762

IT SEEMS LIKE ONLY YESTERDAY ...

Lookingback:

xocsand vegetableoil processing

As a mailer of expediency, in1939 I became associated withthe vegetable oil and oilseed

industries. I obtained employment inthe laboratory at a hydraulic press cot-tonseed processing plant which wasequipped with balch kettle oil refiningtanks. This was the first and bestopportunity I had for employmentafter graduation in 1938. AI the time,there was a degree of urgency to findemployment so that I could startrepaying loans I had obtained to com-plete my undergraduate work atPomona College.

AI thai time, cottonseed oil was, byfar, the edible oil of choice in theUnited Stales both for liquid oil andfor hydrogenation to produce veg-etable shortening and margarine. Cot-tonseed oil continued in this positionof preeminence well into the 1950s inthe United States.

It was during this period that inter-est developed for growing a newsource of protein for feed. Reid Mil-ner (AOCS president in 1947) headeda group at the U.S. Department ofAgriculture's Northern RegionalResearch Laboratory in Peoria, Illi-nois, who were exploring the possibil-ities for such a crop. His associatesincluded John Cowan (AOCS presi-dent in 1968), Cyril Evans, and others.They worked with a global collectionof soybeans to determine oil and pro-tein content. As this work progressedfrom the laboratory to the fertile Mid-west fields, cottonseed processorslooked on with envy at the rapid

This articlewas preparedfor INFORMby George C.

Cavanagh, whooperates Cavanagh

Associates, aconsultingfirmfor the oilseed

products industry,1696A W. Calimyrna

Ave., Fresno, CA937/1. Dr. Cavanagh has been a pioneer in cottonseed oil processing,

especially commercialization of miscella processing techniques,and is a fonner president of AOCS.

progress being made with this oilseed,a relative newcomer among U.S. com-mercial crops.

The pioneers in the soybeanindustry are to be commended forthe excellent work they did in ashort time, providing a new proteinsource for food and feed. Subse-quent research on overcoming thereversion and Flavor problems asso-ciated with the oil proceeded slowerbut were eventually successful. Dur-ing the beginning years of the soy-bean oil industry in this country, theflavor and reversion problems ofsoybean oil were allies of the cot-tonseed oil industry and resulted inan appreciable price premium forcottonseed oil.

The 1940s were a period of rapidchange and transition for a cottonseedcrushing industry that was relativelyconservative and prone to resistalmost every modification or change.The hydraulic press, most commonlyused for expression of oil from cookedcottonseed meats, was invented inEngland by Dr. Joseph Bramah in1795. The cottonseed crushing indus-try, based on this invention. had beenwell established in the United Statesby 1830, and the U.S. cottonseedcrushing industry continued in itshydraulic press mode into the 19405.

But finally. and at least in part dueto the competition rrorn the emergingsoybean industry, some changes inprocessing were being considered-cautiously. Among these new pro-cessing options being considered

were replacing labor-intensive batchhydraulic presses with Expellers (atrade name belonging to AndersonInternational for its continuous screwpresses) and direct solvent extrac-tion. Some processors were using atwo-stage process- screw pressingfollowed by solvent extraction-tomaximize crude oil production fromoil-bearing materials.

In the oil-refining segment of veg-etable oilseed processing, batch kettlerefining was being replaced by contin-uous centrifug a l refining. As thecrushing industry switched to solventextraction in the 1950s, continuousmiscella refining became a viableoption. After the successful introduc-tion of continuous miscella refining in1952, continuous solvent fractionation(winterization in the case of cotton-seed oil) became a commercial realityin 1953. Adventitiously, Iwas in theright place at the right time to partici-pate in and contribute to some of thesechanges.

