Vegetable Oil Refining Plants

BATCH REFINING LINE / PLANT

The Refining process has been explained under the heading Vegetable Oil Refining. Troika offers Batch Refining Plants which are recommended for capacities of 25T / 24hrs and below.

As the name suggests the Refining operation is carried out in Batches.

The steps involved are –

1.   Degumming and Neutralization:  In Batch Plant degumming and neutralizing is carried out simultaneously in a vessel called Neutraliser. The crude oil is made to react with weak solution of phosphoric acid for separation of gums and is further treated with caustic soda. Caustic soda reacts with free fatty acids forming soap. The soap is removed by decantisation after removal of the soap oil is given a wash with hot water, oil and water is separated by decantisation. More details are available on request.

2.   Bleaching: Bleaching is second step in refining after degumming & neutralising. The oil is bleached with the help of bleaching agent. Normally bleaching earth and / or activated carbon. The bleaching agent absorbs the colouring matter from the oil. The oil is filtered through filter press wherein bleaching agent and oil are separated out. The resultant oil is bleached oil and very much light in colour then the neutralised oil. More details are available on request.

3.   Deodorisation: The oil after bleaching is practically pure, but contains minute quantities of original odoriferous matter. Also the chemicals used during neutralisation and bleaching impart their odours to the Oil. It is essential to remove the odour prior to the marketing of the oil. The deodorization process is steam distillation process carried out in a vessel called Deodoriser. The oil is heated to a high temperature under high vaccum and open steam is injected. The odiferous matter is distilled off. The oil is passed and cleared through filter to get sparkling oil. More details are available on request.

Quality Control & Process Efficiency:

The process offered by TROIKA is such that the final quality of refined oil is automatically attained with minimum human effort. Lowest refining losses, consumption of utilities such as steam, power and water, lowest consumption of chemicals such as caustic soda, bleaching agents and degumming agents and minimum operating personnel are salient features of TROIKA refining plants.

For more details like flowcharts, process write-up, specification of equipments or estimates of plant contact TROIKA on email info@troikaindia.com or visit us on www.troikaindia.com

TROIKA the technocrats to vegetable oil industry since 1971 have supplied equipment at more than 260 installation spread over Twenty Five countries. Whether for oil milling plants, Solvent Extraction plants or Refining plants or Hydrogenation plants you can always count on TROIKA.

Vegetable Oil Refining / Refinery Plant

A) What is Refining?

The crude oil obtained either from expellers or solvent extraction plant contains impurities, which must be removed to make the oil edible, more palatable and stable against rancidity upon storage.  The process of removing these impurities is called refining.

B) Impurities present in the oil:

1.  Gums: Gums are phospholipids. There are two types of gums present, hydratable and non-hydratable.  Hydratable gums are removed during degumming steps.

2.  Hydrolysis Products Of Oils: Like Diglycerides and monoglycerides and free fatty acids. These are removed during neutralisation step.

3.  Proteineous Matter, Carbohydrates, Resins: These are removed during neutralisation step.

4.  Colouring Matter: Pigments such as chlorophyll   (green colour) carotene (red colour), anthophyll (yellow colour) and gossypol  (orange colour). These colour bodies which impart distinct colour to the oil are removed during neutralising and bleaching steps.

5.  Odour-causing Chemicals: They are generally present in small quantities but their presence imparts strong, sometimes objectionable odour to the oil. These substances are volatile in nature and removed by deodorisation step.

6.  Waxes: Some oils like sunflower contains appreciable amounts of waxes.  Waxes are high melting esters of fatty alcohol with long chain fatty acids. These are removed by dewaxing step.

C) Refining Steps:

1.  Degumming and Neutralization:

2.  Bleaching as the name suggest is an operation to remove colouring matter present in the oil.

3.  Deodorisation: Every vegetable oil has its own distinctive natural odour. During Neutralisation and Bleaching operation unpleasant odour is incorporated to the oil. It is therefore essential to remove this odour. The process is termed as Deodorisation.

D) Quality Control & Process Efficiency:

The process offered by TROIKA is such that the final quality of refined oil is automatically attained with minimum human effort. Lowest refining losses, such as steam, power and water, lowest consumption of chemicals and minimum operating personnel are salient features of TROIKA refining plants.

For more details like flowcharts, process write-up, specification of equipments or estimates of plant contact TROIKA on email info@troikaindia.com or visit us on www.troikaindia.com

TROIKA the technocrats to vegetable oil industry since 1971 have supplied equipment at more than 260 installation spread over Twenty Five countries. Whether for oil milling plants, Solvent Extraction plants or Refining plants or Hydrogenation plants you can always count on TROIKA.

CONTINUOUS REFINING LINE - PLANT

The Refining process has been explained under the heading Vegetable Oil Refining. Troika offers Continuous Refining Plants which are recommended for capacity higher than 25T / 24hrs.

