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Top Edible Oil Production

Plant
Batch system Problem identification and seeking
possibility of enhancing production capacity in
refinery section by adopting a semi continuous system

Prepared by: -
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NTRODUCTION
Refining of soya bean oil is essential to ensure removal of germs, phosphatides and free fatty
acids (F.F.A) from the oil, to impact uniform color by removal of coloring pigments and to get
rid of unpleasant smell from the oil by removal of odiferous matter. Refining is carried out either
on batch operation or as continuous operation. With certain oils even physical refining can be carried out
instead of chemical. For processing less than thirty tones of oil per 24 hours, and when oil has
F.F.A content of 1 percent or less normally batch process is recommended [1].

Batch process

Involves low capital investments,

Simplicity of operation and low maintenance,
Making refining economically a viable proposition even at low capacity.

The oil processing industry is a large scale operation,

Essential components

Acylglycerols (mono-, di-, triglycerides) contribute to the major portion of fats and oils (Table 1)
with high nutritional significance [1]. The fatty acids shown in Fig. S1 are some of the essential
fatty acids that play a vital role in different stages of anabolic and catabolic reactions in human
body. n-3 PUFA are chemically reactive, having low stability to heat, light, atmospheric oxygen
and impurities, posing oxidation problems during storage [3]. Thus, the major challenge for the
refining pro

Undesirable compounds

The FFA are derived from lipids by cleavage of ester bonds due to enzyme (lipase) action, heat
and moisture [4], which happens after the harvesting of soybean for oil extraction. FFA in oils
can act as pro-oxidants which initiate the oxidation mechanism in lipids and also decrease the
smoke point of cooking oils. [5] Has critically reviewed the effect of interaction of FFA with
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Table 1

Quality

Types of Character crude Refined Soybean oil Effect on oil

components in at Factory quality
oil

Acylglycerols Desirable 90% >99% No Improve

specification

Tocopherols, Desirable 200-800 50-300 No Improve

squalence, ppm ppm specification oxidative
sterols stability

phospholipids Undesirable 100-500 <10 ppm No Settling at

ppm specification bottom during
storage

Free fatty acids Undesirable 5-20% < 1% <0.3% Act as pro-

oxidant leading
to oxidation of
acylglyce

Metal ions and Undesirable 2- <1 No Harmful for

metal complexes 15mg/kg mg/kg specification consumption and
act as pre-
oxidant

Oxidizd Undesirable 2-6 <1 Physical Rancidity and

products meq/kg meq/kg sensing harmful

Moisture Undesirable 1-3% <1% <0.2% Act as pro-

oxidant

Method of oil extraction

Even though now a days there are many advanced technology have been used for soybean oil
extraction top edible oil factory used a Mechanical extraction technique which is one of the
oldest methods used for oil extraction. In principle, the seeds are placed between barriers where
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the volume available to the seed is reduced by pressing thereby forcing oil out of the seeds [6].
For application in rural areas, mechanical extraction is habitually used because it has a lower
initial investment cost and does require highly trained personnel to operate the machines. The
quality of oil obtained by this method is most often measured as a factor of its acid value,
phosphorus content, water content, and iodine value [3]. Advantages of mechanical extraction
include the production of good quality oil and the possibility of the use of its cake compared to
when extraction is done in solvents. Oil extraction by mechanical presses is the m

Oil extraction by mechanical presses is the use of either hydraulic presses or screw presses
driven by a motor [7]. Even though mechanical pressing is efficient, it usually results in very low
oil yield [3]. The advantages of the screw press over the hydraulic press are its slightly improved
yields and its ability to be adapted for continuous processing here in top edible oil factory the
pressing section was a screw that is for the objective we set in this task since its favorable to be
semi continuous process.
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General process flow sheet for top edible oil factory

Press Screener 1st Crude

Crude oil
Section-1 filtration Am filter
Residual
Reprocessing

Temporary Crude Degumming Neutraliz

storage Washing
crude oil ation
Section-2
storage tanker

Section-3 Drying Semi

Bleaching refined
Filtration
tanker

Section-4 Deodoriz Polish RBD Filling

Cooling
ation filtration storage and
tanker packing

Packed
Customer
oil
storage Figure 2.9 General production flow chart of top edible oil factory
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Top edible oil standard operational procedures for refinery section

