Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
LEACHING
Submitted by:
BSChE 4
SANTOS, Amabelle C.
SISON, Bren A.
YEPES, Anna Lyn G.
Submitted to:
Engr. Clydelle M. Rondaris
March 2018
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEFINITION OF PROCESS
The process itself is universal, as any material exposed to contact with water
will leach components from its surface or its interior depending on the porosity of
the material considered.
Another term for this is lixiviation, or the extraction of a soluble particle from
its constituent parts. In a typical leaching operation, the solid mixture to be
separated consists of particles, inert insoluble carrier A and solute B.
The solvent, C, is added to the mixture to selectively dissolve B. The overflow from
the stage is free of solids and consists of only solvent C and dissolved B. The
underflow consists of slurry of liquid of similar composition in the liquid overflow
and solid carrier A. In an ideal leaching equilibrium stage, all the solute is dissolved
by the solvent; none of the carrier is dissolved. The mass ratio of the solid to liquid
in the underflow is dependent on the type of equipment used and properties of
the two phases.
The method of preparation of the solid depends to a large extent upon the
proportion of the soluble constituent present, its distribution throughout the
original solid, the nature of solid – i.e., whether it is composed of plant cells or
whether the soluble material is completely surrounded by a matrix of insoluble
matter – and the original particle size.
Biological materials are cellular in structure and the soluble constituents are
generally found inside the cells. The rate of leaching may be comparatively slow
because the cell walls provide another resistance to diffusion. However, to grind
biological materials sufficiently small to expose the contents of the individual cells
is impractical. Sugar beets are cut into thin wedge-shaped slices for leaching so
that the distance required for the water solvent to diffuse to reach individual cells
is reduced. The cells of the sugar beet are kept essentially intact so that sugar will
diffuse through the semipermeable cell walls, while the undesirable albuminous
and colloidal components cannot pass through the walls.
For the leaching of pharmaceutical products from leaves, stems, and roots,
drying of the material before extraction helps rupture the cell walls. Thus, the
solvent can directly dissolve the solute. The cell walls of soybeans and many
vegetable seeds are largely ruptured when the original material are reduced in
size to about 0.1mm to 0.5mm by rolling or flaking. Cells are smaller in size, but the
walls are ruptured and the vegetable oil is easily accessible to the solvent.
Fixed-Bed Leaching
Fixed bead leaching is used in the beet sugar industry and is also used for
the extraction of tanning extracts from tanbark, for the extraction of
pharmaceuticals from barks and seeds, and in other processes.
The figure shows a typical sugar beet diffuser or extractor is shown. The
cover is removable, so sugar beet slices called cossettes can be dumped into the
bed. Heated water at 344 K to 350 K flows into the bed to leach out the sugar.
The leached sugar solution flows out the bottom onto the next tank in series.
Countercurrent operation is used in the Shanks system. The top and bottom covers
are removable so that the leached beets can be removed and a fresh charge
added. About 95% of the sugar in the beets is leached to yield an outlet solution
from the system of about 12 wt%
DIFFUSION BATTERIES
the solvent. When operations are carried out at atmospheric pressure, open tanks
may be used. In such batteries, there is a continuous flow of extract usually in the
upward direction, in each active bed. Extract drawoff is obtained from the bed
containing the freshest solids and fresh solvent is fed into the bed containing the
most spent solids. After drawoff, extract flowing out of a bed is fed directly into
the opposite end of the next fresher bed. Spent solids are discharged periodically
from the system and fresh solids are loaded into the vessel vacated by the spent
solids. The drawoff and solvent feed locations are shifted in a corresponding
fashion. The solid unloading-loading and solvent feed and extract discharge
sequences, which are shown, are similar to those used in the Shank’s system.
Diffusion batteries are used for extracting soluble coffee, soluble tea, spices,
pickling salts and corn steep solids and formerly were used in very large numbers
for extracting beet sugar. Coffee or spice extraction batteries usually contain four
to eight columns, typically six; beet sugar batteries contained 10-16 cells, typically
14. Coffee extraction columns usually have diameters ranging between 0.25 and
0.75 m and are 4.5 – 6.0 m tall.
