Recuperação de argilas clarificantes utilizadas no branqueamento de óleo vegetal

Abstract

Soybean oil passes through various processes until you reach a desired physical characteristic sensory, such process is bleaching or clarification that uses clays clarifiers to remove unwanted pigments, mainly chlorophyll, which are naturally present in the oil, or those which are produced by changes and decomposition of the raw material during storage, transport and processing. Most often the clay obtained at the end of the clarification process is not reused and this is routed to landfills to be rebuffed by the trash. The present study aimed to employ treatments extraction with organic solvents, followed by chemical and physical treatment and heating in muffle for recovery of clarifying clay used in the processing of soybean oil, and evaluate the efficiency of the method by reusing the clarification of the oil neutral. Analyzes to test the efficiency of the method were analyzes of chlorophyll, colorimetric, determination of acidity, soaps and moisture. Treatment efficiency was evaluated by comparing the chlorophyll content of the dry neutral oil with the clarification submitted with virgin clay and clay recovered.