Centrifuge

Separator RSE / RSI for Oil Refining

GEA separators are used for degumming, neutralization and dewaxing of vegetable as well as animal oils and fats.

GEA RSE and RSI Separators
Special applications for our centrifuges in this industry are the use in soapstock splitting, treatment of used cooking oils as well as crude oil and miscella clarification for the production of high quality lecithin. Further applications are transesterification processes (e.g. for making biodiesel), processing od epoxidized oils, wet fractionation of fatty acids as well as further oleochemical applications.

Fine-tune your separation results

Our oil refining separators feature the GEA finetuner, a combination between a centripetal pump and a paring tube. It is characterized by a substantially improved efficiency factor compared to conventional centripetal pumps. 

This is the ratio of the conversion of rotational energy into pressure. The effect is viscous media such as gums from super degumming installations can be discharged without difficulty. The adjustment of the finetuner diameter can be done by a manual hand wheel or by a pneumatic actuator from the control unit. 

Maximum uptime with Integrated Direct Drive from GEA

There are different drive concepts available for our oil refining separators: the conventional gear drive, flat-belt drive with power transmission from the torque-controlled motor to the bowl spindle vial single flat belt, direct drives with the motor directly mounted to the spindle and the newest evolution in drive technology from GEA: integrated direct drives. The integrated direct drive also transfers the motor power directly to the bowl but is integrated into the centrifuge’s housing. 

Thus, our separators need up to 35 percent less space and operate much more quietly. The entire technical concept has been simplified and the number and variety of parts reduced. Bowl and motor can both be removed as a single entity reducing the downtime for maintenance considerably. . Our integrated direct drive concept maximizes the availability of our separators making sure your oil mill is working to capacity.

Gentle product treatment for highest yields

The hydrohermetic feed system developed by GEA protects the product from exposure to the high shearing forces, which would break up the gums or soap particles and consequently making separation a lot more difficult. Emulsification is avoided at this point especially during washing and winterisation. The also featured hydrohermetic vapor seal (sealing by liquid) prevents vapors from rising out of the feeding chamber into the lower centripetal pump chamber. This has a positive effect in case of higher separating temperatures (> 90°). Additionally, liquid can be fed into the bowl through a separate bowl flush water channel.

Features & Benefits:

GEA finetuner  

  • For optimum adjustment of the separating zone
  • Flexibility of the separators: a single machine can carry out all refining processes without the need for converting the machine
  • For improved operating reliability and no oil losses

Hydrohermetic feed 

  • Protects the product from exposure to high shearing forces through gentle product feed
  • No mechanical seal and therefore no additional cooling water consumption
  • No oxygen pick-up

Hydrohermetic vapour seal 

  • The hydrohermetic seal prevents vapours in the inlet space from causing turbidity in the oil 

Bowl flush 

  • A highly viscous heavy phase can be diluted to improve its flow characteristics 
  • Also available for use in explosion hazarded surroundings

Integrated direct drive

  • Very small footprint
  • Fast maintenance and maximum availability
  • Reduced energy costs due to direct power transmission
  • Fewer wearing parts
  • Reduction of noise level
  • GEA direct drives meet all explosion proof requirements

Edible oil refining

Edible oil refining consists of a series of different processes to turn crude vegetable or animal oils into edible oil. The quality of the end product depends on the refining process and on crude oil quality. The crude oil is obtained by crushing the beans or seeds, the subsequent refining can be done either chemically or physically. GEA has extensive process line expertise for all the stages that contain centrifugal separators and decanters as well as for the production of high-quality by-products, i.e. lecithin.
Process stages of chemical and physical refining of edible oils

Edible oils and fats can be refined chemically or physically. Either way, GEA has extensive expertise for both process types.

Crushing

From feedstock to crude oil
Crushing

Crushing

During crushing the crude oil is obtained from the original feedstock. Seeds are usually pressed while beans require extraction to separate the oil from the rest. Examples for seed oils are canola and sunflower, a typical oil bean is soy. Pressed oils are clarified in a decanter stage before the gums are removed by water degumming.

Press oil clarification
Press oil clarification

Press oil clarification

Feedstock: all oil types that are pressed, i.e. rapeseed or sunflower.

What to consider:

  • Solids content > 3 Vol.%
  • Adding water before entering the decanter improves clarification results, oil quality and yield.

Benefits:

  • Fully automatic, no intervention or optimization needed by operator
  • Closed process: clean product, clean production
  • Very small footprint
  • Easy maintenance and service 
Water degumming
Water degumming

Water degumming

Feedstock: all oil types, beans or seeds, from pressing or extraction

What to consider:

  • Standard process stage in the crushing plant to remove hydratable phospholipids (HP) from the pressed or extracted oil
  • The degummed oil is either directly conveyed to refining or has to be dried in a vacuum if it is stored or sold

Benefits:

  • Recovery of lecithin possible as an additional valuable by-product
  • No tank bottoms in storage tanks
  • Less oil losses in the following refining stages

Chemical Refining

Neutralization of the free fatty acidsChemical refining is the traditional method to remove the free fatty acids from the crude oil. Caustic soda is used to neutralize the FFAs chemically. That's why chemical refining is the most efficient method. It reliably removes all FFAs and produces premium quality oil. Compared to physical refining it requires higher investment and is more complex, though.
If the chemistry is right...
Chemical refining

If the chemistry is right..

