution, to a neutral pH region, adding a neutral salt and sucrose to the solution to precipitate the sucrose fatty acid esters, separating and washing the precipitate with an acidic water, and subjecting the washing liquid to ultrafiltration. The concentrate obtained by ultrafiltration may be spray-dried to form a dry powder of the sucrose esters having high HLB, and the liquid obtained by separating the precipitate may be contacted with a reverse osmosis membrane to recover sucrose. According to the invention, purifed sucrose fatty acid esters having high HLB can be obtained from the reaction mixture without using an organic solvent as purification solvent, while sucrose can be recovered in high yield.