O.H. Alderks gives an excellentdescription of the "Art of CookingCottonseed Meats" and describes therecovery of oil from cottonseed inChapter XV of Cottonseed and Cot-tonseed Products (Interscience Pub-lishers lnc., New York, 1948), editedby Alton E. Bailey (AOCS presidentin 1951). This descriptive account orcottonseed processing is followed byan excellent account or "Processing orCottonseed Oil" by Edward M. James(AOCS president in 1952). I willdigress briefly from processing to

INfORM. VOl. 8, no. 7 (Juty 199n

763

describe other changes occurring con-currently with those in industry.

AOCS in transitionThe 1940-1950 decade was also aperiod of change and transition forAOCS. The society originated as asmall group of cottonseed analystswho banded together to standardizeanalytical procedures used to estab-lish the quality of cottonseed andcottonseed products traded in themarketplace. The industries involvedin these activities, in addition to cot-ton ginning. were: animal feeds, veg-etable oils, soap. and cellulose(where cottonseed linters were used)manufacturing. AOCS members con-sisted mostly of independent analyti-cal laboratory owners and benchchemists. Control and researchchemists for vegetable oil refinersand soap manufacturers also weremembers. Eligibility for membershipin the absence of a college degree inchemistry required two years'apprenticeship in the fats and oilindustry and the endorsement of twoAOCS members.

In the 1950s government analyti-cal and research chemists andbiochemists who worked with fatsand oils became increasingly inter-ested in attending our meetings andin presenting papers on theirresearch with lipids at our two annu-al meetings. Many of these paperssubsequently were published in theJournal of the American OilChemists' Society (JADeS) whichwas called Oil and Soap until 1947.At one time during the transitionfrom Oil and Soap to JADeS, LucyHawkins acted as the editor andAOCS executive secretary, and ranthe office as well as the board ofdirectors. Later, under the guidanceof A.R. Baldwin (AOCS president in1961) and his editorial staff, JADeSbecame a prestigious scientific publi-cation with a worldwide reputationfor excellence. As more governmentlaboratory research people and bio-chemists joined the society and pub-lished in JAOCS, the membership ofthe society became much morediverse. Problems of identity. raisond'etre. priorities. and semanticsoccurred. It was at this time that I

Ranchers certen 011tank 'arm and proce.alng ptant

became involved in the society as aboard member, associate editor ofJAoeS, publications committeemember and, in 1969. as president.During AOCS' search for identity.many hours of discussion at boardmeetings and numerous multipageleiters discussing the desirability ofchanging the society'S name 10 TheAmerican or International LipidSociety or Association were initiat-ed. In addition, the Governing Boardwas at odds with the then executivesecretary. On a cold and windy Jan-uary day at the Executive SuitesHotel on Wacker Drive in Chicago.the AOCS board of directors met inexecutive session and decided tosearch for a new office outside ofChicago and to interview applicantsfor a new executive secretary. Drs.Steven Chang and Robert Allen (theAOCS presidents who followed me)agreed that they could handle theconsiderable turmoil of simultane-ously moving the society headquar-ters and breaking in a new executivesecretary.

The consensus of the board wasthat an office facility in a collegetown out of the high-rent districtwould serve the society better thanthe downtown metropolitan locationon Wacker Drive in Chicago. With

these goals we proceeded with oursearch for a new office to Urbana,Illinois. While there we contactedReid Milner. who was then head ofthe food science department at theUniversity of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Reid's secretaryinformed us that The National Coun-cil of Teachers of English (NCTE)had built a new headquarters build-ing and wanted to sell or lease itspresent offices which were locatedvirtually on the University of lI1inoiscampus. We visited these facilities,had lunch with NCTE staff financialofficer Jim Lyon and other NCTEstaff members, and started negotia-tions for the building, which eventu-ally resulted in our occupying thesefacilities. During the course of thenegotiations, Jim Lyon indicated aninterest in the executive secretaryposition with AOCS. These transi-tions were initiated during my termas AOCS president and completedduring the administrations of Drs.Chang and Allen. My recollection ofthe last motion of the last AOCSboard meeting over which Ipresidedwas the authorization for the forma-tion of an AOCS Foundation. Initial-ly the foundation was an entity seek-ing justification for existence, until itassumed its present mission of

tNFORM.Vol. 8. no. 7 (July 1997)

764

diverse than the original organizationthat saw its inception almost 100years ago.

