A laboratory-scale pilot plant is under construction so that problems involved in computer control of vegetable oil processing can be studied. Unit operations planned for this mini-refinery are continuous alkali-refining, bleaching, hydrogenating, and deodorizing. The alkali-refining step, similar to the Swedish "Zenith" process, is already in operation. Transducers for oil color, sodium content, and free fatty acid concentration have been constructed; both crude and refined oils are being analyzed. Provision has been made to perform the same analyses at later stages of processing on the bleached, hydrogenated, and deodorized oils. Under Phase I of implementing computer control, electronic signals from the analytical transducers are sent to the computer via appropri-