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a,*
Department of Physics, Statistics and Mathematics, UNIJUI, Northwest Regional University of Rio Grande do Sul,
P.O. Box 560, Ijui, RS 98700-000, Brazil
Department of Technology, UNIJUI, Northwest Regional University of Rio Grande do Sul, P.O. Box 560, Ijui, RS 98700-000, Brazil
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, UFRGS, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS 90050-170, Brazil
Received 15 August 2003; accepted 19 April 2004
Abstract
In this work a new mathematical model of vegetable oil extraction in an industrial De Smet type extractor is proposed to
predict the concentration distributions in percolation sections and at the outlets. Oil losses are also considered. The model incorporates counter-current crossed ow of the porous media and the miscela, mass transfer between the expanded akes and the
miscela, diusion in the entire extraction eld, miscela transport between the percolation sections, inuence of loading and drainage
zones, and transient operational regimes of the extractor. The model is composed of sub-models for the percolation sections, trays,
drainage and loading zones. The sub-models are coupled to each other by means of the boundary conditions, and reect the
particularities of counter-current ow. The calculation algorithm is based on the method of lines. The variations in concentration
distributions of bulk and pore phases, and their properties, such as: waves, slopes, steps, etc., are presented.
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Mathematical model; Food processing; Counter-current crossed ow; Oil extraction; Porous media
1. Introduction
Industrial vegetable oil extractors such as De Smet,
Rotocell and Crow Model have been used in the
food industry for more than 20 years (Bockisch, 1998).
In their extraction elds, the expanded akes (a porous
media) and the miscela (a liquid that extracts oil from
the akes) interact through counter-current cross (CCC)
ows (Bockisch, 1998; Miyasaka & Medina, 1981).
Mathematical models of CCC ows, dierent of other
ow congurations [e.g., co-current ow (Iliuta &
Thyrion, 1997), counter-current ow (Lasseran &
Courtois, 1993), crossed ow (Qi & Krishnan, 1996)],
have not been elaborated yet. In the design and process
simulation of extractors, dierent versions of the multistages method are extensively used when, for each percolation section, a uniform oil distribution concentration is assumed in each component (Foust, Wenzel,
*
478
Nomenclature
ap
C
Cin
Cm
CN
Cp
Cs
Cu
dp
DAB
Ed
Edm
Es
g
h
H
kf
Ls
ms
Mn
Nt
QD
Qes
Qf
Qh
Qp
Qq
Qs
QT
Su
Sm
u
uh
Vb
Vm
Vs
x
X1
Xf
Xs
z
Greek letters
Dx
horizontal cell dimension (m)
Dz
vertical cell dimension (m)
eb
outer porosity of the porous media, bulk
phase (dimensionless)
em
part of pore phase to occupy by miscela, Fig.
4 (dimensionless)
ep
internal porosity of the porous media, pore
phase (dimensionless)
lm
miscela viscosity (Pa s)
qhe
solvent (hexane) density (kg/m3 )
qm
miscela density (kg/m3 )
qol
oil density (kg/m3 )
qs
solid phase density of porous media (kg/m3 )
s
time (s)
Subscripts
0
initial
in
initial
ms
last section
Superscripts
N
solid phase
p
pore phase
Fig. 1. Scheme of the process in the extractor akes: (1) entrance; (2)
solvent inlet; (3) miscela exit; (4) porous media exit; (5) marc without
solvent; (6) loading zone; (7) drainage zone; (8) percolation section; (9)
tray; (10) transporter; (11) pump; (12) miscela distributor; (13) tube
with miscela; (14) marc in DT; (15) vaporizer; (16) solvent reservoir;
(17) solvent ow controller; 18oil exit; (19) tray of drained miscela;
(20) distributed tube; (21), (22) tubes with solvent and (23) rst section.
479
480
Fig. 2. Outline of the miscela and porous media ows in extractor: (O)
source of coordinates; (AK) drainage line; (OAFG) extraction eld.
Edm
qs
qhe C p qol qhe Ed C p qs qol
1
During the extraction process, Edm varies, approximately, in the interval between 1:6 Ed to 1:9 Ed ,
in which Ed holds a constant value.
The equations for the extraction eld (domain OAFG,
Fig. 2) deduced by Krioukov et al. (1998) are:
bulk phase equation
2
oC
oC
o C o2 C
Vm
Es
2
os
oz
ox2
oz
1 eb
oC
kf ap C p C uh
eb
ox
oC
kf ap C C
oC
u
ep 1 ep Edv
os
ox
media and is
2
determined by Vs
a 2:4;
a 0:442;
b 0:34
b 0:69
m 2; . . . ; ms 1
where Xn m 2
Xs X1 ; Xk Xs Xn .
From this equation, one obtains
R Xk
dC m eb HVm Xn Cx; Ls ; s dx C m sQT
ds
Vb
where
481
h R
i
RL
X
eb H Vm Xnf Cx; Ls ; s dx uh 0 s CXf ; z; s dz C ms sQT
Vb
10
where Xf Xn Xms ; Xn X1 ms 2
Xs .
3.2. Drainage sub-model
3.4. Loading zone sub-model
Porous media enters the drainage zone (with velocity
u) and bulk phase (with velocity uh ). Experimental results by Sirur (1990) and the presence of dissolventizer in
the plant indicate that part of the liquid is not drained.
This is probably caused by miscela remaining in the pore
phase. At the same time, all bulk phase passes in the last
tray forming the ow QD . Therefore it is assumed that in
the drainage zone:
only the bulk phase is drained;
the oil in the pore and solid phases is considered lost;
oil transfer between the pore and bulk phases does
not occur.
Then considering that QD Qh the ow rate QT (Fig.
