7.3.

6 Recovery of Oil from Spent Bleaching Earth

Assuming that the average amount of bleaching earth applied is 1% (wt/wt of the oil)
and that bleaching earth adsorbs approximately its own weight in oil, 1% of the
bleached oil would be lost if not recovered. There are two principal ways to recover the
oil, namely, to extract the earth or to drive out the oil from the earth with water
(steam) and a surface-active agent. To ensure that the extracted oil is edible grade,
extraction must be carried out immediately after bleaching. Otherwise, the oil quality
worsens because of the large surface exposed of the adsorbed oil the oxygen of the
ambient air (Table 7.14). after recovery of the oil, the bleaching earth is mainly
deposited (special waste). Following recent developments, it can also be use as a raw
material for the cement and brick industry. These industries, however, are interested in
the earth only if it still contains the oil that then serves as a fuel to heat up the ovens.
Recently, is has also been found that if bleaching earth is composted, it serves well to
loosen the compost.
7.3.6.1 Water Treatment. If the oil is driven out of the earth with hot water, oils of
restricted quality are obtained because this process extracts not only the oil but also
adsorbed polar substances such as oxidation products. The advantage of this processes
is that, contrary to solvent extraction, explosive solvents are avoided. To achieve good
results, a processing aid, usually a detergent has to be added to the hot water. A
second advantage of this process is that the solid earth that is obtained can easily be
deposited, but this advantage has to be paid for by a high effluent load that requires
purification. In this process, residual oil in the bleaching earth lies between 5 and 50 %
(wt/wt of the earth).

Table 7.14
Influence of Storage Time on quality and Quantity of Extracted oil.

7.3.6.2 Extraction. Like oilseeds, bleaching earth can also be extracted with solvents,
if bleaching is done in the oil mill, bleaching earth is often combined with the crude
seed and extracted again. In stand-alone refineries, the earth is extracted as such. In
principle, the process follows the same pattern as that for the extraction of seeds (see
Chapter 5). Because of the much smaller amount, discontinuous batch extractors are

used almost exclusively. If solvent extraction is done in a refinery, usually the building
for that process is detached and erected at some distance to the rest of the plant. Not
only would damage be minimized if the plant were to explode, but also the complete
refinery plat would otherwise have to be built explosion-proof and would have to be run
under the oil has been filtered off. To do so, the oil-free filter is filled with hexane,
extracted, the miscella is pumped off and the filter is steam blown to evaporate the
residual hexane. The extracted earth should be removed under inert gas atmosphere.
7.3.6.3 Other Processes. Weber (1980) reported a new process, offered under the
name of Contiblex by Extechnic (now Krupp maschinentechnik). This process is a
combination of extraction and hot water treatment. The aim is to combine the
advantages of both systems without their disadvantages. The process is run in a
combined extraction separation column. The bleaching earth is suspended in a solvent
(usually hexane) and fed to the column in a finely dispersed form. The column is half
filled with water and covered with the same volume of hexane (Fig. 7. 41). The
suspension of finely dispersed bleaching earth is dosed under the hexane surface. The
bleaching earth sediments and is extracted on its way downward. From the bottom,
fresh hexane is fed and, at the top, the miscella is drained off. In countercurrent
extraction.

During sedimentation of the extracted bleaching earth through the water layer, the
solvent is driven out of the earth. The sedimented layer, once it has reached a certain
thickness, is impermeable to water and can be removed with a screw. The miscella is
stripped, and the water vapor condensate formed is used to refill the water reservoir in
the column because part of the water is carried out together with the bleaching earth.
The separation of hexane and oil follows the principles described in Chapter 5. The
above-described plant delivers a miscella with 10 15 % oil and extracted bleaching
earth with a residual oil content of 0.1% (optimum). The working temperature lies
between 40 and 50 %. The manufacturers claim a consumption of 800 kg of steam, 30
m3 of cooling water and 30 kwh of electrical energy to process 1000 kg of bleaching
earth. The advantage of that process is that good oil quality is combined with a
bleaching earth that can easily be deposited without creating effluent problems.

