Membrane processing of crude vegetable oils: Pilot plant scale remoyal of solvent from oil miscellas

The recovery of solvents used in the extraction step of edible oil processing is required for economical, environmental, and safety considerations. The miscella (mixture of extracted oil and solvent) exits the extractor at 70 to 75 wt% solvent content. Currently, the solvent is recovered by distillation. This paper reports the results of a study on separation of vegetable oils from commercial extraction solvents using various types of Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Ultrafiltration (UF) membranes. Solvent permeation rates and separation performances of various RO and UF membranes were determined by using ethanol, isopropyl alcohol and hexane as the solvents. One membrane exhibited a flux of 200 GFD (ethanol) with 1% oil remaining in the permeate. However, hexane rapidly deteriorated all but one of the membranes tested. The membrane that was compatible with hexane had a low flux and unacceptably low oil retention. Industrial-scale membranes were also evaluated in pilot plant trials. A hexane separation was attempted with a hollow-fiber membrane unit, and it was noted that the pores of the fibers swelled almost closed. Some of the commercially available membranes selectively removed solvent (ethanol or isopropanol) from the edible oil miscellas with reasonable flow rates. The research reported has shown that membranes manufactured from polyamide were the least affected by hexane. Fluxes achieved during solvent-oil separations were increased by increases in either temperature or pressure and decreased by increases in oil concentration in the feed. The processing temperature affected the percentage of oil in solution in either ethanol or isopropanol as well as the viscosity of the feed. Both of these factors in turn influenced the flux achieved. Approximately 2 trillion Btu/yr could be saved using a hybrid membrane system to recover solvents used in the extraction step of crude oil production. Studies to date report marginal success. The development of hexane-resistant membranes may make this application viable.