IT SEEMS LIKE ONLY YESTERDAY ...

MIscella winterizing column

accepting donations and administer-ing grants and awards. Arne Cahn.immediate past president of AGeS,was one of several who gave theFoundation direction.

The new environment at Urbanaand the new executive marked a turn-ing point for a better AGeS in myopinion. The friction between vari-ous factions in the society dimin-ished with lime. The prestige ofmembership, the size of the society,and the diversity of disciplines with-in the parameters of the AOeS Mis-sion Statement have alt increasedconsiderably. This is a tribute to theexecutive director. to the caliber ofpeople in the society, and to theirability to communicate.

In my recollection, among the mostcreative and prolific communicatorsduring my years in office, whensemantics seemed to occupy much ofour time, were: Raymond Reiser ofTexas A&M (AOCS president in1967), George Rouser of City of HopeCancer Research, Walt Lundberg ofHormel Institute (AOCS president in1963). and A.E. "Doe" MacGee ofPhillips Petroleum (AOCS presidentin 1962). Dick Baldwin was and is aterrific corresponder, frequently viaterse and pointed comments writtenon letters he receives, edits, andreturns to the senders.

The two national meetings peryear that industrial people felt were

essential to meet the requirements ofAOCS members were finallyconsolidated into one spring meetingper year (in 1977) owing in greatmeasure to an excellent study devel-oped by Dick Baldwin and JoeEndres (AOCS president in 1992).National meetings were secrionalizedinto interest groups with differentsessions running simultaneously.Biochemists obtained their own jour-nal, Lipids. National meetings havebeen augmented with sectional meet-ings and world conferences. The netresult is an association far more

Changes In industryMy purpose in writing this paper,besides reminiscing about tbe goodold days, is to identify some of thepeople I remember in industry whowere involved in the changes takingplace during this period in the pro-cesses described by Alderks andJames in Cottonseed.

During this period of innovationin the oil mill industry, Ed Jameswas working with Sharples Corp. ona continuous vegetable oil refiningprocess. At about the same time Ben-jamin Clayton, Benjamin Thurman,and Morris Mauikow were collabo-rating on a continuous refining pro-cess. The patents emanating from thelauer group were assigned to Refin-ing Inc. Sharples and Refining Inc.fought the bailie of discovery in thepatent courts. Refining Inc. pre-vailed. Benjamin Clayton's originalpatent for continuous centrifugalrefining was applied for Jan. 4,1937.This became U.S. Patent 2,190,588on Feb. 13. 1940. Thurman and Mat-tikow were prolific inventors andobtained many patents coveringmany nuances of vegetable oil refin-ing that were assigned to RefiningInc. Royalties were assessed forusing their patents based on the num-

INFORM. Vol. 8. no. 7 (July 1997)

Fro.t-eovered wInterizIng centrifuge.

765

MIsc:ella refining and winterizing facility in Guadalajara, Jall.co, Mexico

her of 8,000-g3110n tank cars of veg-etable oil refined. These royaltieswere collected at least once per yearby Arthur H. Wood who has been anAOeS member since 1933, andaccording to the 1996 AOeS Direc-tory still is a member.

One of the refining processes pro-moted by centrifuge manufacturerswas the soda ash-caustic soda pro-cess. Oil was neutralized anddegummed with an excess of saturatedsoda ash solution. Color was subse-quently removed with caustic soda,the oil was washed and vacuum-dried.This system required one-third morecentrifuges than the caustic soda pro-cess, with no appreciable advantage inrefined oil yield in actual plan! opera-tion. The soda ash soapstock was vir-tually worthless as produced. Whenacidulated to increase the total fattyacids, the material foamed uncontrol-lably as CO2 was released. The finalproduct was similar 10 asphalt inappearance and consistency. The acidwash water from the process was anecological disaster.

