Lecithin & Lecithin Powder Plant
Lecithin is a natural ingredient mainly derived
from the soybean. It contains a range of emulsifiers, stabilizers and
release agents. We are the leading company, manufacturing plants for
dehydration of wet gums that are obtained from soybean oil degumming plant.
In the plant, a series of operations is carried out in order to get pure
quality of lecithin. The process involves bleaching, dehydration,
extraction, purification and drying. The lecithin produced is of food grade
and thus widely used in cosmetic industry, pharmaceuticals and in food
processing as emulsifier.
With us, lies all the expertise and techniques to manufacture and develop
highly efficient lecithin plants for dehydration of wet gums from soybean.
The plant is uniquely designed in such a way that it facilitates the drying
process of the feed gently without any burn.
The soybeans are then conveyed into the plant in which, the beans are
screened and cracked to appropriate dimensions. All the cracked beans are
then passed through solid fractions, forming a bow wave ahead of each blade.
The lecithin plant needs less maintenance with easy cleaning.
Features
- Continuous operation
- Low oil residue in extracted meal
- High production flow rate
- Less consumption of energy
- Technology based solvent extraction process
Process Description for Soya Lecithin PC-35 & PC-10 Plant
Lecithins
are present in edible oils as naturally occurring phospolipids with
excellent surfactant and nutraceutical properties. There is great demand for
lecithin and its derivatives for various applications. These are present in
abundance in the gums of edible oils, especially soya bean oil. The edible
oils, when refined, the first treatment step of degumming using water is
done in order to isolates the gums. Then, these gums are completely removed
from the oil in centrifuges and invariably carry oil and water with the
gums.
These gums, once considered as the waste products, today, are widely used in
many applications. Firstly, these gums are de- hydrated in a vacuum
distillation system for the removal of water, yielding liquid lecithin. The
liquid lecithin, which is basically a mixture of oil and lecithin, is
distilled off under high vacuum.
The crude soya liquid lecithin has also it wide usage in the production of
various grades of Phosphotidyl Cholines. In this process, firstly, the
liquid lecithin is extracted with the addition of ethyl alcohol. After
extraction two layers are formed, in which one layer is rich in PC-35 and
the other is rich in PC-10. The two layers are then decanted into two
separate vessels, in which, each layer is subjected to ethanol recovery.
After the recovery of ethanol, the final product that is left is PC-35 and
PC-10 respectively, each of which is a salable product. The recovered
ethanol is fed into the extractor for recycling.
The entire extraction process carries no chemical reactions, with no
molecules of any constituent undergoing any kind of chemical change. There
is no generation of any effluent, be it aqueous or air borne. The only
aqueous effluents that are generated are floor washes that can be easily
trapped off and then directly used for gardening.
One ton of Liquid lecithin gives about 200 kg of PC-35 and 800 kg of PC-10.
Process Description for Soya Wet Gums Lecithin Plant
Wet gums
generated from water de-gumming plant are continuously collected in the
inter gum tank, which is constructed out of mild steel. For proper
homogenization of the wet gums, these are conveyed to a habituation tank
through a positive displacement pump. Finally, these wet gums are then fed
to a high speed mixer.
Wiped type evaporator is specially designed with scrapped blades in order to
keep the gums scrapped from the heat transfer surface. A low pressure steam
is injected in the jacket for heating the entire mass. All the vapors formed
are continuously collected in the separator from which, these water vapors
are separated from mass. In addition to this, the separator is attached with
a limpet coil that keeps the dried gums in a fluid state.
An accurate amount of H2O2 is fed with a high speed mixer to the dryer. The
key equipments like vapor separator and wiped type thin film evaporator are
maintained under vacuum for effective processing. There is a pre-condenser
and a water ring vacuum pump in the vacuum system. The dried gums which is
now formed into crude lecithin is fed to a wiped type cooler through a
positive displacement pump for cooling at around 50 - 60 degree
Celsius. In order to protect the process from oxidation, the complete system
is hermetically sealed at a process temperature. The dried crude lecithin
can be further processed as per the requirements.
Process Description for Lecithin De-oiling & Powder Plant
Prior
to the extraction process, the crude lecithin is pretreated in order to
lower down the peroxide number and microbial count. This helps in improving
the subsequent extraction process.
The entire extraction process of crude lecithin is carried out using acetone
solvent. After pre- treatment, the lecithin gets extracted in two stages
with precipitation of acetone insoluble i.e. lecithin. In the process, a
unique designed extractor is installed that ensure a rapid and efficient
extraction. The miscella, after extraction is withdrawn into a miscella tank
and then the thick solid slurry is transferred to a decanter feed tank. The
acetone is recovered from the miscella in the acetone recovery system for
further reuse. The soya oil left out after acetone recovery is saleable.
In the decanter feed tank, the thick solid slurry is decanted in a high
speed centrifuge, filtering out the acetone and the solids. The separated
solids are carried for drying and on the other side; the separated acetone
goes to the miscella tank. There is installed a two staged closed loop
continuous fluidized bed dryer, in which acetone wet solids are dried. A PLC
controlled system, the drier is specially designed with a nitrogen
generator. The other requirements in dryer are thermic fluid maintained at
120 degree C and chilled brine at -30 degree C. The deoiled lecithin powder
generated from the drying system is micronised, sieved and packed.
After extraction, the miscella generated undergoes through a four stage
acetone recovery system in which there is only a little loss of the acetone.
The acetone recovered from the plant is then condensed and further recycled
for extraction process. The residue soya oil that is left out can be sold
off.
Following are the uses of non GMO soy lecithin powder:
- Chocolate and confectionery
- Instant and/or agglomerated products
- Fat spreads
- Frozen dough
- Pharmaceutical products
- Bakery and fine pastry
- Dry bakery products
- Convenience food (e.g. pizzas, sauces, cereals, noodles, ice cream
and bars)
- Snacks