The Extraction Process Debate :)New extraction process produces high quality chemical-free krill oil
22 Jan 2010
Fishing for krill
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An international patent has been filed for what is claimed to be a revolutionary process for extracting oils from krill caught in the South Antarctic Ocean.
According to Tharos Ltd, the Santiago, Chile-based consultancy that developed the technique, the non-solvent and chemical-free extraction principle leaves no residue in the final product which is aimed at the human pharmaceutical and health supplement market.
“We believe this to be a revolutionary concept because, unlike oil extraction processes used by all current, as well as almost all of the soon-to-arrive, South Antarctic krill operators, this process is chemical-free,” says Dimitri Sclabos, general manager of Tharos and one of the inventors of the technique.
At present several extraction processes are used to extract oil from krill, the tiny crustacean, Euphausia superba, found in huge quantities in Antarctic waters.
According to Dimitri Sclabos, the normal food-grade and low quality krill oil extraction process involves cooking the raw material which is then pressed and the liquids separated/cleaned by centrifuges and polishers. This is done onboard the catching vessel, he says.
A non-traditional process uses decanters (or tricanters) to extract krill oil, he adds. The krill is cooked then later decanted and its liquids separated/cleaned by centrifuges and polishers as before. This is also done onboard.
Although no solvents are used in these two extraction methods, the oil yield is lower than that obtained using the Tharos method and the quality is poorer. “There is a very low content of EPA/DHA [eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, the long chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids which are beneficial to human health] and almost no phospholids, which have great market value, while ours is very high in both,” Mr Sclabos says.
“Krill oil obtained using our extraction method also contains astaxanthin, a powerful antioxidant.”
Other extraction methods are carried out on krill meal which has been previously processed onboard the fishing vessel, but then shipped to a land-based factory. It is here that solvent extraction is carried out. For example a Canadian company buys whole frozen krill from various sources and ships it to Canada where extraction takes place. “This process involves the use of solvents in a chemical reaction to separate lipids from other krill constituents,” says Mr Sclabos.
A Norwegian operator also uses solvent extraction, he says. The company manufactures high-fat krill meal at sea using a traditional meal processing line although it uses natural antioxidants. It freezes the meal and ships it to France where krill oil is extracted using solvents.
“This method involves a double-heating process (meal first oil later) affecting overall molecular quality,” says Mr Sclabos.
Mr Sclabos admits that pharma-grade krill oils can be extracted using solvents, but says some residues may remain on the final product.
“Such residues might be well within market regulation,” he says, “but we think that a no-residue process is a much more valuable proposition to the end user. Our method eliminates the solvent application to get a quality krill oil with no residues at all and with a pharma-quality grade, plus a lower cost structure processing concept.”
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https://www.worldfishing.net/comment-and-analysis/analysis/new-extraction-process-produces-high-quality-chemical-free-krill-oil