Glycerol and spent lye clarification - Illinois Institute of Technology

Lye Clarification.
Glycerol is so closely associated with
the soap industry that no soap plant is com-
plete without its department for saving the
glycerol contained in the fats and oils used
by the soap maker.
For msmy years chemists and engineers
have been directing their energies toward
improving processes and machinery for the
recovery of glycerol from spent soap lye.
Many patents have been granted and many pro-
cesses developed each having a common object
of glycerol recovery. There can be traced a
gradual evolution in effeciency of proceedure
and apparatus designed to remove the organic
matter from the lye, to concentrate this clar-
ified lye, thereby removing the greater part
of the dissolved salts, €tnd to continue the
concentration till crude glycerine is obtain-
ed, which further remains to be purified by
distillation.