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Solvent extraction of cottonseeds with hexane and water as co‐solvents
Author(s) -
Bendler Albert J.,
McNeil Donald
Publication year - 1951
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/bf02612067
Subject(s) - cottonseed meal , solvent , meal , hexane , chemistry , solvent extraction , extraction (chemistry) , chromatography , dissolution , cottonseed oil , residual oil , gossypol , food science , organic chemistry , soybean meal , biochemistry , raw material
Summary By stirring violently for four hours at 4,100 r.p.m. a mixture of dehulled and flaked cottonseed meal, hexane, and water, with respective hexane/meal and water/meal weight ratios of 6:1 and 1:5, all the pigment glands of the seed are broken, the oil content of the meal is reduced to about 1%, and a miscella phase only, free of water, is produced as all the water added remains with the meal. Extracted meal thus obtained is easily filtered from the miscella and air‐dries to an easily handled, non‐sticky cake. If the water is increased in the mixture to a water/meal ratio of 2:5, other results remain about the same, but the meal is excessively sticky and is difficult to filter from the miscella. Pre‐soaking the meal in solvent before extraction has little or no effect, under our conditions of extraction, on the amount of oil left in the meal. It is proposed that solvent extraction of cottonseed oil proceeds according to the normal laws of diffusion. Rapid solvent action is believed to be hindered not by presence of a difficulty dissolving “resistance” proposed in other work but rather by presence in the meal of lyophobic molecules, such as absorbed water, which offer strong intra‐molecular repulsion to solvent penetration. In consequence it is necessary to provide strong shearing action and turbulence to promote frequent contacts between the oil cell and the miscella. Commercial applications of results are discussed.