Degumming of corn oil/hexane miscella using a ceramic membrane

Desolventizing organic solvent-soybean oil miscella using ultrafiltration ceramic membranes

“…The polarized layer formed by the gums tends to increase with the applied pressure, increasing the resistance to the permeation. Such phenomenon was also observed by Souza et al [10], using a ceramic membrane of alumina (MWCO 0.05 mm) in the separation of components from non-refined corn oil. Fig.…”

“…The first report on membrane separation for oil/solvent mixtures was focused on using polymeric membranes, which present as main disadvantages inherent incrustation, plasticization and swelling when in contact with solutes and organic solvents, hence leading to the reduction of its industrial life time [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Ceramic membranes, in spite of the higher initial cost, present a great potential application in the separation of solutes from non-aqueous solutions, since the interactions of the solutes and solvents with the membrane ceramic material are much smaller when compared with polymeric membranes [13][14][15].…”

Evaluation of permeation of macauba oil and n-hexane mixtures through polymeric commercial membranes subjected to different pre-treatments

“…Several authors tested different oil/solvent mixtures and membranes with this aim. Souza et al (2008) studied corn oil/n-hexane mixtures degumming in ceramic membranes and reported permeate fluxes of 120 kg h À1 m À2 with gum retentions from 64.7% to 93.5%. Manjula et al (2011) reported mustard oil, groundnut oil, rice bran oil, sunflower oil and coconut oil permeation using polymeric composite hydrophobic dense membranes and showed inverse relationship between viscosity and total flux under undiluted and various levels of hexane-diluted conditions.…”

Separation of n-butane from soybean oil mixtures using membrane processes

“…Many studies have directed efforts to the development of new methods to separate the oil constituents, deacidification, decolorization and solvent recovery. Degumming and solvent recovery are the most studied process, since they are the most energy-consuming steps in the oil processing industry [1][2][3][4][5][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. One should call attention at this point that in the extraction process using compressed fluids, membrane separation could be advantageously used for minimizing solvent recompression costs [25,26].…”

“…Fouling leads to an increase in the operational costs, a raise in energy expenditure and the need of membrane washing, thus reducing the life of membrane elements. Of course, studies on membrane morphology can help to explain the separation process and to determine the filtration properties [11].…”