2.2.1.1. Degumming

Check that the degumming tank is clean and empty

Pump 6050-6100 litter crude oil to DNW tanker from auxiliary crude oil tanker
Record the volume transfer from the flow meter
Stir and make the temperature reach to 60oC
Add 500-550 litter hot water its temperature must be at 70oC. Also add 10 kg NaCl
and 1 Kg Citric acid agitate for 15 min
Wait for 3 hour until the gum and oil clearly separated
Discharge the gum carefully until its completed
Take degumming oil to cheek the free fatty acid and moisture content
2.2.1.2. Neutralization

Heat the oil and agitating until the temperature is reached to 60oC
Add caustic soda solution depending on presence of free acid
Agitate for 10 min
Wait for 2 hour until the oil and soap stock is separated clearly
Discharge the water and soap stock carefully until it is finished
2.2.1.3. Washing

1st wash-

heat the oil to 70oC and add 500 litter hot water with temperature 80oC
Waiting two hour until the water and the remaining soap stock is settled and separate

2nd wash-

Heat the oil is 70oC and add 500 litter hot water with temperature 80oC
Wait for 2 hour until the water and the remaining soap stock is settled and separated
Discharge the water and soap stock until is finished
Send sample to quality analyst or laboratory to check the soap content
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3rd Wash- repeats the above step

2.2.1.4. Bleaching
Check that the bleacher tanker is empty and clean
Then transfer the neutralized or washed oil to bleacher tanker
Open the vacuum pump water and starts the vacuum pump
Heat the oil until the temperature reached 120-130oC
Add bleaching earth and agitate for 30 min then filter the oil by using am filter next
transfer the oil to semi refine tanker.
2.2.1.5. Deodorization
Check that the deodorization tanker is empty and clean
Transfer the bleaching oil to deodorization tanker
Heat the oil up to 150oC, then open direct live stream slowly and continuously up to 220-
230oC
Dray for 1 hour this transfer the oil cooler
2.2.1.6. Cooling
Check the cooler tanker is empty and clean
Open the vacuum pump water and start the vacuum pump
Transfer the oil from deodorization tanker to cooler
Start cooling the oil by opening cold transfer water pump up to 40oC
Filter the oil using polish bag filtration system next the cooled oil to RBD storage tank
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General flow sheet on Refinery Section

ST-1 ST-2

PLF Steam
-1
N-2 N-1
S-ST
Thermic

PLF-
2
SP-ST R-2 R-1

B-T DO-T
S-T

Cold water

C-T
RBD-T
H2O, NaCl Caustic Bleacher P1 P2

Filling and packing section

Figure 2.8 simple schematic representation of refinery section

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Refining process Chemical used Component removed/reduced

1. Degumming Salt 1. Hydratable non-oil materials, mostly
C6H7O8H2O carbohydrates and proteins partially
removed
2. Hydratable non glycerides’ lipids
such as phospholipids partially
removed
3. Chlorophyll Removed), especially if
phosphoric acid is employed

2. Neutralizer NaOH 1. Free fatty acids and other material

removed
2. Residual phospholipids removed
3. Proteinaceous material removed
4. Coloring matter removed
3. Bleaching Bleaching Earth 1. Carotenoids removed
2. Chlorophyll and its decomposition
products removed
3. Gossypol- like pigments removed

1.1. Storage, Packaging and Transport of Oils

Oils and fats must be protected against oxidative deterioration, contamination with water, dirt, or
other fats, absorption of foreign odors and tastes, thermal deterioration, and entry of substances
from packaging and lining materials. Temperature, oxygen pressure, oxidation products, traces
metals, oxidative and lipolysis enzymes, reduction in natural antioxidants and visible and
ultraviolet light are all factors in such deterioration.
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Production process frequent challenges that have a tendency in resisting the process functional in
a continuous way from the previous process

Deguming-1

Crude oil transfer

 Foots might clog pipes this leads to flow from crude storage tanker to neutralization
tanker will be closed.
 Flow meter can’t count properly if the pipe was closed, due to no flow in to neutralization
tanker
 Until mechanical maintenance was implemented process will be delayed about 30
minutes

Heating and agitation of crude oil

 Since the system was batch system priority most often given to deodorization until it
reaches desired heating temperature (150 0C).
 Again might be expected to delay neutralization process due to bleacher tanker must be
reached its desired temperature (130 0C).
 Mostly when DO and Bleacher tanker was in process neutralization time will be stopped
 Because to facilitate as much as possible entire process one must be delay as they used
from a single source of heat.
 Thremic boiler efficiency could sufficiently enhance this delay of process
 Malfunction of Motor was another headache to operate continually from the previous
process, using one motor for mixing in cooler and neutralization tanker
 This problem was recently resolved by maintaining and fixing mixer motor on
neutralization tanker to be functional properly.
 The valve and control board are too far valves are at the head of tanker on floor 3 and
control board is at the bottom this might be a possible delay of time.

