Possibilities and Limitations for Decreasing the Environmental Load from the Refining of Edible Oils and Fats

Abstract

AbstractThe edible oil refineries cause a relatively small pollution of the environment, which can be divided into: pollution of water by oils and fats and their natural components, disposal of spent bleaching earth and sludges from tanks and traps, emissions into the atmosphere of odours and flue gas, and noise. The fact that edible oil refineries are often situated in densely populated areas, the maximum effluent loads with respect to the severage system and costs urge nevertheless to minimize environmental pollution as much as possible. Environmental aspects of edible oil refining are discussed, taking soyabean oil, which is representative of most other vegetable oils, as an example. The influence of the type of degumming process on the environmental load of the refining process appears to be very important. Superdegumming of edible oils considerably reduces the amount of effluent water and the degree of pollution. Whenever stringent regulations with respect to environmental load are imposed, sometimes only superdegummed oils can be processed.