WO2018088891A1

WO2018088891A1 - Palm based oleogel candle

Info

Publication number: WO2018088891A1
Application number: PCT/MY2017/050070
Authority: WO
Inventors: Wen Huei LIM; Xiao Shuang YONG
Original assignee: Malaysian Palm Oil Board
Priority date: 2016-11-14
Filing date: 2017-11-13
Publication date: 2018-05-17
Also published as: MY195737A

Abstract

The present invention relates to a palm based oleogel bcandle and method of producing thereof. More particularly, the candle comprises a vegetable oil, additives such as gelator, a fatty acid, a glyceride and a methyl ester. A method of producing the oleogel candle comprising the steps of heating a mixture comprising the vegetable oil, additives, fatty acid, glyceride and methyl ester at 70-900C for 1 to 30minutes to dissolve and disperse oils, stirring the mixture continuously while heating to homogenise the mixture and cooling the mixture to room temperature to form the oleogel candle within a container.

Description

PALM BASED OLEOGEL CANDLE

Field of Invention

The present invention relates to a palm based oleogel candle and a method of producing thereof. More particularly, the candle's fuel mixture includes refine, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palm olein as the main component.

Background of The Invention

Refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palm olein is obtained from fractionating refined palm oil to separate liquid parts (olein) from solid parts (stearin) after crystallization at controlled temperatures. It appears as a clear yellow liquid at room temperature. RBD palm olein is especially suitable for frying and cooking. Common applications of RBD palm olein include salad and cooking oils in households, industrial frying fat of instant noodles, potato chips, doughnuts and condensed milk. It is also used as a raw material for margarine and shortening.

Candle has been produced to provide light and heat. Recently, variations of candle are produced from ingredients such as paraffin wax, beeswax, butter oil, or solidified oil. Among the variation of ingredient, candle produced using RBD palm olein has comparable burning performance especially on its burning duration. Additionally, the burning performance of a palm based oleogel candle could be improved by adding certain amount of additives such as fatty acid or polymeric organogelator.

There are a few patented technologies related to preparation of candle. United States Patent Application Publication No. US 2013071799 Al discloses methods for manufacturing candles using a high purity stearin that may be produced from certain hydrogenated sunflower oils without requiring the separation of stearin from other fatty acids in the hydrogenated oil. Besides, another patent document under United States Patent No. US 6730137 B2 discloses a candle composition comprising a paraffin wax mixture of a high melting point paraffin wax and a low melting point paraffin wax, and a hydrogenated vegetable oil that is present in a greater amount than the mixture of the varying grades of paraffin wax, and the vegetable oil contains no more than 0.15% free fatty acid, with the remainder being triglycerides. Both patents do not use the same composition as the present invention for candle manufacturing. However, the aforementioned publications constituted number of drawbacks which are low burning performance and less encouragement for designing creativity on physical appearance of the candle. One of the drawback is non-transparent or non-translucent physical appearance in semi-solid or gel-like form of cited prior arts candle. This appearances is not friendly approach for incorporating decorative-purpose objects within the candles wherein the objects are visible. Further, prior arts candle possess low burning performance as compared to oleogel candle of the present invention. High cost is inevitable to accomplish the continuous manufacture of low burning performance candle. Moreover, the high possibility of leakage during transportation required extra cost and effort to manage. Hence, this approach may not be practical for time and cost- effective candle manufacturing approach.

In the view of drawbacks of the prior arts cited above, it is desired to develop a new composition for candle manufacturing purpose. In particular, candle with transparent or translucent physical appearances and superior burning performance is desired.

Summary of The Invention

The objective of the present invention is to provide a palm based oleogel candle comprises vegetable oil, additive which is gelator, glycerides, fatty acid and methyl ester for better burning performances which are judged based on flame size, burning time and minimum soot.

Other object of the present invention is to provide a natural and renewable sources candle.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a time and cost saving method for producing a candle. The disclosed method reduces the temperature of a candle mixture by continuous stirring and further accelerates the candle preparation process as compared to conventional candle-making method.

Yet another objective of the present invention is to produce a semi-solid or gel-like form candle which is transparent or translucent.

