Introduction:
Soybean oil will be extracted using the Didacta solid-liquid extraction unit. The soybean will be ground and then the soybean oil will be extracted using n-hexane as the solvent.
Objectives:
1. To understand the process of solid-liquid extraction
2. To familiarize students with the extraction units and the purpose of each of the apparatus
3. To determine oil recovery and analyze the possible causes for deviation from
the literature value
Background:
In solid-liquid extraction, sometimes called leaching extraction, a mixture of two components is treated by a solvent that preferentially dissolves one or more of the components in the mixture. The solvent-rich phase is called the extract and the component that is transferred to the extract is called the solute. For this experiment, n-hexane and soybean oil are miscible fluids, because they have similar polarity. N-hexane is used as the solvent to extract the soybean oil which is the solute from the ground soybean.
Materials:
Soybeans Two pairs of woolen gloves Rubber tubing
N-Hexane Two sets of wrenches Sox let unit
Water supply Two 2-liter beakers
Tray 4-5 pairs of safety glasses
References for Experimental Setup
1. Spherical container for heating the extractant and for gathering solute
2. Connecting column, flashed under vacuum
3. Refrigerating head
4. Extraction tank head
5. Tank with filtering bottom, for solid-liquid extraction
6. Trap for the solid-liquid extraction mode, complete with a tap for drawing sample