Cleaning Section of Soybean Oil Production: The soybeans are first cleaned, dried
and dehulled prior to oil extraction. The soybean hulls need to be removed
because they absorb oil and give a lower yield. This de-hulling is done by cracking
the soybeans and a mechanical separation of the hulls and cracked soybeans.
Magnets are used to separate any iron from the soybeans.
The soybeans are also heated to about 75°C to coagulate the soy proteins to
make the oil extraction easier.
Extraction Section of Soybean Oil Production: First the soybeans are cut in flakes
which are put in a percolation extractor and immerged with a solvent, normally
hexane. Counterflow is used as extraction system because it gives the highest
yield. After removing the hexane, the extracted flakes only contain about 1% of
soybean oil and is used as livestock meal or to produce food products such as
soy protein. The hexane is separated from the soybean oil in evaporators. The
Purification Section of Soybean Oil Production: The crude soybean oil still contains
many oil-insoluble and oil-soluble impurities that needs to be removed. The oil-
insoluble material are removed with filtration and the soluble materials is removed
with different processes including degumming (removing of phosphatides), oil
refining (washing with alkaline solution to remove free fatty acids, colorants,
insoluble matter and gums) and bleaching (with activated earth or activated
carbon to remove color and other impurities.
Advantages Disadvantages
• Can be integrated into continuous • Cost of equipment is high
process • Large equipment, so maintaining
• Extraction efficiency is high stable optimal thermal profile is
• Final extract is fairly concentrated difficult
Bollman Extractor
extractor permits the use of thin flakes while producing extract of good clarity. It
is only partially a countercurrent device, however, and it sometimes permits
channeling and consequent low stage efficiency. Perhaps for this reason, it is
being displaced in the oil extraction industry by horizontal basket, pan, or belt
percolators.
Advantages Disadvantages
• Can be integrated into continuous • Cost of equipment is high
process • Large equipment, so maintaining
• Extraction efficiency is high stable optimal thermal profile is
• Final extract is fairly concentrated difficult
• Hydraulic conductivity of soaked
leaves is low and it impairs
percolation. Sometimes channeling
through leaf matrix also occurs
which also have adverse effect on
extraction efficiency.
Hildebrandt Extractor
A somewhat similar but simpler design uses a horizontal screw section for
leaching and a second screw in an inclined section for washing, draining, and
discharging the extracted solids.
Advantages Disadvantages
• Precision process control • Hydraulic conductivity may be an
• Extraction is through immersion issue in the draining stage
method, so hydraulic conductivity • Precision mechanical parts need
is not an issue in extraction stage high maintenance
• High thermal efficiency
• High concentration of the product
in the extract due to
countercurrent extraction
Rotocel Extractor
In the horizontal-basket
design, illustrated by the Rotocel
extractor, walled compartments in
the form of annular sectors with
liquid-permeable floors revolve
about a central axis. The
compartments successively pass a
feed point, a number of solvent
sprays, a drainage section, and a
discharge station (where the floor
opens to discharge the extracted
solids). The discharge station is
circumferentially contiguous to the feed point. Countercurrent extraction is
achieved by feeding fresh solvent only to the last compartment before dumping
occurs and by washing the solids in each preceding compartment with the
effluent from the succeeding one. The Rotocel is simple and inexpensive, and it
requires little headroom. This type of equipment is made by a number of
manufacturers. Horizontal table and tilting-pan vacuum filters, of which it is the
gravity counterpart, are used as extractors for leaching processes involving
difficult solution-residue separation.
When the solid can be ground fine to about 200 mesh (0.074mm), it can be
kept in suspension by small amounts of agitation. Continuous countercurrent
leaching can be kept in suspension by small amounts of agitation. Continuous
countercurrent leaching can be accomplished by placing a number of agitators
in series, with settling tanks or thickeners between each agitator.
