Modelling and simulation of vegetable oil processes

A solvent-based extraction process for the production of vegetable oil from soybean has been studied with special emphasis on the solvent recovery section of the process. This solvent recovery section includes four parts: an oil recovery, a condensation system, a mineral oil system and a water–solvent separation. The main compounds representing the vegetable oil (soybean oil) usually consist of triglycerides, free fatty acids, tocopherols and sterols. The ICAS-ProPred software, an Integrated Computer Aided System developed by CAPEC, has been used to generate the pure compound data and insert them into the database of a commercial simulator (PRO-II). A process model has been developed and validated by matching steady state simulation results from this model with available industrial data. The validated process model has been used to optimize the efficiency of solvent recovery by adjusting operational variables such as pressure and temperature. The paper highlights the modelling and simulation steps together with a sensitivity analysis for the search for an optimal solution of the process in terms of solvent recovery.