Cleaning Procedures for Extractors and Separators

Can anyone provide me the cleaning procedures for cleaning of extractors, separators and
Pipelines of the SCFE plant ?

The procedure we are following currently is as follows:

1) Circulation of solvent in the pinelines for 1 hr by using a pump.
2) After one hour fresh solvent is taken again for circulation. If it founds ok visually (Clear and
no suspended particles) else the above process repeated again.

3) The inner walls of the extractor and separators are cleaned manually using solvent (Hexane,
Ethanol, Acetone etc).

4) Flushing of the whole line by fresh CO2 to remove any solvent inside the pipes or in extractor.

5) The first batch is then separated and not sent for commercial sale.

Does anyone has a better method of cleaning. Any other material/soap/detergent which can be
used to replace solvent.

Regards,
Sandeep

Dear Sandeep..

what is SCFE?..
IMEX We using CIP process to clean close loop line and we use chemical LYE and ACID plus water as a rinse material...and for manual cleaning (COP) we using water..
but may be your product is different .. because i never heard clean using solvent ( Hexane etc) in food production...

Dear AS NUR,

Supercritical Fluid Extraction for (oleoresins perhaps ) is my guess.

I wait to be corrected.

Rgds / Charles.C

added - and to speculate a little further, some system like this maybe -

scfe_example.jpg   51.03KB   74 downloads

apologies Sandeep, the chemistry was rather fascinating, feel free to correct my guesses

SCFE : Supercritical Fluid Extraction Using Liquid CO2, Solvents are used to dissolved the oil
remained inside the pipes and other equipments during cleaning.

Is there any other way of dissolving the oils for cleaning.

Sandeep

I don't know if the following links can be of any help...

Methods of Cleaning

General Guide to Pipecleaning

Methods of Cleaning

Detergents

Food Plant Sanitation

thanks charles and sandeep.. But sorry i am not idea for this topic..

I don't know if the following links can be of any help...

Methods of Cleaning

General Guide to Pipecleaning

Methods of Cleaning

Detergents

Food Plant Sanitation

how to download these books?

how to download these books?

Hi Salamony,

You can't download them. They are there for preview purpose only. That's why some pages are not shown in the link.

If you like what you see, you will have to purchase the book.

@ Sandy,

What's wrong with the current method? And have you tried circulating with NaOH instead, as proposed by AS NUR in another thread, using 1.5%? Does it remove the smell?

Then again, if you use NaOH for washing, you need to rinse it with water and you need to completely dry it before your extraction starts, right?

By using your current method, you do not have to dry it as there is no water invovle... You may need to try out the NaOH before deciding which is better for you.