Advantages Disadvantages
• Rapid recovery of desired solids • Higher capital and operating
• Relatively high extraction costs
It is also assumed that the solid is insoluble, and no adsorption will happen
for the solute in the solid, meaning that the solution in the liquid phase leaving a
stage is the same as the solution remaining with the solid matrix in the settled slurry
leaving the same stage. The settled solid leaving a stage always contains some
liquid. This solid-liquid stream is called the underflow or slurry stream. The liquid is
called the overflow stream. The concentration of oil or solute in the overflow
stream is equal to that in the liquid solution accompanying the slurry or underflow
stream.
Kennedy Extractor
The extractor, named after its inventor, Angus B. Kennedy and currently
manufactured by the Vulcan Copper and Supply CO. (U.S.A.).
"On striking the liquid surface in the succeeding section, the wedge readily
breaks up and disperses. The solids immersed in the liquid of this section as distinct
particles are again collected by an impeller blade and moved through the liquid.
"The extracted solids are gravity drained of a good part of the entrained
solvent, while being carried up the drag chain conveyor, and then are dropped
into a collecting can with a perforated false bottom for separating additional
liquid drainings."
"In the vertical type of extractor, the flakes are conveyed carefully to the
filling column on the top of the extractor, which consists of a two compartment
device that maintains a seal against the escape of vapour. The basket extraction
system requires an overfeed of flakes so that a small overflow is always returned
to an over-flow bin, usually located in the preparation building. Miscella is applied
with the flakes into the basket so that uniform filling is obtained. The baskets travel
down on this first side of the extractor and the miscella filters through the material
in the baskets, passing downwards in the same direction as the flakes. This
concurrent flow has, strangely enough, proved to be as efficient in the early
stages of extraction as countercurrent flow. This concurrent flow allows repeated
filtration of miscella. The resulting final miscella is of such a clarity that cannot be
attained by the most elaborate filtration systems.
Advantages Disadvantages
• Yields very clean miscella • Possibility of channeling solvent
• Flakes are not subjected to flow through the seeds
mechanical disturbance • Some oil seeds tend to pack in
the basket, hence, extraction
becomes slower.
The major parameters that must be fixed or identified are the solvent to be
used, the temperature, the terminal stream compositions and quantities, leaching
cycle (batch or continuous), contact method, and specific extractor choice.
A. Choice of Solvent
The solvent selected will offer the best balance of a number of desirable
characteristics: high saturation limit and selectivity for the solute to be extracted,
capability to produce extracted material of quality unimpaired by the solvent,
chemical stability under process conditions, low viscosity, low vapor pressure, low
toxicity and flammability, low density, low surface tension, ease and economy of
recovery from the extract stream, and price. These factors are listed in an
approximate order of decreasing importance, but the specifics of each
application determine their interaction and relative significance, and any one
can control the decision under the right combination of process conditions.
B. Temperature
The temperature of the extraction should be chosen for the best balance
of solubility, solvent-vapor pressure, solute diffusivity, solvent selectivity, and
sensitivity of product. In some cases, temperature sensitivity of materials of
construction to corrosion or erosion attack may be significant.
E. Type of Reactor
The specific type of reactor that is most compatible (or least incompatible)
with the chosen combination of the preceding parameters seldom is clearly and
unequivocally perceived without difficulty, if at all. In the end, however, that
remains the objective. As is always true, the ultimate criteria are reliability and
profitability.
REFERENCES
Board, N. (2013). Modern Technology of Oils, Fats & Its Derivatives (2nd Revised
Edition). India: Asia Pacific Business Press, Inc.
CHE 433: Modern Separations, Leaching. (2018, March 20). Retrieved from
https://sites.google.com/site/che433nielsen/industrial-applications
Erickson, D. R. (1990). Edible Fats and Oils Processing: Basic Principles and Modern
Practices. Champaign, Illinois: American Oil Chemists' Society.
UK Essays. (2018, March 20). Retrieved from Agitation Leaching Theory And
Practice Biology Essay: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/biology/agitation-
leaching-theory-and-practice-biology-essay.php