Patent ID: 6569480
Filing Date: 2003-05-27
Classification: A23G,C11B

Abstract:
A process for extracting a fat from a feedstock, said process comprising:mixing said feedstock with a solvent to form a primary slurry of feedstock solids suspended in a primary miscella comprising said solvent and said fat extracted from said feedstock, wherein said solvent is a liquefied gas; filtering said primary slurry to provide: (a) at least one primary filter cake comprising said feedstock solids and a retentate portion of said primary miscella, and (b) a primary filtrate comprising a filtrate portion of said primary miscella; washing said at least one primary filter cake with an additional amount of said solvent to form a cake wash slurry comprising said feedstock solids suspended in a secondary miscella comprising said additional amount of said solvent and an amount of said fat extracted from said feedstock; filtering said cake wash slurry to provide: (a) at least one secondary filter cake comprising said feedstock solids, and (b) a secondary filtrate comprising said secondary miscella; drying said at least one secondary filter cake with a solvent vapor to provide at least one dried filter cake, wherein said solvent vapor comprises said solvent in a gaseous form; granulating said at least one dried filter cake to form a defatted powder; feeding said defatted powder into an oxygen-containing atmosphere at a feed rate to remove at least a portion of a residual amount of said solvent remaining in said defatted powder and provide a powder product, wherein said feeding is regulated to avoid providing a flammable concentration of said solvent in said oxygen-containing atmosphere; and separating said solvent from said fat in said primary miscella to provide a fat product, wherein said mixing, said primary slurry filtering, said washing, said cake wash slurry filtering, said drying, and said granulating are conducted under an atmosphere consisting essentially of said solvent vapor.