Effect of Amount of Brine Added on Oil Recovery
Fig. 3 indicates the impact of added brine on OR. It was only 37%
without the addition of brine (aqueous NaCl solution). It gradually
increased as the quantity of added brine raised from 0.00 to 1.80 mL.
However, it decreased when the amount of brine added was further
increased to 2.00 mL. It should be noted the highest OR obtained by the
addition of 1.80 mL brine (93.82%) was lower than that obtained by the
addition of only water (97.73%). This experiment again proved that salt
did not improve the OR.
Effect of Temperature and Time of Agitation on Oil
Recovery
The effect of temperature during agitation on OR is shown in Fig. 3. The
OR was maximum (97.73%) when the agitation was undertaken at room
temperature (24 ℃). It gradually decreased as the agitation temperature
was increased from 24 to 60 ℃. Therefore, an increase in agitation
temperature adversely affected OR.
The effect of time of agitation on OR is shown in Fig. 3. The OR was
65% without stirring. The increase in the OR was very significant when
the agitation time was raised from 0 to 30 minutes. As the agitation
time continued to increase, the OR tended to be stable.
Agitation is necessary for facilitating the contact of water with
hydrophilic groups of small solid particles when mixing with the slurry
of pecan kernel. This step results in the aggregation of all compounds
which are hydrophilic so that all oils are discharged and the
observation of free oils or a continuous oil phase is achieved.