Products
WASHING AND VACUUM DRYING
Degumming & Neutralizing: Crude oil is delivered to the system by the Feed Pump. It is heated to 65 - 70 C in the Crude Oil Economizer by hot oil from down-stream bleaching/deodorizing operations or, when necessary, by steam in the Feed Heater mixed with pre calculated quantity of Phosphoric acid in a gum conditioning mixer the pre calculated quantity of water is added . Oil water mixture is fed to hydration tank to give sufficient residence time for gums to agglomerate on hydration. This oil is then pumped to separator where the oil and hydrated gums are separated and pumped to storage or disposal or gum drying plant in case of soybean gums. In the case of water degumming process, crude oil is heated to required temperature in the plate heat exchanger, mixed with pre calculated water through mixer and fed to the hydration tank for sufficient residence time for gums to agglomerate. Then it is pumped to separator where oil and hydrated gums are separated. Water degummed oil from separator is pumped to plate heat exchanger where oil is heated to neutralization temperature i.e. around 80 to 85 Deg C. The hot oil is fed to mixer with requisite quantity of phosphoric acid where oil and phosphoric acid is allowed a brief holding time and the precipitation of trace metals take place. Degummed oil is fed in to mixer where it is mixed with calculated quantity of caustic soda solution of suitable strength. Free fatty acid reacts with caustic soda to form soap . The reacted oil is sent to the Gum/Soap Separator . The precipitated impurities are removed from the oil as water based heavy phase referred to as soap stock. The gums/soap are collected in the Heavy Phase Receiver and sent to intermediate storage by the Heavy Phase Pump. Water Washing: The residual soap in the degummed & neutralized oil is reduced by water washing. In this case the oil from the separator is heated to about 95 C in the Washing Heater and then mixed with 10 - 15% soft water in the Wash Mixer. After
After a few minutes retention in the Wash Reactor the wet oil enters the Wash Water Separator. The washed oil, typically containing under 100 ppm soap and with a reduced level of phosphorus, is sent directly to bleaching as described above. The heavy phase soapy water is collected in the Recovered oil tank and drained to Effluent treatment.
Vacuum drying: Washed oil is fed continuously to the Vacuum dryer and sprayed through specially designed nozzles. The vacuum dryer is kept under a vacuum of 70 torr. The dried oil from the vacuum chamber is continuously pumped out by pump to intermediate storage tank.