Diseño de una planta de refinación y blanqueamiento de aceite comestible usado y aceite rojo de palma

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to design a plant for refining and bleaching of used cooking oil (UCO) and red palm oil (RPO). For UCO only, three purification processes were compared: heating-washing with brine-sedimentation-filtration; sedimentation only, and washing with brine-sedimentation-filtration. The third process was statistically the best. Then, the best decolorizing process was identified for each of the oils by comparing three methods: ozonation, activated carbon adsorption and bleaching with H2O2, at different operating conditions. For UCO, the best method was ozonation, with an ozone dose of 0.1946 mol/L. It was found that the process temperature did not influence significantly in color removal; however, the post-treatment temperature did it, and the best results were found at 60 °C. A color removal of 24.39 % was reached. With regard of RPO, the best treatment was the activated carbon adsorption. The ratio of oil: activated carbon that produced the best results was 25:1. A color decrease of 90.48 % was achieved. Based on these results, a plant with a capacity of 1 250 t/year of UCO and 1 500 t/year of RPO was designed. Unit operations of sedimentation, mixing, filtration, ozonation and adsorption were considered. The diagrams BFD, PFD, Gantt and layout were constructed, and sizing and selection of clarification tanks, press filters, stirred tanks, pumps and jacketed tanks were performed.