Environmental and economic assessment of vegetable oil production using membrane separation and vapor recompression

doi:10.1007/s11705-017-1616-4

Front. Chem. Sci. Eng.

2017, Vol. 11

Issue (2) : 166-176 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-017-1616-4

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Environmental and economic assessment of vegetable oil production using membrane separation and vapor recompression

Weibin Kong¹, Qi Miao¹, Peiyong Qin¹, Jan Baeyens², Tianwei Tan¹(

)

¹. Beijing Key Lab of Bioprocess, College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China
². School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

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Abstract

Solvent extraction of crude oil from oilseeds is widely applied for its high production capacity and low cost. In this process, solvent recovery and tail gas treatment are usually performed by adsorption, paraffin scrubbing, or even cryogenics (at low tail gas flow rates). Membrane separation, which has a lower energy consumption than these techniques, spans a broad range of admissible concentrations and flow rates, and is moreover easily combined with other techniques. Vapor recompression has potentials to reduce the heat loss in association with distillation and evaporation. In this study, we proved the possibility of combining membrane separation and vapor recompression to improve the conventional vegetable oil production, by both experiments and process simulation. Nearly 73% of energy can be saved in the process of vegetable oil extraction by the novel processing approach. By further environmental assessment, several impact categories show that the optimized process is environmentally sustainable.

Keywords vegetable oil solvent-extraction membrane separation vapor recompression environmental and economic assessment

Corresponding Author(s): Tianwei Tan

Just Accepted Date: 28 December 2016 Online First Date: 08 February 2017 Issue Date: 12 May 2017

Cite this article:

Weibin Kong,Qi Miao,Peiyong Qin, et al. Environmental and economic assessment of vegetable oil production using membrane separation and vapor recompression[J]. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng., 2017, 11(2): 166-176.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/10.1007/s11705-017-1616-4
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fcse/EN/Y2017/V11/I2/166

Fig.1 (a) Structure of the sandwich-type membrane separator; (b) channels in the membrane separator

Fig.2 Flow sheet of the experimental equipment

Fig.3 Conventional process of RBO solvent-extraction

Fig.4 Optimizing strategy using membrane separation

Tab.1 Operational data of each column in the optimized process

Fig.5 Optimizing strategy using membrane separation and VRHP

Tab.2 LCI data for production of RBO by three processes.

Fig.6 (a) Percentage of residual hexane in defatted rice bran meal versusN₂ stripping time and N₂ flow rate, C₀is the initial concentration of hexane within the raw meal (20 g), C is the residual concentration of hexane during the stripping process; (b) Percentage of residual hexane in defatted rice bran meal versus N₂ stripping time and stirring rate

Fig.7 (a) The permeate flow of hexane at different temperature from 20 to 40 °C; (b) The linear fit of ln (permeate flow) to 1/T

Fig.8 The selectivity and the separation factor of hexane at different temperatures

Tab.3 The concentration of hexane at the permeate side of the membrane

Fig.9 Energy distribution of steam consumption in conventional process (DT: desolventizer and toaster; Evaporation: 2-steps of evaporator; tail gas treatment: absorption column and stripping column)

Fig.10 Energy consumptions and costs in three processes (ORI: conventional process; MEM: optimized process with membrane separation; MEM+HP: optimized process with membrane separator and VRHP)

Fig.11 Environmental impact assessment comparison among the conventional process (ORI), optimized process using membrane separation (MEM), and optimized process using membrane separator and VRHP (MEM+HP)

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[1]	Baojun Li,Gaohong He,Xiaobin Jiang,Yan Dai,Xuehua Ruan. Pressure swing adsorption/membrane hybrid processes for hydrogen purification with a high recovery[J]. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng., 2016, 10(2): 255-264.
[2]	H. Watamura, H. Marukawa, I. Hirasawa. Filtration ability of hollow fiber membrane for production of magnesium ammonium phosphate crystals by reaction crystallization[J]. Front Chem Sci Eng, 2013, 7(1): 55-59.

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