Water heating

 Until Oil temperature riches to from T1 to 600C -620C, water can be heated until desired
temperature (700C) in other words it’s better to heat water simultaneously.
 Filling water in to tanker takes about 4-6 minutes if it was first filed before specific
process time was reached might eliminate such delay.
 If temperature was very low which means direct cold water (room temperature about
250C) it takes a longer to reach desired temperature as much as possible it is better to use
recycled hot water from cooler if it was on process.
 If color is not on process cold water must be heated until its desired temperature reached,
this leads to increase processing time and a factor in delaying entire processing time.
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 Rarely water availability could be happened in such case process may be stopped until
water come again for such matter it is better to have water reservoir tanker if the problem
continually happening.
 Steam boiler functionality might be factor for delaying this specific process.

Transferring water

 Control board might have some trouble issues until fixed by electricians transferring hot
water in to neutralization tanker might be stopped and it takes about 30min to maintain
therefore the control board system should be enhanced.
 Only one tanker for water heating and transferring in to the process as it was two
neutralization tankers at least water heating tanker must be added. To minimize such
delay due to availability heating tanker.

Salt solution preparation

 After half of water in a tank was transferred to neutralization tanker salt was dissolved
with the remaining water but hear the challenge was mixing is manual it takes about 4-5
minutes to dissolve completely. If other tanker was available to dissolve salts the process
will be operated continually.
 Weighting Salt must be done before the process is on going to eliminate even such a little
delay
 On both cases the flow of salt solution and water is in a similar pipe the inlet into the
tanker must be in uniform manner. Most of spots (outlet is not working properly) need to
be maintained.

Agitation –just about 15 minutes

Settling and drain after 2hr settling

After settling time was achieved It might form an emulsion

When emulsion was happened chemist order for waiting until steeling it takes about 30-40
minutes

 Possible cause for emulsion

 There is no balance for measuring salt and they take by themselves this might
creates personal error. This problem was solved recently now there is balance to
weight salt.
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 Temperature deviation
Nowadays this problem was not happening on consecutive many batches.

Drain

 Drain storage might be full due to this process could be delayed

 Utilizing large reservoir or removing wastes from reservoir frequently might be possible
mitigation options.
 Pipe also might be clogged; until mechanical maintenance or cleaning was done process
might delay due to such specific problem.
 Expected personal error might happen since they distinguish oil from waste is just by
naked eye.

Deguaming-2

Citric solution preparation

 When they used phosphoric acid rather than citric possibility of emulsion formation is
high so nowadays emulsion on second degumming was not happened as citric was used.
 Citric solution was dissolved manually and they takes some minutes to have reached the
top of neutralization tanker on 3rd flour so regardless with safety and process timing it is
better to use citric solution pumping system.
 The rest is similar with degumming-1 the good thing here emulsion was not an issue here
since citric have been used.

Neutralization

Sample analysis

 During sampling and testing for free fatty acid content the sample was taken from the top
it is better to take sample while draining, this might minimize sample analysis time.
Since process rates also depend on chemist efficiency.

Oil temperature

 The oil temperature needs to be reached the desired temperature (from T1 up to 700C -
720C) at this stage. But hear there is some expected challenge that makes our process not
working continuously from the pervious process. If DO I on process until the
temperature reached to its desired value (1500C) thermic was not given to the
neutralization tank.
 If degum 2 was delayed at some extent its temperature becomes low this might require a
longer period to heat up to its desired temperature.

Caustic solution preparation

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It takes almost 25 minutes here it is better to perform solution preparation immediately when
solution was been completely used for the next batch.

Tray to make effective solution preparation since adjusting once prepared solution in to desired
concentration (12 degree bomule) is time taking. Here the good thing is no time loses on
weighting caustic since it was already measured (50 kg) of caustic in a bag.

Caustic solution transfer to neutralization tank

 The tanker has its own mixer but here the challenge is related with control board when
transferred to caustic solution semi storage tanker.
 Also after the solution has reached neutralization tanker still electrical bored flirty
frequently happened during agitation.

