STUDY OF ALTERNATIVE SOLVENT USE IN THE SOYBEAN OIL PROCESS

Abstract

The extraction of soybean oil is made almost exclusively by the solvent extraction method, which uses the commercial hexane. In order to evaluate new solvents as an alternative to the traditional extraction process, an study of soybean oil extraction process using mixtures of ethanol, ethyl acetate and isopropanol as solvent were carried out. As results, the best extraction yield was obtained by the mixture containing 85% of ethanol, 13% of isopropanol and 2% of ethyl acetate (0,185g oil/g of soybean). Despite of the obtained oil presents the acidity and saponification index divergent from ANVISA’s specification for crude soybean oil, the refinement of this oil has improved some of its properties, such as the acid index: 0,7% of oleic acid (specified <0,6%). The winterization step on refining process could improve of some other soybean oil properties obtained using the alternative solvent mixture proposed.