Bleaching of cottonseed oil in hexane

Abstract

Summary1. Cottonseed oil dissolved in commercial hexane was not only bleached readily by activated clay and carbon, but the reduction in color was greater than that obtained in the absence of a solvent, other conditions being similar.2. At 25°C. the addition of solvent did not significantly change the manner in which the clay acted, but it did increase its capacity to adsorb pigments about three‐fold. For a fixed proportion of clay to oil, the amount of color reduction in cottonseed oil‐hexane solutions was dependent upon the concentration of the oil. The color decreased as the concentration of the oil decreased.3. Countercurrent bleaching of cottonseed oil‐hexane solutions in columns packed with adsorbents proved to be highly efficient with respect to the utilization of the adsorptive capacity of a given quantity of clay and also with respect to the amount of oil lost by adsorption.4. Columns of spent bleaching clay could be regenerated easily with acetone. The Lovibond red color of the first batch of oil bleached in one such column was 2.8 while that of the twentieth batch, obtained after the column had been used and regenerated 19 times, was 3.8.