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