2) is given by
QT Qq QD Qq HLs uh eb
The oil losses (in other words, the oil ow inside the
pore and solid phases) are determined according to:
Z Ls
Qf s Hu1 eb ep 1 ep Edm
C p Xf ; z; s dz
0
482
z 0; . . . ; Ls ; s > 0;
16
Cx; 0; s C m1 s s > 0;
17
where, x 0; . . . ; X1 ; if m 1 and
volumetric concentration (before the contact with the
miscela) is given by
Cs
Nt Mn
qol Ls Hu1 eb
11
Now, the complete lling of the pore phase is considered. During the rst stage of lling (Fig. 3(a)),
concentrated miscela with concentration C 2 passes to
the pore phase, occupying part of it (em ) with an oil
amount, C 2
em . Almost simultaneously, oil is extracted
from the solid phase into the pore phase, occupying the
other part (ep em ) of the space ep (Fig. 3(b)). After
complete lling takes place, uniform oil mixing occurs in
spaces em and ep em , forming the pore phase concentration in the loading zone Cinp (Fig. 3(c)). At this
moment, equilibrium between the solid phase, with
concentration CinN , and the pore phase is established.
Based on these considerations Veloso (2003) developed
the equations
C e
Cinp
2 p
Cs 1C
C 2 ep
1C 2
ep Edm 1 ep
1 Cinp
Qp HLs uh eb u1 eb ep
1 C2
12
13
15
x X1 m 2
Xs ; . . . ; X1 m 1Xs ;
if m 2; . . . ; ms 1;
for section ms
Cx; 0; s Cin
x Xf Xms ; . . . ; Xf
18
x 0; . . . ; Xf ; s > 0
19
z 0; . . . ; Ls ; s > 0;
20
4. Numerical simulations
The proposed numerical solution was applied to a
model of an actual De-Smet type extractor (ms 6)
whose data is presented in Table 1, as provided by
Cussler (1997), Majumdar et al. (1995), Pires and
Moreira (2000) and Sirur (1990). The model and the
developed code were veried according to the following
criteria:
483
Table 1
Parameters and experimental data of the extractor, the porous media (expanded akes), hexane, and soy oil
Xs (m)
2.0
X1 (m)
1.4
Ls (m)
2.0
H(m)
2.4
Xms (m)
1.4
ms
6
u (m/s)
0.005
Mn (kg/s)
9.3
Qq (dm3 /s)
8.8
Cinhe (%)
0.1
Nt (%)
21.3
uh (m/s)
0.002
gfe (%)
0.65
ap (1/m)
72
qol (kg/m3 )
910
qhe (kg/m3 )
680
qMn (kg/m3 )
520
qs (kg/m3 )
1180
l (Pa s)
3.2 104
eb
0.4
ep
0.24
1. The numerical results had to obey the oil conservation law in the stationary regime that is
Nt Mn Qq Cin Qs Cu Qf
22
Mass concentration
0.4
experimental
model
ideal stages
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1
section
484
the front of C p concentrations grows with some inclination while the porous media advances through the
extraction bed. In the last section, the decrease of C p is
observed because of the intense oil transfer to the bulk
phase.
Fig. 7(a) and (b) show distributions of concentration
in the extraction eld at the time s 1008 s. In the
bulk phase, steps had already been formed in almost
all the sections, and the plateau disappeared. The
maximum concentration C is veried in the bottom of
the rst section. In distribution C p x; z, the front
inclination increased presenting derivative (oC p =ox)
inections at the limit between the rst and second
section.
At time s 2538 s (Fig. 8(a) and (b)) the distributions Cx; z and C p x; z that characterize the stationary
state had already been established: the point of maximum (which continued increasing), the steps between
the sections (which became smoother in the bottom of
the sections), and the inections in the derivatives
oC p =ox (also observed between sections).The stationary
regime is obtained at time s 10 000 s. In comparison
with time s 2538 s, only insignicant quantitative
alterations can be observed.
In Fig. 5(a) and (b), the distributions of concentrations C and C p are shown at time s 18 s. As seen, a
wave of low concentration had already passed in the last
section (caused by the hexane admission), forming a step
between the sections. In the akes inlet zone, some
deformation in the concentrations C appeared, caused
by the beginning of porous media motion with high oil
concentration. An intensive oil transfer is observed between the pore and bulk phases, which caused the concentrations C0:01 ! 0:05 and C p 0:20 ! 0:14 to
approach each other in the extraction eld.
Fig. 6(a) and (b) shows the situation in the extraction
eld at time s 378 s. In the last section, the concentration C wave deepens, while in Section 5 it is noted the
rise of a wave sign. In the bottom of the rst section, a
region of maximum concentration C appeared. Approaches of concentrations amongst themselves continued: C0:05 ! 0:07 and C p 0:14 ! 0:09. The plateau
became smaller during the eld evolution: the height of
485
Acknowledgements
Fig. 8. Ca and C p b concentration evolutions for time s 2538 s.
5. Conclusions
1. This work presents a counter-current crossed ow
model applicable to industrial extractors of the De
Smet type. In contrast to the multi-stage method,
this model is based on the laws that govern the phenomena and on the peculiarities of ows in porous
media. The model predicts the space distributions of
the extraction eld main parameters, as well as the
oil losses. Therefore, it is sensitive to the porosity
alteration, the main dimensions of the extractor,
and the operational regime parameters. Finally, it is
able to assist in the design and operation of the
extractor.
2. The model is composed of a system of partial dierential equations and ordinary integraldierential
equations. The boundary conditions linked the miscela and the porous media in a counter-current crossed
ow.
3. The use of the method of lines showed good eciency
when the connection between the mesh sizes and integration steps satised the Courant criterions; that is,
Su and Sm < 0:8. This method is very adaptable to
problems with complex boundary conditions.
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