Soybean oil extraction and separation using switchable or expanded solvents

Abstract

The extraction of soy oil from soybean flakes in industry requires large amounts of hexane solvent and results in significant losses and energy consumption during the distillative removal of the solvent. Hexanes and related hydrocarbon extractants are also becoming an environmental and health concern. A new method for extraction of the oil is sought, that would require neither hexane nor distillative removal of solvent. This article presents a preliminary assessment of several new methods for soy oil extraction and subsequent solvent removal from the oil. The most promising are (a) extraction by an amidine switchable solvent that can then be removed from the soy oil by carbonated water and (b) extraction by a moderately hydrophilic solvent that can then be removed from the oil by water.

Alternative carrier medium for sustainable leather manufacturing – a review and perspective

“…To the best of our knowledge it is the first attempt to explore switchable solvent chemistry in leather science. Switchable solvents for oil extraction from soya and biodiesel from algae have been studied earlier by Phan et al, 2009 andSamori et al, 2013. The same principle could also be applied in leather making thereby turning leather processing green.…”

Opportunities for switchable solvents for lipid extraction from wet algal biomass: An energy evaluation

“…In the research of Sheenhan et al [48], the soybean extraction has a solvent: bean mass ratio of 1.2 and the reported hexane losses are 2.4 kg per ton of flaked beans processed. SHS make it possible to extract soybean oil from soybeans, and then to separate the solvent from the extracted oil without distillation, by solvent switching using CO 2 and water [49].…”

Algal biofuels: Challenges and opportunities

“…Recovery of the lipids and solvent can be performed by switching to polar and then back to nonpolar, avoiding the distillation process commonly used for volatile solvents, and increasing the recovery rate. This green chemistry has been tested with vegetable oil (Phan et al, 2009), yeast, and microalgal biomass (Young et al, 2010;Boyd et al, 2012). Lipid extraction of unconcentrated algal cultures itself might be feasible (Samorì et al, 2010).…”