Hydrothermal Cleanup (HCU), US Patent 10,071,322 B2, is ARA’s novel and patented pretreatment process that offers several key advantages over traditional pretreatment processes, producing a clean stream of glycerides and free fatty acid products from lower cost waste feedstocks. HCU consists of a continuous, refinery-friendly, single-step process that utilizes common refinery equipment such as pumps, heat exchangers, and a hot oil furnace or refinery high-pressure steam. The HCU process requires only water, heat, and pressure to remove metals and other inorganics from most common feedstocks.
Utilizing turbulent flow at high temperature and pressure, HCU provides thorough mixing of fats, oils, and greases and water and close contact of the molecules during its short residence time. The single step, continuous process removes metals (including organically bound metals) and other inorganic contaminants while acidulating soaps and hydrolyzing phospholipids into fatty acids and phosphate salts.