Process to separate Lauric Acid from Coconut Oil I am trying to find a (relatively) simple process to separate lauric acid from other MCTs contained within coconut oil.   I am wanting to obtain a separation of +-5% purity.

One process I am trying is heating the coconut oil until it is completely liquid (~50'C), and then slowly cooling it to ~22'C using a fridge I modified with a digital temperature controller. This process sometimes works in making "solid clouds" of lauric acid in the oil, but not sufficient to separate easily from the remainder of the oil.

Is there something I can try in order to separate lauric acid from the coconut oil, using relatively simple processes?

Any comments welcome.
With respect to economy, waste management and regulations concerning food processing, your current approach, a solvent-free crystallization, is probably the most reasonable approach.

There's a Unilever patent which claims that the crystallization, both stirred and quiescent, is significantly improved by addition of sucrose laureates.

The patent holders attribute this to the observation that the additive leads to the formation of 


  large and non-porous spherulites, which highly increases separation efficiency