Continuous process for the separation of mixtures of fatty substances of

Abstract

The invention relates to an improvement of the known continuous process for the separation of mixtures of fatty substances of different melting points, in which the starting mixture by treating with an aqueous wetting agent solution is converted to a dispersion of liquid fatty substances and solid fatty substance particles, the formed dispersion is separated into two phases of different specific gravities, the lighter phase consists substantially of the liquid fatty fraction and the heavier phase of a dispersion of the solid fatty particles in the aqueous wetting agent solution. After separation of this suspension the wetting agent solution is returned to the process. The improvement consists in withdrawing a part of the recycling wetting agent solution from said dispersion of fatty particles in the aqueous wetting agent solution by separation of some or all the aqueous solution from the solid fatty particles, the solid fatty particles containing adhering aqueous phase and wetting agent are melted in the presence of an aqueous phase and the molten fatty fraction containing little wetting agent, is separated from the aqueous phase enriched with wetting agent which is recycled and the amount of wetting agent solution withdrawn is replaced with fresh wetting agent solution.