Monitoring and Controlling of Hexane Sedimentation in Oil Extraction Process

The rice bran oil extraction process includes the formation of pellets or bran powder by the sowing process then it is sent to the solvent container. Hexane will be added to the solvent container. Hexane is a universal solvent to extract the oil from rice pellets and powder. After the addition of hexane, the oil will be filtered and the excess hexane will be collected and reused for the same process. The excess hexane undergoes condensation, and evaporation and is sent to the cooling tower for reusing it as the solvent. As it is a cyclic process the hexane will be sprayed 4 to 5 times to extract oil from the bran powder. The problem arises when it exceeds 2 times of cyclic process then the time taken to hexane to filter out the oil will get higher. The extraction property of hexane will be reduced so that it will get sedimented over the bran powder. The sedimentation of the hexane over the bran makes the process slower and there will be a manual operator to look out whether it is sedimented or not. After that, the control action will be taken to control the flow of hexane to the container.