The present technology provides a method that includes contacting a composition with a caustic solution to produce a caustic-treated composition; combining the caustic-treated composition with silica particles to produce a slurry; and removing the silica particles from the slurry to produce a treated composition; wherein the composition includes one or more of animal fats, animal oils, plant fats, plant oils, vegetable fats, vegetable oils, greases, and used cooking oil and the composition includes: at least about 10 wppm of total metals, at least about 8 wppm of phosphorus, at least about 10 wppm of chlorine, at least about 10 wppm of sulfur, at least about 20 wppm of nitrogen, at least about 5 wt.% of free fatty acids; and has an acid number from about 10 mg KOH/g to about 150 mg KOH/g, and the silica particles has a particle size from about 10 microns to about 50 microns, a BET surface area from about 200 m.sup.2/g to about 1000 .sub.m.sup.2.sub./g.

A method is provided for preventing or reducing the formation of monochloropropanediols (MCPDs) or monochloropropanediol esters (MCPDEs) in triacylglyceride oil, comprising the steps: (a) concentrating insoluble components in liquid triacylglyceride oil by (i) applying a 5 centrifugational force on the triacylglyceride oil whilst maintaining the triacylglyceride oil above its melting temperature; and/or (ii) allowing the insoluble components to settle by gravitational force whilst maintaining the triacylglyceride oil above its melting temperature; (b) separating the triacylglyceride oil from the insoluble components; (c) optionally applying additional refining steps and (d) applying heat treatment to the triacylglyceride oil. A purified 10 triacylglyceride oil obtainable by the method of the invention is also provided.

Process for refining vegetable oil, to suppress the formation of monochloropropanediol esters (MCPDe) and reduce the content of glycidyl esters, comprising first and second refinement stages,

wherein the first refinement stage comprises the steps of: a) providing a crude vegetable oil having a combined MCPDe and glycidyl ester content below 0.2 ppm, preferably below 0.1 ppm; b) degumming the crude vegetable oil to produced degummed vegetable oil; c) bleaching of the degummed vegetable oil with activated bleaching earth under reduced pressure to yield bleached vegetable oil, preferably at a reduced pressure of 80-800 mbar; d) adding a base to the bleached vegetable oil and subsequent stripping and deodorizing under reduced pressure at a temperature below 255° C. to yield an intermediate refined vegetable oil;
and subsequently a second refinement stage comprising the steps of: e) bleaching of the intermediate refined vegetable oil using activated bleaching earth under reduced pressure to yield a bleached vegetable oil, preferably at a reduced pressure of 80-800 mbar; and f) deodorizing at a temperature below 220° C. to yield fully refined vegetable oil, preferably at a reduced pressure below 5 mbar,
wherein the fully refined vegetable oil has a combined MCPDe and glycidyl ester content below 4 ppm.

Methods of refining palm oil in order to produce a refined, bleached and deodorized palm oil with reduced level of 3-monochloropropane-1, 2-diol (3-MCPD) ester are disclosed. The methods may include premixing a palm oil with an acid to chelate metals and form a reaction mixture, and subjecting the reaction mixture to hydrodynamic cavitation mixing for less than 1 second.

Provided are methods and systems for recovering protein product powder, purified water and omega-3 oil from an animal tissue. The methods and systems use high throughput extraction filtration separation systems. Animal tissue, for example fish, and organic solvent are directly or indirectly transferred into one of the optional extraction or filtration systems. The extraction-filtration systems provide a high degree of filtration performance and product washing efficiency. Each system ultimately yields a product wet cake that includes the protein product. The protein product wet cake is then further dried in a drying unit to yield the final protein powder product. In each system, the process filtrates undergo further processing by filtration and distillation to recover the organic solvent and separate out the omega-3 fish oil. The recovered organic solvent can be recycled back into the process. Solid protein product powder is thus recovered, along with omega-3 oil, purified water and recovered solvent.

