Monoacylglycerols (MAGs) were produced by esterification and transesterification of soybean oil fatty acid and soybean oil with glycerol catalyzed by solid super acid, and two-stage molecular distillation were introduced to purify MAGs from the reaction mixture. The optimal conditions for production of MAGs were obtained by response surface methodology as follows: soybean oil 300 g, soybean oil fatty acid 20.0 g, reaction temperature 200℃, solid super acid dosage 0.26% (based on the masses of soybean oil and soybean oil fatty acid), glycerol amount 12.66 g, reaction time 4.81 h. Under the optimal conditions, the content of MAGs in the glycerides mixture reached 6982%. The free fatty acid and glycerol in the glycerides mixture were removed by molecular distillation at 135℃ in the first stage, and MAGs with a purity of 96.54% were obtained by molecular distillation at 185℃ in the second stage. |