MODELING SOLVENT EXTRACTION OF VEGETABLE OIL IN A PACKED BED

摘要

A one-dimensional model was developed for solvent extraction of oil from a packed bed of oil-bearing vegetable materials. The equilibrium relationship between the residual oil content of marc and oil concentration of stagnant miscella in pores of the bed material was generated through experiments with rice bran and hexane. The nondimensional parameters recognized from the model describing extraction were initial Reynolds number (Re-i), initial Schmidt number (Sc-i), bed void fraction (epsilon(b)), particle porosity (epsilon(p)), ratio of bed diameter to particle diameter (D-t/d(p)), ratio of bed depth to bed diameter (L/D-t), ratio of particle surface area to bed cross-section (a(p)AL/A = a(p)L), and recycle of solvent and equilibrium distribution coefficient (EDC). For reducing the time required to extract to the same residual oil content of marc, higher values of Re-i, E(b), and a(p)L were beneficial, whereas higher values of Sc-i, E(p), D-t/d(p), L/D-t, and EDC were detrimental. [References: 13]