Determination of system parameters for bleach soils used in vegetable oils

As energy costs increase continuously, industries need to consider efficiency in all processes. Vegetable oils, which are among the main daily foods, have processes that consume large amounts of energy during refining. Bleaching, one of the most important of these processes, is a process in which energy is used abundantly. In this study, the system parameters of bleaching soil were investigated experimentally for a plant processing soybean and sunflower oil. The bleaching earth used was investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Brunauer-Emmett –Wires (BET) techniques. Soil quantity and time used were examined as independent parameters. The color, acid and peroxide number values of the oils at the process output were determined according to ASTM standards. Using the experimental data collected, two different approaches were used to estimate the color values of the oils. According to the polynomial and surface fit approaches, 2-2.5% soil and 60-80 minutes bleaching time were determined as optimum conditions.