| Abstract: | Contacting spent bleaching earth with water at 473–523 K under saturated steam pressure and subsequent gravity settling results in a complete separation of earth and fatty matter. A top layer of extracted fatty material is formed, floating on water with the extracted earth precipitated in the water layer on the bottom of the container. The extracted earth is virtually free of fatty material with an oil content of 0.5% wt or less; the fatty matter extracted consisted mainly of free fatty acids and, upon vacuum distillation yielded 65 to 75% wt of distilled fatty acids. |