As our lank farm filled with acidu-lated soda ash soapstock, I made a tripto Los Angeles Soap Company 10 visitMr. Harvey Bennett, a true gentlemanand longtime active AOCS member.My purpose was 10 encourage the pur-chase of more lank cars of our soap-stock at a considerably reduced price.Mr. Bennett took me out in the factoryand showed me 4,000 gallons of ourblack sonpstock remaining from a pur-chase made four months before. Heestimated that he might work this taroff in another six months by blendingit slowly with good caustic soapstcck.Thus ended my short venture intosales. On the positive side, it did resultin our conversion of state-of-the-artsoda ash refining back to caustic refin-ing.

When cottonseed crushing millsconverted from hydraulic presses 10screw presses, usually the press roomforeman retained the foreman positionin the screw press room. Moist cook-ing for efficient hydraulic press opera-tion was an art slowly acquired byexperience and reluctantly abandoned.A problem frequently encountered inthis transition was the inability ofscrew presses 10 process moist

hydraulic cooked meats. The steamgenerated by friction in the screwpress barrels shot the press cake fromthe discharge end of the machines at avery high velocity with accompanyingsounds like a World War II artillerybarrage. Sample collectors wantedhazardous service pay to venture intothe press room. Ed westenhaver, salesrepresentative for Y.D. Anderson. wasunable 10 resolve the problem by pro-fanity or by expectorating tobaccojuice on the Expellers.

The problem was solved inadver-tently when mears left in the cooker,with the steam on during a break-down, dried sufficiently so that theyproperly discharged when the plantresumed operation. As often is thecase in processing, this was theresult of serendipity rather than cog-nizance. In general, the increasedyield of crude oil from the screwpress operation was darker in colorand more difficult to refine to anacceptable color compared tohydraulic pressed oil. I worked onthis color problem using varioustypes of shear mixers 10 contact therefining chemicals more efficientlywith the pigments in the oil withsome degree of success.

I presented a paper on hi-shearrefining at the first AOCS meetingthai I attended. II was in San Francis-co in September 1950. There wereboth spring and fall meetings at that

time. The title of my paper was"Improved Process for Re-refiningCottonseed Oil for the Removal ofColor Bodies." Noting RefiningInc's. considerable monetary successwith royalty payments for their pro-cessing patents in vegetable oil refin-ing, I sought to patent my hi-shearprocess. I soon found out that I hadinsufficient funds or patience to pur-sue this goal on my own. Myemployer at that time showed lessthan moderate enthusiasm for myrevolutionary concept. So that thisimportant process would not be lostto Western civilization I disclosedmy data to Dr. Klare S. Markley(AOCS President in 1944), then headof the Vegetable Oilseed and ProteinSection at U.S. Department of Agri-culture's Southern RegionalResearch Laboratory (SRRL) in NewOrleans. I gave him and his associ-ates pennission to verify and use mydata and publish their findings. Heand his associates published severalpapers on hi-shear refining andobtained U.S. Patent 2,686,796 "Pro-cess for Alkali-Refining Crude Natu-ral Oils" dated Aug. 17, 1954.

Continuous mlscclla refiningIn 1951 I became associated withone of the first cottonseed solventextraction plants in the UnitedStates. After the operator trainingperiod required 10 make the process

INFORM. Vol. 8. no. 7 (July 1997)

766

IT SEEMS LIKE ONLY YESTERDAY ...

