2 replies to this topic

Hi Cyrus,

I don't necessarily have any ideas about your problem but your question/request is not very clear. What exactly is the problem... predicting losses (calculating a mass balance), or trying to pinpoint and quantify losses around the plant against a known hexane make-up or something different?

[Karanja]

Dear Colleagues,

We are an edible fats and oils refiner in Kenya serving the East and Central Africa region. We recently installed a new solvent plant, with a capacity of 100 MT/DAY, to process maize germ, soya bean and sunflower.

We have a problem in that have not been able to determine how much hexane is being lost within the system either through unidentified leakages or venting to the atmosphere.

At plant startup, we pumped in 19000 kgs of hexane. We have now run for 6 days (144hrs) and have not added any more hexane. Our target is to minimise the losses to at most 2 kg/MT of oilseed processed. I would welcome any suggestions on how best to go about designing a system for determining how much hexane is used (lost) on a 24 hour basis at the least cost and with the greatest accuracy.

Regards,

Cyrus Karanja,
Production Manager,
Bidco-Elianto Division,
Kenya
E-mail : cykar2000@yahoo.com