Chemical Neutralization Assisted by Enzymes – success story of oil yield improvement in industrial scale

Chemical Neutralization assisted by Enzymes (CNAE) process also known as Alkaline Refining assisted by Enzymes, is an innovative process developed few years ago. This application is based on addition of a phospholipase C in the chemical neutralization process of vegetable oils to reduce losses and generate a yield gain comparing with the standard chemical neutralization without enzymes.  The yield gain depends on the phosphorus content in the crude oil being refined.
The concept was tested in three industrial scale plants in Brazil during 2023, and the main results and learnings will be presented here. The key parameters that were optimized include acid excess for chelation step, water dosage in the enzymatic reaction, pH adjustment, time of enzymatic reaction, caustic excess in the neutralization, low shear in the second caustic dosage and no acid dosage in the washing water.
The selected plants have different profiles and feedstocks specifications, but all of them were able to reduce the phosphorus level to be on par as delivered by the chemical process. Calcium and magnesium were also reduced to the minimum level required. At the same time, the significant oil yield increase confirmed by measurements of DAG increase and mass flow meters depending on the plant and the period that the test was conducted. The DAG increase didn’t impact in GE formation since the feedstock (soybean oil) has low natural DAG content. Consequently, all the three plants have adopted this solution as a standard process.
During the presentation we intend to show more detailed results for one of the three plants, which was able to reach additional 1,2% oil yield increase.