Optimization, modelling and simulation to scale-up the production of rice bran extract and defatted rice bran

Abstract

Rice bran is the source of rice bran oil, but much of it is used as livestock feed without being extracted for oil. Some food industries utilize the stabilized rice bran as a source of fiber, protein, and cooking oil. It contains lipase that catalyzes triglyceride hydrolyzation into glycerol and fatty acids, which leads to rancidity. A stabilization process must therefore be introduced to increase oxidation resistance in rice bran and oil hydrolysis. Defatted rice bran still contains protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals. There has not been much research on integrated production process of crude rice bran oil and defatted rice bran. This research aimed to study the procedures to optimize, model, and simulate, generate Process Engineering Flow Diagram (PEFD). The phases in this study included laboratory-scale extraction with rice bran feed capacities of 10g, 25g, 100g, dan 500g; optimization using mathematical computations, simulations of mass-balance scale up and generation of PEFD from the pilot plant of 5kg rice bran capacity. The results of this research, including optimization, modelling, and simulation showed that to increase production scale from a number of raw materials of 57.690g to 5kg in a single batch required 5kg rice bran and 23.121kg n-hexane and produced 0.671kg oil and 4.121kg defatted rice bran, 13.212kg of reusable n-hexane and this study also provided a PEFD of the rice bran oil production process for a 5 kg rice bran capacity.