Agricultural oil processing using potassium hydroxide
AssigneeCarrie Lee Mahoney
InventorRalph S. Daniels
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Abstract
A method of processing agricultural oil in which non-toxic reagents are used, so that a waste stream is evolved suitable for use as a nutrient source and wherein the non-toxic reagents include nutrient source and wherein the non-toxic reagents include nutrient components whereby the nutrient value of the waste stream is enhanced. A variation of convention refining is detailed in which potassium hydroxide is used as refining caustic instead of conventional sodium hydroxide. The resulting process exhibits improvements in waste wash characteristics, more complete oil recovery, less oil in the soapstock, reduced interlayer formation, more soap removed from the refined oil into the soapstock stream, and a less viscous soapstock.
Claims21
In a process of refining crude agricultural oils in which neutralized oil is first separated from the soapstock by addition of a base, the improvement comprising the steps of:
- a. beginning with a commercial scale quantity of crude agricultural oil,
- b. mixing the oil with an effective amount of predominantly potassium hydroxide solution as the refining base, and
- c. separating preliminarily refined oil from the resulting soapstock to produce commercial scale quantities of neutralized oil and soapstock.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.