olive oil cleanup and reaction.

[dalcazar]

Hi guys, I'm trying to find a way to get olive oil and caustic to react in order to clean olive oil processing equipment. I'm having a hard time getting much of a reaction to take place. I;m really trying to keep costs low on this, I know there are pieces of equipment such as coloidal mills or high shear mixers that will likely do the trick, but the cost is too high. There are also things such as static in-line mixers that are cheap but I don't think are sufficient to cause smaller oil droplets to form and increase my surface area enough to make the reaction happen quickly.

I'm stumped on what else to look into.

Can any of you think of anything that would fall somewhere between the two that is still reasonably cheap and would get the job done? Longevity is obviously desired.

 

[StoneCold]

I would try ethanol or Dawn dishwashing liquid. Caustic will just eat up your equipment, and it tastes like hell.

My two cents.

Regards
StoneCold

 

[dalcazar]

I'm rinsing and neutralizing with citric acid and finally an RO rinse after, so taste is not an issue.

This is an industrial sized process, for the size of things I'm cleaning I can't use ethanol because it becomes a hazmat problem and I don't have a way to dispose of the effluent after I'm done. Detergent might work, but rinsing it becomes a pain and it may leave a residue as well.

I'm basically making soap here and being able to recover that product does have a value so I really do need to get the reaction to take place.

 

[rmw]

I don't think I ever remember having tasted caustic.

The diswashing liquid will cut the oil if that is what you want to get done. Whatever you use to cut the oil, caustic or Dawny, you are going to have to rinse and handle the effluent (if you can't add it to your process.)

rmw

 

[Compositepro]

If you emulsify the oil or get it top form suspended droplets You have already cleaned it from the surface of your equipment. What you need to get the reaction to proceed rapidly is heat.