The present invention relates to a polyunsaturated fatty acid composition comprising Omega-3 fatty acids, 17-HDHA and 18-HEPE. The composition can furthermore comprise DPA and/or an acceptable carrier and can be present in a capsule or other suitable dosage unit. The invention also relates to the process of obtaining the composition and methods for using same.

In an aspect, a method is disclosed that includes contacting a composition with an aqueous solution to yield a mixture, where the composition includes one or more of animal fats, animal oils, plant fats, plant oils, vegetable fats, vegetable oils, greases, and used cooking oil, about 5 wt. % or more of free fatty acids, about 10 wppm or more of total metals, about 8 wppm or more phosphorus, about 20 wppm or more of nitrogen, and the aqueous solution includes ((NH.sub.4).sub.2H.sub.2EDTA, (NH.sub.4).sub.4EDTA, a monoammonium salt of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid, a diammonium salt of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid, a triammonium salt of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid, a tetraammonium salt of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid, (NH.sub.4).sub.5DTPA, a combination of citric acid and Na.sub.4EDTA, a combination of citric acid and Na.sub.2H.sub.2EDTA, a combination of citric acid and a monosodium salt of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid, a combination of citric acid and a disodium salt of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid, a combination of citric acid and a trisodium salt of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid, a combination of citric acid and a tetrasodium salt of diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid, a combination of citric acid and Na.sub.5DTPA, or a combination of any two or more thereof, where the method further includes centrifuging the mixture to yield a first treated composition, wherein the first treated composition has less total metals and less phosphorus than the composition.

The present invention relates generally to corn dry-milling, and more specifically, to a method and system for removing insoluble solids mid-evaporation in a corn (or similar carbohydrate-containing grain) dry milling process for making alcohol, such as ethanol, and/or other biofuels/biochemicals. In one example, the method for removing residual insoluble solids in a grain dry milling process includes separating a whole stillage byproduct into an insoluble solids portion and a solubles portion, which includes residual insoluble solids. Then, the solubles portion is subjected to a first evaporation, via one or more evaporators, to remove liquid from the solubles portion to define a concentrated solubles portion. After the first evaporation, the residual insoluble solids are separated from the concentrated solubles portion. And thereafter, the concentrated solubles portion is subjected to a second evaporation, via one or more evaporators, to remove additional liquid from the concentrated solubles portion.

A process and system for reducing contaminants contained in a contaminated feedstock comprising mixing the contaminated feedstock with water and at least one of metal scavengers or reactants, to form a feedstock-water-reactant mixture, feeding the mixture under pressure into a hydrothermal purification reactor, wherein the mixture is subject to heat, pressure, and turbulent flow conditions to cause rapid reaction of the inorganic contaminants with the metal scavengers or reactants to form inorganic salts that partition into an aqueous phase and maintaining the temperature, pressure, and turbulent flow conditions of the feedstock-water-reactant mixture for a predetermined space time to prevent the organic portion of the feedstock in the mixture from undergoing a conversion reaction and to form a hydrothermal reactor effluent; and separating the effluent into the aqueous phase containing salts of the inorganic contaminants and an organic phase that contains a lower concentration of inorganic contaminants than the contaminated feedstock.

The present invention relates to a method for reducing deactivation of a hydrotreatment catalyst. The hydrotreatment catalyst is used as a main active catalyst for producing renewable hydrocarbons by hydrotreatment from a renewable feedstock which comprises at least an oxygen containing compound, at least one metal containing compound and at least one phosphorus containing compound as impurities. The method comprising adjusting the metal to phosphorus (M:P) weight ratio of the renewable feedstock to a value within the range from 0.70 to 1.26, measured as elemental metal and elemental phosphorus, subjecting the obtained feedstock to a temperature of from 190 to 400° C. under reducing conditions, thereby forming a solid precipitate comprising at least one metal and phosphorus containing compound, and contacting the obtained liquid renewable feedstock with the main active catalyst, in the presence of hydrogen.