7.3.7 Heat Bleaching

The deodorization step carried out at 250 260 C during physical refining of palm oil
(see chapter 7. 5. 3) is called head bleaching.

7.3.6 RECUPERACIN DE ACEITE DE GASTADO BLANQUEAMIENTO

TIERRA
Suponiendo que la cantidad promedio de tierra de blanqueo aplicado es 1% (peso /
peso del aceite) y tierra de blanqueo que absorbe aproximadamente su propio peso en
aceite, 1% del aceite decolorado se perdera si no se recupera. Hay dos formas
principales para recuperar el aceite, es decir, para extraer la tierra o para impulsar el
aceite de la tierra con agua (vapor) y un agente tenso activo. Para garantizar que el
aceite extrado es de grado comestible, la extraccin debe realizarse inmediatamente
despus del blanqueo. De lo contrario, la calidad del aceite empeora debido a la gran
superficie expuesta del aceite adsorbido el oxgeno del aire ambiente (Tabla 7.14).
Despus de la recuperacin del petrleo, la tierra de blanqueo se deposita
principalmente (residuos especiales). A raz de los recientes acontecimientos, sino que
tambin se puede utilizar como materia prima para la industria del cemento y ladrillo.
Estas industrias, sin embargo, estn interesadasen la tierra slo si todava contiene el
aceite que luego sirve como combustible para calentar los hornos. Recientemente, se
tambin se ha encontrado que si se convierten en abono tierra de blanqueo, sirve as
para aflojar el compost.
7.3.6.1 Tratamiento de Agua. Si el aceite es extrado de la tierra con agua caliente,
se obtienen aceites de calidad restringida porque este proceso extrae no slo el aceite,
tambin adsorbido sustancias polares productos de oxidacin.
La ventaja de estos procesos es que, contrariamente a la extraccin con solvente, se
evitan los solventes explosivos. Para lograr buenos resultados, una ayuda al proceso,
por lo general se aade detergente al agua caliente. Una segunda ventaja de este
proceso, es que la tierra slida que se obtiene puede ser fcilmente depositada, pero
esta ventaja es pagada en la purificacin de la alta carga de efluentes. En este
proceso, el aceite residual en la tierra de blanqueo se encuentra entre 5 y 50% (peso /
peso de la tierra).
Tabla 7.14 Influencia del Tiempo de almacenamiento en la calidad y cantidad
del aceite extrado.

Aceite de soja que se

extrae de tierra de
blanqueo con contenido

Tiempo de
almacenamiento de
tierra de blanqueo
(d)
0

Rendimiento de
extraccin (%)

Color

FFA
(%)

95

1.0 d

92

4.2 d

0.1
1
0.5
4

de aceite del 30%

Comparacin: aceite
fresco, neutralizada,
blanqueada

83

13 i

50

23 i

10

25

100 i

2.2 d

3.1
4
3.1
4
6.0
1
0.0
9

7.3.6.2 Extraccin. Al igual que las semillas oleaginosas, la tierra de blanqueo

tambin puede ser extrado con solventes, si el blanqueo se realiza en el molino de
aceite, tierra de blanqueo se combina a menudo con la semilla cruda y se extrae de
nuevo. En las refineras independientes, la tierra se extrae como tal. En principio, el
proceso sigue el mismo patrn que el de la extraccin de semillas (vase el captulo 5).
Debido a cantidades pequeas, se utilizan extractores batch. Si la extraccin de
solvente se realiza en una refinera, por lo general el edificio para ese proceso se
separa y se construye a cierta distancia con el resto de la planta. No slo daara
minimizarse si la planta estaban a punto de estallar, pero tambin el plat refinera
completa de lo contrario tendra que ser construida a prueba de explosiones y tendra
que ser ejecutado bajo el aceite ha sido separado por filtracin. Para ello, el filtro libre
de aceite se llena con hexano, se extrajo, la miscela se bombea fuera y el filtro de
vapor es soplado para evaporar el hexano residual. La tierra extrada debe ser
eliminado bajo una atmsfera de gas inerte.