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Vacuum Stripping

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Edible Oil Processing from a Patent Perspective

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Abstract

The vacuum stripping process is used for the deodorization of neutral bleached oils as well as for the physical refining of degummed bleached oils. In the process, hot oil is exposed to a large volume of stripping medium, which causes the most volatile constituents of the oil to vaporize. Originally, the process was a batch process, but modern installations are continuous or semicontinuous. The patent literature on this subject discloses improvements that save on energy and deodorizer construction costs and reduce stripping medium usage. A novel development is the use of packed columns that allow countercurrent stripping and thereby reduce stripping medium requirements.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    At that time, the plant in Dieppe was owned by my former employer Vandemoortele, but now it is owned by Saipol, a 100% subsidiary of Soprol, the oilseed division of Sofiprotéol. I do not know if the Raffaetà deodorizer is still in operation.

  2. 2.

    I found it interesting to note that the later patent contains a figure that also appeared in the earlier one. Let’s save some money by recycling.

  3. 3.

    I would think that mixing the oil to be purified with liquid diluent would be even more effective.

  4. 4.

    The amounts given correspond to 180–660 Nm3 per ton of oil. This sounds a lot and it certainly weighs and costs a lot, but using 1.0% of steam at 4 mbar and 240°C corresponds to some 7,000 m3 per ton of oil.

  5. 5.

    Earlier applications mentioning Copeland as inventor (vide infra) were filed by IP Holdings L.L.C., a company aiming to make money from patents. I just wonder why this company was no longer involved in Copeland et al. (2004b).

  6. 6.

    They come from Slovakia and their English is charming. Cooling by heat exchange with incoming oil is described as follows: “Gained oil is cooled down to 60°C so that it hands over its heat to the entering oil.”

  7. 7.

    This is WO 2006/118517.

  8. 8.

    I retrieved this article through http://scholar.google.com/advanced_scholar_search and saw that it has been quoted just twice. Big deal. On the other hand, the article I wrote with D. Meert (1982) on using inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy for the determination of trace elements in triglyceride oil and that forms the basis of current Official Methods Ca17 (01) and Ca20 (010) of the AOCS has been quoted only 16 times. So much for the citation index.

  9. 9.

    Having been active as the editor of various books may have provided me with a keen eye for this kind of mistake.

  10. 10.

    By this time I was working for De Smet on a freelance basis, and this is one of the first applications I drafted for this company.

  11. 11.

    Having already given some attention to “organic refining” in Chapter 5, I am not going to describe what subsequent applications and patents arose from this first effort. It would take several pages and waste even more money.

  12. 12.

    This is a quotation from http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/mpep_e8r5_2000.pdf. It is very useful to be able to consult the rules of the game from my desk in France.

  13. 13.

    In practice, it will, of course, be square, but to avoid loopholes, it was described as tetragonal and specified as square in a subsequent claim.

  14. 14.

    Not surprisingly, the patent originates from a consumer goods company.

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  1. Carbougnères, 47210, St. Eutrope-de-Born, France

    Albert J. Dijkstra

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Dijkstra, A.J. (2013). Vacuum Stripping. In: Edible Oil Processing from a Patent Perspective. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3351-4_9

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