Settling

 After 2 hr settling draining was followed but here some expected challenges that retared
the process continuing to the next step are
 Storage might be full, I have seen some modification to store soap stock but still the
problem related with storage has not been yet solved
 Still pipe clogging might be happened Oil

Soap

Washing-1
H2O
Water heating

 First filling to tanker takes an average of 4-6 minutes so it is better to first fill before time
was reached.
 Still water heating was used by steam and only one steam boiler with lower efficiency
was available due to other processing operation it must had waiting other process until
reached their thermal operating condition.
 When steam boiler was not operating for some hours the temperature that was desired for
first wash not reached quickly it takes longer time than usual.
 Another heating system and additional water tanker definitely enhance proper time
utilization.
 In both Water transferring and agitation here also control bored functionality is an issue.

Settling and drain

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 After desired settling time was achieved (1:30 hr) it will be drained but here the challenge
was in two ways.
 It was not settled and it has an emulsion both cases raised from maintaining optimal
process condition and it could be from equipment efficiency for instance the water inlet
pipe inside neutralization tanker was not fully functional most of the pipe inlet was
clogged (closed water is entering in just one side.
 Even though there is mixing during agitation most probably have an effect on emulsion
formation. To fix it has been used additional citric acid but here FFA must be low.
 If the problem is with settling, settling time increased from (30min-1 hr)
 If the problem is still happening it must be searching an optimal parameters like mixing,
temperature, proportion of oil and water

Washing-2

 Heating water from T1 to 75-78% depends on amount of water inlet (about 360 litter
water used)
 Still boiler efficiency and processing conditions greatly affect that retarded the process to
be not functional continually from the pervious process
 If there is a problem regardless with settling, depending on chemist observation decided
extra settling time this also causes a delay for this specific process that implies entire
processing time also increased.

Washing-3

 Water heating-similar time consuming challenges discussed above

 Water transferring in to neutralization and agitation might be deviated from normal
operating time due to electrical bored malfunctionality

Settling and drain

 If settling was not good while we drain chemist gives more settling time up to (30-1 hr)
 Sample analysis
 Soap content determination was the critical one at this stage but hear it takes more than
an hour get result and proceeding to the next step. Depending on soap content washing
might continuous.
 Drainage problem still exists since storage could be full.

Bleaching

Transferring oil in to bleacher tanker takes just about 40 min

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Agitation and heating

 Heating oil temperature to 130 C thermic or stem problems might increase the time to
reach final desired temperature for drying it takes about 45-1 hr
 If both degum and DO was on process priority could be given to DO this implies that
bleaching might be delayed some time. But this is until DO temperature reaches to 150 C
 Drying for about (1:30) after it has reached desired temperature still mixing was ongoing

Transferring bleaching earth in to bleacher tanker

 When doing those tasks two challenges might be happen one is related to electrical bored
and the other is with pipe clogging as it was a powder just not in a liquid form to resolve
those it require about 30 minutes delay from our entire production time.
 After belching earth was mixed with oil agitation was there just about 15 minutes and
electrical bored might cause some malfunction

Filtration

 Filtration time severely dependant on PLF performance the efficiency of compacted sieve
that are used for attaching as a cake on the surface of sheer metallic sieve and filtered
when oil on those they are 9 in numbers but the time of filtration depend on those
performance so needs to be replaced to enhance filtration process and minimize time
consumption for filtration
 After 3 or 4 batch have been filtered they needs to be washed and used again hear the
time consumption is too high it takes just about one shift (8 hr) but if reserve filter plates
available we can continues process while cleaning was ongoing we can minimize time of
cleaning.
 When electric power was left oil in a filtration process might be redispresed so needs to
be again filtered for this case if possible connecting filtration system with automatic
generator since the system automatically continued.
 The pressure must be optimal and must be controlled because increasing pressure leads to
bleaching earth with residue have a tendency to disperse and pass a filter medium.
 Transferring to semi tank then

Waiting time in a Semi tank

 Among possible justification for waiting instead of continuing process is due to

 If DO is on process
 If cooler on process
 If oil is in RBD /on process

Transferring in to DO it takes about 1-1:30

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Deodorization

Heating boiler temperature until it reaches from T1 to 120 -130 C takes time

If the process continues from bleacher the temperature in DO takes an advantage to minimize
deodorization process.

After DO reached 150 C other process like degumming in neutralization tankers or water heating
or in bleacher might be used due to this the process of deodorization becomes low as down time
was taken.

Boiler efficiency is a predominant factor to minimize deodorization time, if steam pressure have
been enhanced it will have good impact on the slowest process.