PROCESS ENGINEERING ECONOMIC-EVALUATION OF THE ETHANOL EXTRACTION OF COTTONSEED - PRELIMINARY-ANALYSIS

This preliminary analysis was undertaken to determine if the operations being developed for the aqueous ethanol extraction of cottonseed oil are economical and whether further research of this process should be pursued. Results of the conversion of hypothetical hexane extraction plants to ethanol extraction, in the plant capacity range of 300-600 tons of cottonseed flakes/day and operating 150-350 days annually, show that two unconventional operations, namely, chill-separation of miscella exiting the extractor and reduction of oil in recycled ethanol by reverse osmosis, require less energy and are less expensive than conventional alternatives. However, additional work is needed to determine the overall efficiency of an alcohol process as compared to a conventional hexane process.