Pilot-plant fractionation of cottonseed. III. Process development of differential settling

Chemical engineering data are presented to show the pilotplant process development of cottonseed fractionation employing the differential settling principle. The purpose of the process is to produce a cottonseed meal fraction essentially free of pigment glands and hulls, and a second fraction in which the pigment glands are concentrated sufficiently to serve as a raw material if pharmaceutical or other industrial use is developed for the glands or the pigments. The non-lipids fraction will make available a meal of high nutritive value and a source of industrial protein. Unit operations involved, including machinery and other equipment required, and proposed flow diagrams for commercial application are discussed. In brief the unit operations are as follows: material preparation; disintegration for proper size reduction of cottonseed flakes (either defatted or undefatted) in solvent slurries; separation by tank differential settling or by centrifugal differential settling at 62 times gravity; meal recovery to recover separated fractions by either centrifuging at 1450 times gravity or by pressure filtration; desolventization of solvent-damp meal; and oil and solvent recovery. Report of a study made under the Research and Marketing Act of 1946. Presented at the apring meeting of the American Oil Chemists' Society, held in New Orleans, La., May 1949. One of the laboratories of the Bureau of Agricultural and Industrial Chemistry, Agricultural Research administration, U. S. Department of Agriculture.