The inventive developments disclosed in this application include the
following features and combinations thereof: extracting oil from spent
bleaching earths for animal feed; using earths and acid water as soil
amendment/fertilizer; efficient extraction of substances valuable to
plants, animals, and humans from plant, animal, and fish oil soapstock,
especially using the "interphase" emulsion from soapstock acidulation;
use of "black paste" from oil refining as fertilizer component (nutrient
source); use of interphase from agricultural oil refining, especially
refining of non-degummed oils, as animal feed; use of "oil refining
by-products to fertilizers" process and/or KOH refining in conjunction
with "Miscella"-type hexane refining or "Zenith" process refining;
fertilizers containing silica/silicates from by-products of agricultural
oil refining; use of higher-sodium oil refining by-products as fertilizer
for sodium-tolerant plants; using by-products of sugar beet refining as
nutrient source; agriculturally useful potassium soaps from oil refining;
products of the refining of non-degummed agricultural oils having useful
biocidal or other biological properties; the use, as a feed additive, of
potassium soapstock from the caustic refining of agricultural oils using
a potassium caustic (KOH), especially with non-degummed oils, which has
unexpected advantages over the use of soapstock from sodium caustic
(NaOH) refining, especially from degummed oils.