Spent Earth Oil Recovery

Spent Earth is a solid waste material that is generated as part of the bleaching aspect of the Physical Refining process in the Vegetable Oil Industry.  This Bleaching is done solely to reduce the color of the Oil and naturally occurring Bleaching Earths such as Bentonite or Montmorillonite is used to increase the adsorption capacity when activated with sulfuric acid.  CCI has extensive experience in the Physical and Chemical Refining industry and has been actively involved in the extraction of Oils from Spent Earth in an economical fashion.

The typical Vegetable Oil Physical Refining process involves the Degumming of Crude Vegetable Oils such as Palm Oil to remove Gums and Phosphatides by Hydration with Phosphoric Acid, which is then settled out as Soap Stock.  This reduces the Phosphatides in the Oil to approx. 20ppm.  This Oil is then bleached with Activated Earth in order to reduce the color in the Oil and, more importantly, to remove Peroxides, Residual Gums and Soaps which still exist despite the prior separation process. 

In Industries such as the Crude Palm Oil Refining industry, large quantities of Spent Earth is generated and the exists a strong need to recover the Oil in the Spent Earth in an economical manner.

FACT SHEET
Plant Capacity Range – Up to 100TPD

Utility Consumption per ton of Spent Earth
Food Grade Hexane 2.0 kg. max.
Steam (10 barg) 350 kgs.
Electrical Energy 70 kWh
Output Product Data
Extracted Spent Earth
Residual Oil Content Below 1.0% w/w AOCS method
Moisture 13% + 0.5%
Residual Solvent Content Below 0.05%
Extracted Oil
Temperature 50ºC
Solvent content 0.08% max.
Total volatiles 0.16% max.
MIV 0.2% max.
Flash point Above 120ºC