At least one of the preceding objects is met, in whole or in part, by the present invention, in which the embodiment of the present invention describes a candle which is made from a fuel mixture comprising 45 to 99.6wt% of vegetable oil, 0.2 to 15wt% gelator, 0.2 to 15wt% fatty acid, 0.2 to 15wt% of glycerides and 0.2 to 10wt methyl ester of the mixture.

Ideally, 93.5wt vegetable oil, 3.5wt gelator, lwt% fatty acid, lwt% glycerides and lwt% methy ester are used for optimal burning performance.

Preferably, the vegetable oil is derived from palm, soybean, rapeseed, sunflower, peanut, cottonseed, coconut or any combination thereof. More preferably, vegetable oil is selected from neutralised palm oil, neutralised and bleached palm oil; neutralized, bleached and deodorized (NBD) palm oil; refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palm oil; crude palm olein; neutralized palm olein; neutralized and bleached palm olein; neutralized, bleached and deodorized (NBD) palm olein; refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palm olein; recycle refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palm olein; crude palm stearin; neutralized palm stearin; neutralized and bleached palm stearin; refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palm stearin, neutralized, bleached and deodorized (NBD) palm stearin or any combination thereof. Most preferably, refine, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palm olein is used, whereby 45-90 wt% of RBD palm olein is preferred.

Preferably, the gelator can be selected from artificial or natural source, such as waxes, hydrocarbons, fatty acids, glycerides, sorbitans, monoesters, emulsifiers, or any combination thereof. More preferably, hydroxystearic acid is used for creating gelling network to hold oil droplets.

More preferably, stearic acid is used as the fatty acid of the present invention for better gelling network formation which contributes to better burning performance.

Preferably, the glyceride is selected from monoglycerides, diglyceride, or any combination thereof. More preferably, monoglycerides is used to enhance gelling network.

The present invention also discloses a method of producing an oleogel candle comprising the steps of heating a mixture comprising a vegetable oil, a gelator, a fatty acid and a methyl ester at 70-900C for 1 to 30minutes to dissolve and disperse oils, stirring the mixture continuously while heating to homogenise the mixture and cooling the mixture to room temperature to form the oleogel candle within a container, wherein 750C is preferred for optimal solubility of all the solid particles from all reactants and gelators.

Preferably, the flame size of the palm based oleogel candle is 0.5 to 1.5cm. Preferably, the burning time of the oleogel based candle is 15 to 50min/g.

One skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the present invention is well adapted to carry out the objects and obtain the ends and advantages mentioned, as well as those inherent therein. The embodiments described herein are not intended as limitations on the scope of the invention.

Detailed Description of The Invention

Pursuant to the preferred embodiment, oleogel is an organic liquid confined in a thermoreversible three-dimensional network created by an organogelator. Preferably, a very low concentration of organogelator is used to form oleogel. More particularly, the low concentration is in the range of 0.5-3.0wt %. Low concentration is important to produce sufficient network strength to hold the oil droplets within the oleogel. The chain fatty acids in triacylglycerols (tags) are forced into alignment, grouping and leading to the formation of several polymorphic structures. Vegetable fats and oils contain basically three polymorphic forms: gamma (γ), beta' (β') and Beta (β), with the first mentioned form be the least stable structure, and the β-form be the thermodynamically more stable one.

As set forth in the preceding description, oleogel is transparent or translucent semi-solid or gel-like form which can be moulded in containers of various shapes easily. This does not only contribute to aesthetic physical appearance but also for convenient transporting purpose as the possibility of leakage or spillage is reduced compared to liquid fuel. The translucent or transparent appearance of oleogel encourages creativity efforts for stunning pattern and design creations of the oleogel gel candle. One aspect of the present invention is to provide an oleogel based candle with better burning performance. Preferably, the burning time of the palm based candle is 15 to 50min/g. Compared to conventional candle with same length and diameter, the present invented candle have longer burning time. The compositions use in the oleogel formulations are different that conventional candle. This is because oleogel formulation contains high triglycerides compositions whereas conventional candle which mainly comprises paraffin compositions. The high triglyceride content enables conversion of liquid oils into solid oils which is oleogel. The gel network formed by triglyceride holds the oil droplets steadily thus contributes to stable and uniform burning properties of the oleogel candle. In the present invention, the vegetable oil is in a liquid form when the temperature is below 45°C. The vegetable oil contains a mixture of triglycerides, diglycerides, fatty acid and minor components of polyphenol, tocopherol, carotenoid, squalene or phytosterol, lecithin, or any combination thereof. In the preferred embodiment, the present invention utilizes additives for producing the candle with better burning performances. The additive of the present invention comprises single or a mixture of gelators with the concentration less than 15%. More preferably, the gelator is hydroxystearic acid (DSA) among others such as natural or artificial gelators, waxes, hydrocarbon, fatty acid, glyceride, sorbitan, monoesters, emulsifiers, or any combination thereof. Gelator is used to create three dimensional network structure either through Van der Waal's or hydrogen bonding between oil or/and gelator-gelator molecules. These bonding are responsible for creating the gelling network to hold oil droplets in the right positions.