MJscelia refining lacility In Bauru, Bmll

more or less continuous, I starteddeveloping continuous miscellarefining. OUf first step was to addgranular soda ash to the cooked cot-tonseed meats in order 10 neutralizesome of the free fatty acids and todeposit some of the gums from theoil onto the meats prior 10 extractingthe oil. Soda ash addition to themeals contributed 10 both improvedoil and meal quality without thefoaming and other negative effects ofsoda ash oil refining. We were ableto obtain a license from SRRL 10 useU.S. Patent 42.686.796. A homoge-nizer provided the hi-shear needed toconsistently produce very light-col-ored oil. Soapstock containing hex-ane was added to the solvent wetmeal from the extractor prior to des-otvenuzauon. The added fat andgums from the soapsrock minimizeddustiness usually associated with sot-vent-extracted cononseed meal. Thisprocess resulted in U.S. Patent2.789,120 "Extraction and Refiningof Glyceride Oils and Fats fromSource Material Thereof' filed July7.1953, and issued April 16. 1957.

Feeding trials with poultry at theUniversity of California at Davis lndi-cated that the meal so produced wasof good quality and the free gossypolcontent was sufficiently tow as 10 notcause problems with egg yolk discol-orization. Poultry feeders. however,preferred protein content higher than

the 44% protein meal that we wereproducing. To meet this need for 50%protein (50% protein soybean mealwas available at this time), wescreened OUI some of the hulls in our44% meal; 38% protein meal was aby-product which was blended withplant production of 44% meal to make41% meal for cattle feed supplements.This work resulted in U.S. Patent 2.934,431 "Process for Forming Mealfrom Cottonseed Edible by Animalsand Poultry:'

Cattle and other ruminants can uti-lize the nitrogen from urea or ammo-nia as well as the nitrogen from pro-tein to feed the bacteria in theirrumen. We found that treating the38% protein meal with anhydrousammonia caused it to absorb andretain about I% ammonia. Feeding tri-als with beef cattle at WashingtonState University at Prosser. washing-ton, under the supervision of WiltonW. Heineman, and at University ofCalifornia at Davis under the supervi-sion of N.H. Hinman, G.P. Lofgren,and W.N. Garren indicated that thisammoniated meal performed as wellas or beuer than regular 41% proteinmeal. The ammoniated meal wasnever sold commercially nor was theprocess patented.

During the feeding trials withammoniated meal, we received atelephone call from Dr. Leo Gold-blatt at the USDA SRRL inquiring if

we could ammoniate about five tonsof cononseed and several tons of cot-tonseed meal, both of which werecontaminated naturally with aflatox-ins. SRRL investigators had deter-mined that arnmoniation would inac-tivate toxic effects of atlatoxins. themold metabolites responsible forTurkey X disease and responsiblefor fish deformities. They wanted toto use ammoniated materials in dairyfeeding trials in order to verify thataflatoxins were responsible for fishdeformities. We did the ammoniatingand arranged with Fresno State Col-lege to feed both contaminated andcontaminated-ammoniated cotton-seed and couonseed meal to theirdairy herd in a double-reversal typefeeding trial.

Prior to this dairy feeding trial. attheir request we supplied II fewpounds of this aflatoxin-contaminat-ed cottonseed meal and aflatoxin-contaminated cottonseed meal thathad been ammoniated to researchpersonnel at USDA Western Region-al Research Lab. In the paper theypublished on their work with thesemeals, they generously gave usacknowledgement for supplying theeff atoxtn-contamtnated products.The publicity was unsolicited andunappreciated.

Anatoxin feeding trialsA multifaceted cooperative researchprogram involving industry, govern-ment, and universities was initiated10 determine the effects of feedingrations containing various levels ofcottonseed and cottonseed meal thathad been naturally contaminatedwith aflatoxins to lactating dairycows. Dr. M.E. Ensminger, formerhead of the animal husbandrydepartment at Washington StateUniversity at Prosser. Washington.and I went to Washington, D.C" toset up the protocol for this expert-ment with Food and Drug Adminis-tration (FDA) officials. We met withDr. Fischbach (FDA Office of Sci-ence) and. with Drs. O. A. Camp-bell and J. Rodricks (FDA Divisionof Chemistry) and with other FDAofficials.

