Mathematical modeling and simulation of an industrial Desolventizer-Toaster

Desolventizing is a key process in the vegetable oil industry, aimed at removing residual hexane from solid meals resulting from the extraction stage of crushed oilseeds. Desolventizing takes place industrially in a large and complex piece of equipment called Desolventizer-Toaster, which uses large amounts of energy in the form of direct and indirect steam to strip the solvent adsorbed on the solid matrix and absorbed into the oil. Due to the significant effect of this operation on the quality of the resulting flour and the general economics of the entire oil production process, a simulation tool to relate the main variables is considered highly useful for design and operation. In this work, a detailed mathematical model is proposed, which integrates three different sub models to represent the same number of different operating regimes that take place within the device. The model is implemented and solved in the R language and its results are in good agreement with available data.