As the name suggests the Refining operation is carried out Continuous.

The steps involved are –

1.      Degumming :  Here oil is treated with phosphoric acid given in precipitated and separated through centrifugal separator.

2.      Neutralization: Here oil is treated with caustic soda. Caustic soda reacts with fatty acid and  soap tock is formed. The oil and soap stock are separated by centrifugal force and centrifugal separators. The refining loss is low due to sharp separation of oil and soap.

3.      Bleaching : As the name suggest the operation is carried out for removal of coloring pigments from the oil. The step is carried out with the help of bleaching agent which absorbs coloring pigments. The spent bleaching agent is separated from the oil in pressure leaf filters.

4.      Deodorisation: In continuous process the oil flows continuously at regulated rate to the deodoriser through a preheater and air-separator and high temperature heater. The deodoriser is kept at high vacuum by barometric vacuum system. The deodoriser is a specially designed column for intimate contact between oil flowing downwards and injected open steam flowing upwards. The deodorised oil leaves the deodoriser through a heat exchanger wherein the hot oil exchanges heat with ingoing cold oil. The deodorised oil is then cooled and passed through sparkling filter.

Quality Control & Process Efficiency:

The process offered by TROIKA is such that the final quality of refined oil is automatically attained with minimum human effort. Lowest refining losses, consumption of utilities such as steam, power and water, lowest consumption of chemicals such as caustic soda, bleaching agents and degumming agents and minimum operating personnel are salient features of TROIKA refining plants.

For more details like flowcharts, process write-up, specification of equipments or estimates of plant contact TROIKA on email info@troikaindia.com or visit us on www.troikaindia.com

TROIKA the technocrats to vegetable oil industry since 1971 have supplied equipment at more than 260 installation spread over Twenty Five countries. Whether for oil milling plants, Solvent Extraction plants or Refining plants or Hydrogenation plants you can always count on TROIKA.

PHYSICAL REFINING

The Refining process has been explained under the heading Vegetable Oil Refining. Troika offers Physical Refining Plants.

Certain oils like Palm oil, Sunflower oil need not be subjected to chemical neutralisation process, instead free fatty acid present in oil can be distilled off at high temperature with high vacuum in physical refiner. This reduces oil losses during neutralisation process. The oil has to be very well pre-treated if physical refining has to be carried out. This processes is not suitable for all the oils.

CHEMICAL REFINING

The Refining process has been explained under the heading Vegetable Oil Refining. Troika offers Chemical Refining Plants.

The word Chemical Refining appears since caustic soda a chemical is used in refining of vegetable oils.

Neutralizing section is nothing but chemical refining or caustic refining or alkali refining. It is called Neutralizing since free fatty acids present in the oil are neutralized with the help of caustic soda. The process is described under the heading Vegetable Oil Refining. Neutralisation can be carried out either as Batch or Continuous process. More details available on request.

BLEACHING SECTION

As the name suggests this is that part of refining process where colouring matter of the oil is recovered with the help of bleaching agent. Normally bleaching earth is activated carbon is used for the removal of the colour.

The bleaching agent is separated from the oil by filtration which is carried out in conventional filter presses for lower capacity plant or in pressure leaf filters for higher capacity plants. The bleaching section is available either for Batch process or as Continuous process. More details available on request.

DEODORISATION PROCESS

As the name suggests this is that part of the refining process where the odour of the oil is removed. The operation occurs at high temperature under high vacuum with impurities of open steam. The process is described under the heading Vegetable Oil Refining. Deodorisation can be carried out either as Batch or Continuous process. More details available on request.

NEUTRALISING SECTION

Neutralizing section is nothing but chemical refining or caustic refining or alkali refining. It is called Neutralizing since free fatty acids present in the oil are neutralized with the help of caustic soda. The process is described under the heading Vegetable Oil Refining. Neutralisation can be carried out either as Batch or Continuous process. More details available on request.

DEWAXING SECTION

Some oils are dewaxed before packing so as to remove waxes, which are dissolved in the oil. Most of the oils do not need dewaxing as they contain little or no waxes. Only sunflower oil & Rice Bran oil contain appreciable quantities of wax to give a hazy appearance during winter season due to precipitation of dissolved waxes and hence require to be dewaxed. Dewaxing is carried out by chilling the oil up to 10-15°C followed by filtration of precipitated solids. The oil thus treated gives a sparkling appearance even in winter temperatures. More details available on request.

WINTERISATION

Winterisation is another name to the process of dewaxing. The name winterization appears as during winter when the temperature is low, waxes present in the oil crystallizes, they give hazy appearance to the oil. Hence during winterization process oil is chilled, crystalisers made to form and are separated in pressure leaf filters. More details are available on request.