At Fresno State College, the workwith the dairy herd was supervised by

INFORM, VOl. 8. no. 7 (July 1997)

767

J.T. Bell, A.S. Hoversland, D.M. Nel-son, and RJ. Selkirk. J. Pearson washerdsman. The milk was analyzed foraflatoxin Ml by John McKinney.Liver biopsies were sent to FDA inWashington, D.C .. for analysis. Theresults of this work were reported inJAOeS [50:79-84 (1973)1 and by var-ious other participants in this study inother journals and scientific publica-tions.

At the termination of the project,FDA's AI Campbell advised us thai allof the cattle in the dairy herd that hadbeen fed aflatoxin-contaminated cot-tonseed or cottonseed meal wouldhave to be sacrificed. As the protocolcalled for a double-reversal type offeeding trial, all of the cows had beenfed contaminated ration-whichmeant that they all had 10 be killed.This caused considerable consterna-tion at the Dairy Department at FresnoState College which thus would belosing its dairy herd prematurely tothe abattoir.

We sent a cry for help to Leo Gold-blatt who had initiated the wholeaffair. Leo's response was "Give mesome help. I just can't issue a govern-ment research requisition for a bunchof dead cows." By virtue of some cre-ative research grant request writing byuniversity people (who are adept atthis type of work), Fresno State Col-lege was reimbursed for the loss of itsdairy herd, and peace and flatulenceagain prevailed,

When these animals were slaugh-tered. FDA requested portions of allvital organs from the sacrificed ani-mals and data on the amounts of ana-toxins that they had been fed. Thesesamples were to be shipped to FDA assoon as possible after slaughter. Wearranged with Railway Express forshipping the samples. They advised usto package the samples in dry ice andlabel all packages "Bull Sperm,"regardless of content. to expedite ship-ping and handling.

Feeling confident from our recentsuccesses in animal feeding trials, thepositive indications that ammoniationcould help resolve the aflatoxin prob-lem. and excellent success in sellingour miscella-refincd oil, we sought anew challenge. Earl J. Cecil, presidentof our company (Ranchers Conon

Oil), and I went to Pasadena whichwas then headquarters for RefiningInc. to visit with Benjamin Clayton.We felt that we had been paying trib-ute to Refining Inc. for refining cot-

tonseed oil in miscella by our ownpatented process. Standing on the car-pet in front of Mr. Clayton's desk,threadbare from those scraping feetthat had preceded us there, we pleaded

SOLUTIONS FOR HEATING INEDIBLE OIL PROCESSING

95 BAR-HIGH-PRESSUf3E

NATURAL CIRCULATION BOILER

The executivemanufacturer ofboiler forhermetically closedsteam systems up to95 bar (1350 psi),3025 kW(10 x 10' BTU/H)for Edibles OilsIndustry processheating.

Advantages withGEKA: more than25 years experience,approved systems,worldwide in theEdible Oil Industry.

GEKA ENERGY SYSTEMSGOTTFRIED KNEIFELGmbH & Co. KGGermany, Dieselstra8e 80-76227 Karlsruhe-DurlachTEL: 49-721/94374-0FAX: 49-721/494331

For Information circle '121

INFORM. Vol. 8. no. 7 (July 199n

I

768

Keep YourJournals

Organized

with custom-madeslipcases I AOeS Pressslipcases provide an attrac-tive way to display a year'sworth of journals.

• Protect journals fromdust damage

• V-notched for easyaccess

• Journal logo stampedin gold

• Gold personalizationfall included

QuantityOneThree

EOO!$ 9.95"

$27.95"

SEND ORDER TOPUblication Orders AOCS Press

P.O. Box 3489 •Champaign, IL61826-3489 .Phone: 217-359-2344Fax: 217-351-8091

Slipcases are also ava~able lor JAOCS andLipids. When oroarlng. please id&nlily thejournal (INFORMllem IISCI, JAOCS ItemIISCJ, Llpk;JtI ~em'ISCl) lor which thecase will be UHd.