As set forth in the preceding description, the fatty acid is selected from dihydroxystearic acid, stearic acid, palm-based fatty acid, or any combination thereof. More preferably, dihydroxystearic acid is used for forming oleogel at low concentration. More particularly, the low concentration is in the range of 0.5-3.0wt %. The molecular arrangement and interaction between the hydroxyl groups of hydroxystearic acid molecules contributes to the formation of low concentration of oleogel. In particular, the present invention reveals a method of producing a candle, which is palm based oleogel candle as described in any of the preceding description, comprising the steps of: heating a mixture comprising the vegetable oil, additives, fatty acid and methyl ester at 70-90°C for 1 to 30minutes to dissolve and disperse oils, stirring the mixture continuously while heating to homogenise the mixture and cooling the mixture to room temperature to form the oleogel candle within a container.

The present invention discloses a faster candle preparation rate by using continuous stirring step. This eliminated repetitive melting step (s) and formation of gel network as used in conventional candle-making method. In lieu of that, the continuous stirring step reduces the temperature to produce candle at relatively faster rate by accelerating the formation of gel network for the candle-forming process.

The present disclosure includes as contained in the appended claims, as well as that of the foregoing description. Although this invention has been described in its preferred form with a degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure of the preferred form has been made only by way of example and that numerous changes in the details of construction and the combination and arrangements of parts may be resorted to without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A palm based oleogel candle formed from a fuel mixture comprising:

45 to 99.6wt% of vegetable oil;

0.2 to 15 wt% of gelator;

0.2 to 15wt% fatty acid;

0.2 to 15 wt% glyceride; and

0.2 to 10 wt% methyl ester.

2. A candle according to claim 1, wherein the vegetable oil is selected from refine, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palm olein, polyphenol, tocopherol, carotenoid, squalene, phytosterol, lecithin, or any combination thereof.

3. A candle according to claim 1, wherein the gelator is selected from hydroxystearic acid, waxes, natural or artificial gelator, hydrocarbon, fatty acid, glyceride, sorbitan, monoester, fatty acid, emulsifier, or any combination thereof.

4. A candle according to claim 1, wherein the fatty acid is selected from polyhydroxystearic acid, palmitic acid or epoxy fatty acid, palm based fatty acid, palmitic acid, myristic acid, or any combination thereof.

5. A candle according to claim 1, wherein the glyceride is selected from monoglyceride, diglyceride, or any combination thereof.

6. A candle according to claim 2, wherein the tocopherol is a mixture of a-tocopherol, β- tocopherol, γ-tocopherol and δ-tocopherol.

7. A candle according to claim 2, wherein the phytosteol is cholesterol, campesterol, sitosterol, stigmasterol or any combination thereof.

8. A candle according to claim 3, wherein the fatty acid is selected from stearic acid, palmitic acid, or any combination thereof.

9. A candle according to claim 4, wherein the polyhydroxystearic acid is selected from dihydroxystearic acid, hydroxystearic acid, or any combination thereof.

10. A candle according to claim 4, wherein the palm based fatty acid is stearic acid.

11. A candle according to claim 4, wherein the palmitic acid is epoxy stearic acid.

12. A method of producing a candle as claimed in any one of the preceding claims comprising the steps of:

heating a mixture comprising the vegetable oil, gelator, fatty acid and methyl ester at 70-90°C for 1 to 30 minutes to dissolve and disperse the oils;

stirring the mixture continuously while heating to homogenise the mixture; and

cooling the mixture to room temperature to form an oleogel candle within a container.