Vegetable oil is used in many foods and for cooking. Cavitation Technologies has developed what it calls the “Green D+ Plus Degumming” (GDP) chemical free system for refining vegetable oils.  The GDP utilizes special patented nanotech technology to cut down on the time and cost for processing vegetable oil.

Cavitation Technologies is based in California.  The company uses a “flow through Nano Cavitation Reactor (NCR)” to modify vegetable oils without chemicals normally needed to process raw vegetable oil into usable edible oil. 

The NCR “promotes the formation, growth, and implosive collapse of gas or vapor-filled bubbles in liquids.”  Just add water, run the oil/water fluid through the Nano Cavitation Reactor and bingo higher oil yields.

The actual process that the water and oil go through within the reactor is amazing.  The mixture goes through a multistage cavinator that implodes bubbles within the water/oil fluid.  As the bubbles implode, the liquid creates progressively greater pressure and temperatures, “generati[ng] local jet streams, shock waves, vigorous shearing forces, [and the] emission of ultraviolet and/or visible light that synthesize and modify the mixture at the nano-molecular level. 

According to the company, using the NCR to replace existing technology will result in savings on several fronts.  The oil mills and refineries will require less equipment, and energy to refine the oils.  90 percent less acid  will be needed and no neutralization will be required.  These savings lead to an approximate savings of “$6.00 per ton of oil processed and another $1.25 in additional oil yield per ton.”

Since 13 million tons of just soybean oil is processed in the US, this means “more than $100,000,000 in savings and revenue”.  Add savings for processing other vegetable oils and the amount saved would be astronomical. 

Cavitation Technologies process was tested by Stan Loft, a member of the American Oil Chemists Society (AOCS).  AOCS sets the standards and methods for evaluating fats oils and lipids.  Loft found that the NCR reduced phosphorus gums 80 percent better than standard methods  making this process a much better choice for processing vegetable oils. 

Of course the company doesn’t mention how much it will cost the mills and refineries to replace their current equipment with Cavitation Technology’s equipment.  Replacing worn out equipment is one thing, but throwing out working equipment to replace it with new equipment, is a very different situation.  The savings will have to off set the current processes by a tremendous amount to warrant paying for uninstalling and removing the old equipment along with buying and installing the new equipment. 

This a greener cheaper process for providing the refined oils that we use everyday in our food.  Any process that uses less energy, and no chemicals is a better healthier choice for the environment and for the kitchen.

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Entry was posted on Tuesday, July 14th, 2009 at 12:35 am under Green Technology, Health.

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