... free fatty acids don't stand a chance. The caustic soda added to the crude oil reacts with the FFAs to form sodium soaps. Centrifugal separators then remove the soaps from the crude oil. The neutral oil is subsequently bleached and deodorized. This method can be used for reliably refining virtually all crude oils, including oils of low quality, with the exception of castor oil.

Neutralization
Standard neutra

In chemical refining caustic soda is used to neutralize free fatty acids.

The standard neutralization process is called exactly this, Standard Neutralization. It is the most common method to neutralize pre-degummed oils or oils with only a low phosphatide content. 

Feedstock: Virtually all oils, including and especially low quality oils, except castor oil.

What to consider:

  • In order to condition the NHPs (non-hydratable phosphatides), a small quantity of concentrated phosphoric acid is added and intensively mixed with the oil. Only then neutralization takes place by adding caustic soda. 
  • Crude oils with a relatively high phosphatide content require a reaction tank after mixing, oils with lower phosphatide contents can be conveyed directly to the first separator that removes the sodium soaps.
  • After the first separator stage the residual soap content in the neutralized oil is still too high for subsequent process stages. So a washing stage is required, in most cases one stage will suffice. 
  • Cottonseed oil is the only exception here: in order to eliminate most of the gossypol we recommend a second caustic treatment. Cottonseed oil should always be neutralized in 3-stage installations.

Benefits: 

  • Most reliable process, also and especially for low-quality oils
  • Better oil quality than with physical refining
  • All oils except castor oil can be processed
Cold refining
Cold refining

Cold refining

Feedstock: for oils that contain waxes and have relatively low FFA contents, e.g. sunflower oil

What to consider

  • The oil's residence time in the crystallizers is several hours
  • Before removing the soapstock in the separator the crude oil has to be gently heated to reduce viscosity
  • Also in cold refining an additional washing stage is required

Benefits:

  • Effective removal of FFAs and waxes
  • Compact installation
Soapstock splitting
Soapstock is a by-product from neutralization processes that can be processed into valuable products

Soapstock splitting

In physical refining the free fatty acids are removed by distillation in one stage during deodorizing. This method requires lower investment and is simpler in installation and operation compared to chemical refining. However, crude oils that are refined physically have to be degummed as far as possible because residual gums affect the oil quality during the extensive heat treatment in distillation. For some oil qualities this is only possible to a limited extend. Other oils, i.e. cottonseed or fish oil, are fundamentally not suitable for physical refining.

The crude oils from the crushing plants still contain high amounts of phospholipids. They have to be removed as they harm the oil's storage stability as well as further processing. Some phospholipids can be hydrated (HP), some cannot (NHP). Most of the HPs have already been removed during water degumming. Thus, the degumming stage in physical refining attends to the NHPs. There are myriad of possibilities to engineer a degumming stage, the actual realization usually depends on customer preferences and oil type and quality respectively. In general, we recommend either TOP or cold degumming (aka dewaxing). Why? Read on, please.

Let's get the gums out
Physical refining

Physical refining

The crude oils from the crushing planst still contain high amounts of phospholipids. They have to be removed as they harm the oil's storage stability as well as further processing. Some phospholipids can be hydrated (HP), some cannot (NHP). Most of the HPs have already been removed during water degumming. Thus, the degumming stage in physical refining attends to the NHPs. There are myriad of possibilities to engineer a degumming stage, the actual realization usually depends on customer preferences and oil type and quality respectively. In general, we recommend either TOP or cold degumming (aka dewaxing). Why? Read on, please.

TOP degumming
TOP degumming

TOP degumming

What is so top about TOP degumming is that it is the only degumming method without waste water.

Feedstock: all oil types that do not contain waxes

What to consider: 

Have we mentioned that this is the only degumming method that does not produce waste water? Well, it does incur of course, at least to some extend, but we have set up the process in such a way that the water is constantly recycled. 

Benefits:

  • No waste water
  • No dealing with waste water high on BOD and COD
  • Extremely short retention times of only 6 minutes which is perfect for anyone who processes different raw materials
  • Oil losses are extremely low or oil yields are very high - depends on how you prefer to look at it
  • HPs and NHPs are reliably and effectively removed
  • Small footprint - you don't need lots of space to profit from all those benefits
Cold degumming
Cold degumming

Cold degumming

Feedstock: for oils that contain waxes: sunflower, olive pomace or corn oil

What to consider: 

You can also opt for dry dewaxing, a process that goes without centrifuges. In return you get higher product losses and filter aids. And with them the constant dealing, purchasing and disposal of the same. So either way, you have to invest. The question is only into what.

Benefits:

  • Reliable and effective removals of HPs, NHPs and waxes
  • No filter aids: no purchasing, no dealing with, no disposal of
Separator GEA RSI 170

Working principle of RSI separator with finetuner and integrated direct drive

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