Process for recovery of high-grade lecithin and solvents from ternary solvent system containing crude vegetable oil

Abstract From the Canadian patent

A method of recovering a high-grade lecithin and solvents from an oil-bearing full miscella which also contains lecithin and which results from an oilseed ternary solvent extraction process. The method may include a first step of phase separation of the oil-bearing miscella containing lecithin and the ternary solvents into a polar and a non-polar phase and, a second step of azeotropic distillation of the non-polar phase to recover a portion of the solvents, and to remove substantially all the water from the residual crude oil, thereby keeping the lecithin in solution. A commercial grade lecithin having good water dispersibility is subsequently recovered from the residual crude oil, and a …