EVALUATION OF PROCESS PARAMETERS IN THE INDUSTRIAL SCALE PROCESS OF SOYBEAN OIL EXTRACTION USING EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN METHODOLOGY

This work reports the use of experimental design for the assessment of the effects of process parameters of the soybean oil extraction in an industrial environment. A central composite rotatable design was carried out and the independent variables were soyflakes (27 to 41 mm), miscella concentration (25 to 39%) and solvent temperature (57 to 63C). The lowest concentration of residual oil was obtained with soyflakes of 34 mm, 32% of miscella concentration and solvent temperature of 60C, resulting in an average level of residual oil of 0.69%, corresponding to a 31% reduction related to the previous average level obtained in the extraction. The responses acidity and peroxide indexes, as well as color, were not significantly affected (P < 0.05) by the independent variables evaluated, showing, therefore, that the efficiency of the soybean oil extraction was optimized without prejudice the quality of the soybean oil. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS In the industrial process, also called conventional (extraction by hexane), a deep study of the operational conditions involved to obtain soybean oil and bran, aim to improve the yield of the process. The oil extraction makes possible for the industry to establish, the best operational conditions, that results in energy saving and improvement of hexane recovery. In this sense, the experimental design methodology was used in order to optimize the process of soybean oil extraction in an industrial environment.