'Add $1.00 per case lor postage..-.:l han-dling In !he U.s.; $2.50 per case outsiOethe U.S.

IT SEEMS LIKE ONLY YESTERDAY ...

our case for discontinuing OUf royaltypayments, but 10 no avail. Mr. Claytonwas quite courteous but unrelenting.His position was thai if you use a cen-trifuge, he had it covered. Within ayear we did discontinue royalty pay-ments to Refining Inc. Mr. Wood dis-continued his periodic visits and webegan developing strategies to encour-age other solvent extraction cotton-seed processing plants to use our pro-cesses so that we could assess themfor royalties.

Ed James and I loured solventextraction plants in Arkansas, Okla-homa. and Mississippi extolling themerits of miscella refining. Largerefiners to whom solvent extractionplants sold their crude oil discouragedindividual oil mills from installingrefineries. Refining equipment manu-facturers who offered their ownturnkey refining processes were notinterested in perpetuating the royaltyfor processing systems. It was the cus-tom in their industry to include royal-ties in the cost of the machinery. Pro-cessing patent royalties are also dis-liked by processing industries and areimpossible to police, especially in for-eign countries.

Continuous mlsceila winterizingAfter establishing a reputation as adependable source for very light-col-ored refined cottonseed oil, we beganexperimenting with continuous mis-cella winterizing. The conventionalbatch winterizing process for cotton-seed oil is labor-intensive. takes up tothree days to complete, and yields lessthan 80% wintered oil.

We arranged with a quick-freezeplant to use a portion of one of itsflash-freezing rooms, where fanswere blowing _30°F (-34.4°C) air atgale force to freeze the turkeys andstrawberries that surrounded us. Thework was done in Fresno. California.in August 1953 where the ambienttemperature averaged + 100°F(37.8°C). We dressed in sweaters.insulated jackets, and padded capsoutside in the sizzling temperature.We carried our four-liter beakers.stirring equipment, centrifuges. andrefined miscella into the cold room.We gathered data on the rate of crys-tal formation, physical structure of

the steanne crystals, settling rate,and viscosity of stearine produced.From these data we designed a60.000 pounds-per-day continuousmiscella winterizer that produced 20-hour cold test wintered oil at a yieldof about 90% in a period of aboutone hour. Within a year. three morewinterizers were built and added toour plant. This work resulted in U.S.Patent 2.883,405 "Method of Sepa-rating Components of CottonseedOil by Fractional Crystallization ofMiscella Thereof" filed Oct. 18,1954. and issued April 21. 1959.

In retrospect, I could not havechosen a better industry for a careerthan the one I accidentally fell intoout of financial necessity. It is grati-fying to see hi-shear refining in com-mon use both in conventional andrnisceua refining. Also miscellarefining. and to a lesser degree mis-cella winterizing. have found com-mercial acceptance. In addition tothe 44 years in the vegetable oilindustry in the United Slates, I havebeen able to be of service to alliedindustries in Mexico. Brazil.Argentina, Peru, India, Turkey,Tunisia. and Morocco. It has been agreat ride and continues 10 be.

Regrets? I have a few. Fractionalcrystallization from miscella hasbeen commercially practiced for over30 years. This is a viable and effi-cient process that has had limitedacceptance by those who could haveprofited most from its utilization.Fats with new and different charac-teristics can be produced, withoutformation of trans isomers. by frac-tionally crystallizing from miscellamixtures of animal and vegetablefats and oils. Perhaps eventuallysome inspired chemical or process-ing engineer will explore further theopportunities in this area of process-ing. Finally, alone time we had apilot-plant continuous miscellahydrogenation plant in operationusing Votator Scraped Surface HeatExchangers for heating, agitation,and residence time. The degree ofhydrogenation was controlled bytime and temperature. Hydrogen andcatalyst could be recycled. This 100seems like an area that could be fur-ther explored. •