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Title: Process for producing an edible cottonseed protein concentrate
Claims: We claim: 1. An improved process for producing an edible protein concentrate from cottonseed meats, the process comprising: a. drying the cottonseed meats at a temperature of 180.degree.F or less, to a moisture content of 2.5 percent or less, b. cooling the dried cottonseed meats to ambient temperature, c. comminuting (milling) the cooled meats in a wide chamber pin mill to prevent pigment gland and premature oil cell rupture, said pin mill having two contra-rotating discs of about 11 inches diameter, 1/4 inch pins of cylindrical configuration, operating separately from the mill side at about 9500 rpm and from the door side at about 2500 rpm, d. adding a nonpolar hydrocarbon solvent to the milled meats and mixing thoroughly to produce a uniform slurry which contains about from 17 to 25 percent solids, by weight, e. feeding the uniform slurry into a liquid cyclone at a pressure of about from 35 to 45 pounds per square inch, said liquid cyclone being adjustable by inclusion of a variable speed positive displacement underflow pump, to produce an overflow to underflow stream ratio in the range of about from 1:1 to 1:9, respectively, said range being about from 10 to 15 percent solids content by weight with respect to overflow and about from 30 to 45 percent solids with respect to underflow, the said underflow stream containing the pigment gland-gossypol, large meal and hull particles, thus exiting the process for meal, oil, and solvent recovery, the overflow portion being retained for further processing, f. feeding the overflow stream portion as it emanates out of the upper outlet of the cyclone to a rotary vacuum filter where the miscella is separated from the solids, said solids thus forming a cake, and washing this cake with overflow feed slurry to prevent cake-cracking, thus obtaining sufficient oil removal in the following step, g. washing the cake further with non-polar solvent to obtain an essentially oil-free solvent-wet solid material with a solids content of about from 60 to 65 percent by weight, and h. removing the residual solvent from the solid material of step (g) by volatilizing at a temperature of about 200.degree.F to produce a consistently edible flour product containing not more than 60 ppm of solvent and having a protein content of about 65 percent, a free gossypol content of 0.045 percent or less, an oil content of less than about 1 percent, and an overall recovery of initial solids of about 46 percent, all percentages being by weight. 2. The process of claim 1 wherein the wide chamber pin mill has two contra-rotating discs about 11 inches in diameter, 1/4 inch pins of cyclindrical configuration, operating separately from the mill side at about 9500 rpm and from the door side at about 2500 rpm. 3. The process of claim 1 wherein the nonpolar hydrocarbon is hexane. 4. An improved process for producing an edible protein concentrate from cottonseed meats, the process comprising: a. drying the cottonseed meats at a temperature of 180.degree.F or less, to a moisture content of 2.5 percent or less, b. cooling the dried cottonseed meats to ambient temperature, c. comminuting (milling) the cooled meats in a wide chamber pin mill to prevent pigment gland and premature oil cell rupture, said pin mill having two contra-rotating discs of about 11 inches diameter, 1/4 inch pins of cylindrical configuration, operating separately from the mill side at about 9500 rpm and from the door side at about 2500 rpm, d. adding non-polar hydrocarbon solvent initially to the milled meats or alternately the overflow stream from step (f) once the process is on stream and mixing thoroughly to produce a uniform slurry which contains about 17 to 25 percent solids by weight, e. feeding the uniform slurry into a liquid cyclone at a pressure of about from 35 to 45 pounds per square inch, said liquid cyclone being adjustable by inclusion of a variable speed positive displacement overflow pump, to produce an overflow to underflow stream ratio in the range of about from 1:1 to 1:9, respectively, said range being about from 10 to 15 percent solids content by weight with respect to overflow and about from 30 to 45 percent with respect to underflow, the said underflow stream containing the pigment gland-gossypol, large meal and hull particles, being retained for further processing in step (f) and the overflow portion being also retained in step (g), f. adding fresh non-polar hydrocarbon solvent to the underflow steam obtained from step (e) to produce a uniform slurry which contains from 8 to 15 percent solids, said slurry being fed through a second liquid cyclone at a pressure of about 35 to 45 pounds per square inch, said liquid cyclone being adjustable by inclusion of a variable speed positive displacement underflow pump, to produce an overflow to underflow stream ratio in the range of about from 1:1 to 1:9, respectively, said range being about from 1 to 15 percent solids content by weight with respect to overflow and about from 30 to 45 percent with respect to underflow, the said underflow stream containing the pigment gland- gossypol, large meal and hull particles, thus exiting the process for meal, oil, and solvent recovery, the said overflow once on stream being used to produce the slurry of step (d), which is the feed to the first cyclone, g. feeding the overflow portion emanating from step (e) to a rotary vacuum filter where the miscella is separated from the solids, said solids thus forming a cake and washing this cake with overflow feed slurry to prevent cake-cracking, thus obtaining efficient oil removal in the following step, h. washing the cake further with non-polar solvent to obtain an essentially oil-free solvent-wet solid material with a solids content of about from 60 to 65 percent by weight, and i. removing the residual solvent from the solid material of step (g) by volatilizing at a temperature of about 200.degree.F, to produce a consistently edible flour product containing not more than 60 ppm of solvent and having a protein content of about 65 percent, a free gossypol content of 0.045 percent or less, an oil content of less than about 1 percent, and an overall recovery of initial solids of about at least 50 percent, all percentages being by weight. 5. The process of claim 4 wherein the wide chamber pin mill has 2 contra-rotating discs about 11 inches in diameter, 1/4 inch pins of cylindrical configuration, operating separately from the mill side at about 9500 rpm and from the door side at about 2500 rpm. 6. The process of claim 4 wherein the non-polar hydrocarbon is hexane. Other info: Inventors: Gardner, Jr., Homer K. (Metairie, LA, US) Hron, Sr., Robert J. (New Orleans, LA, US) Vix, Henry L. E. (Metairie, LA, US) Ridlehuber, Jim M. (Lubbock, TX, US) Application Number: 527398 Filing Date: 1974-11-26 Publication_date: 1976-08-03 Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of (Washington, DC) Primary Class(es): 530/377 426/430, 426/656 Other Classes: US Patent Ref:
Other Refs: Other References: Chem. Abstracts, vol. 76, 1972, 12865t, Vix et al. J. Am. Oil Chemists Soc., vol. 48, 1971, pp. 611-615, Vix et al. | |