Powder lecithin plants process is similar to liquid Lecithin. Powdered lecithin is ideal for use in the Food, Nutraceutical & Pharmaceutical industry. The powdered form is a wax-like ingredient and it is obtained from Soyabean, Sunflower, Rape Seed and Rice Bran. It is an ideal thickening addition to food and cosmetic products and enhances product shelf life owing to its preservative nature. Its benefit over liquid lecithin is its ability to blend into almost any set of ingredients.
The extraction is done using acetone as solvent. The lecithin after the pre-treatment is extracted in a specially designed and efficient continuous countercurrent extraction system (Liquid-Liquid Extraction) with acetone to precipitate the acetone insoluble. After extraction, the miscella is withdrawn into a miscella tank and the thick solid Slurry is transferred to a d-canter feed tank. The miscella is pumped to the acetone recovery system, to recover the acetone for reuse. The soya oil remaining after acetone recovery is saleable.
The thick solid –slurry transferred to the d-canter feed tank is decanted in a high-speed centrifuge to separate the acetone and the solids acetone goes to the miscalled tank and solids are taken for drying.
Drying of the acetone wet solids is done in a specially designed two-stage closed-loop continuous fluidized bed dryer. The Drier comes with a nitrogen generator and is totally a PLC-controlled system. The other utilities required for the dry steam and chilled brine The deoiled lecithin powder coming out of the drying system is then sieved, micronized, and packed.
The miscella generated after extraction is taken to a four-stage acetone recovery system. This system is very critical in terms of recovery of acetone and minimizing the distillation losses of acetone. The recovered acetone is condensed and recycled to the extraction process. A granulator can be provided for the manufacture of granular lecithin.
