SCREW OIL PRESS/

OIL EXPELLER

Dr. Hammad Khan

 2

INTRODUCTION
o For human nutrition, vegetable oils and animal fats play an important role, acting as an energy
source and provide more calories per unit weight than those provided by proteins
and carbohydrates.

o Vegetable oils act as carriers of group of vitamins (A, B, E and K), help the body to absorb
other vital elements from food and are also used to give more flavors to food.

o Regarding oilseed materials, they can be divided

I. those for the production of edible vegetable oils and protein such as soy, sunflower, canola,

II. those where the oil is a byproduct of fiber production, i.e. cottons;

III. crops for food purposes which also produce oil, like corn, coconut, peanuts and nuts;
 3

T Y P E S O F P R O C E S S E S F O R O B TA I N I N G O I L :
Worldwide, for extraction of oil from seeds, fruits and nuts, four basic methods are used,

1) C h e m i c a l e x t r a c t i o n (based on the use of enzymes or solvent to

extract the oil from the raw material).

2) E x t r a c t i o n u s i n g h i g h p r e s s u r e c a r b o n d i o x i d e (i.e.
supercritical fluid extraction, SFE),

3) S t e a m d i s t i l l a t i o n (the method used for the extraction of 93% from

the essential oils),

4) M e c h a n i c a l e x p r e s s i o n (which requires the application of pressure to

force oil out of the oil bearing material)
 4

O I L E X T R AC T I O N :
oMechanical pressing and solvent extraction are the most commonly
used methods for commercial oil extraction.

oScrew pressing is used for oil recovery up to 90-95%, while solvent

extraction is capable of extracting 99%.

o In spite of its slightly lower yield, screw pressing is the most popular oil
extraction method as the process is simple, continues, flexible, safe and
ensures extraction of a non-contaminated, protein-rich low fat cake
at relatively low-cost.
The disadvantage of this method is that the mechanical presses do not have high
extraction efficiencies, about 8-14% of the available oil remain in the press cake.
 5

O I L E X T R AC T I O N : Screw press design

Steam
inlet

1. Screw speed
2. Restriction size
Before the pressing process, the oilseed materials
3. Temperature are subjected to various pre-treatment, such as
4. Hull content cleaning, conditioning, heating, flaking, dehulling, in
order to improve the quantity and the quality of the
5. Moisture content oil obtained from the raw material.
 6

O I L E X T R AC T I O N :
oThe mechanical screw press consists of a vertical feeder and a horizontal screw with increasing body
diameter to exert pressure on the oilseeds as it advances along the length of the press.

oThe barrel surrounding the screw has slots along its length, allowing the increasing internal pressure
to first expel air and then drain the oil through the barrel. Oil is collected in a trough under the screw
and the de-oiled cake is discharged at the end of the screw.

oThe main advantage of the screw press is that large quantities of oilseeds can be processed with
minimal labor, and it allows continuous oil extraction.

oBefore the pressing process, the oilseed materials are subjected to various pre-treatment, such as
cleaning, conditioning, heating, flaking, dehulling, in order to improve the quantity and the quality of
the oil obtained from the raw material. Considerable efforts have been made in the past to improve
the oil extraction efficiency of screw presses. Most of them have focused on optimization of process
variables such as applied pressure, pressing temperature and moisture conditioning of the fed
 PARAMETERS INFLUENCING THE SCREW PRESSING PROCESS 7

Screw speed
 The increase of the screw speed leads to the increase of the throughput, while the residual oil
content in the press cake will be higher due to the fact that less time is available for the oil to drain
from the solids.
 Also, at higher speed of the screw the viscosity remains lower resulting in less pressure build-up,
which leads to the obtaining of relatively high residual oil content.
 At slower screw speed, the extraction efficiency will be higher and the oil left in the meal will be
lower.
 In the case of cold pressing, a slower speed is often necessary because as screw speed increases, the
temperature of the oil and meal moving through the machine also increases.
 PARAMETERS INFLUENCING THE SCREW PRESSING PROCESS 8

Restriction size

 When the restriction size (the dimension of the press nozzle) is reduced the
pressure in the pressing chamber increases (because a higher force is required to
overcome the restriction) and that will conduct to a higher oil yield,
Te m p e r a t u r e

 In order to obtain good quality oil, the temperature of the material during the
pressing process should not exceed maximum allowable values to prevent
undesired cell wall components polluting the oil.
 The higher temperatures on the pressing process leads to the dissolving of the
phosphor in the oil
 PARAMETERS INFLUENCING THE SCREW PRESSING PROCESS 9

Hull content
 The hull content of the raw material subjected to the pressing process is expected
to affect both oil recovery and energy requirement.
 Removal of the hull, which is a hard material, would require less energy for
breaking and compressing and result in zero presence of hull fibers in the crude
oil.
 However, the oleaginous material needs to contain a certain percent of hull,
because, seeds without hull will turn into a paste inside standard expellers, which
sticks to the worm and keeps rotating along with it. As the hull of the oleaginous
seeds contains a low percent of oil, the removing of hull may lead to decreased
absorption of oil, which will mean the increasing in oil recovery.
 PARAMETERS INFLUENCING THE SCREW PRESSING PROCESS 10

Moisture content
 The moisture content of the oleaginous material is another important factor
affecting the pressing process. An optimal moisture level (~7%)for oil expression
is expected to exist.
 The increasing of the moisture content of the oilseeds leads to the increasing of
the yield until a maximum point. After this point, the increasing of moisture
content will conduces to the decrease of the oil yield.
 This phenomena is explained by the fact that the increasing of the moisture
content make the cell walls more permeable (which increases the yield), but it
also cause a plasticization of the seed material which reduces the oil yield,.
 11

OIL EXPELLERS:

• Used to extract oil from oil seeds

Done by

1) traditional animal drawn ghanies

2) mechanical expellers /screw press

3) solvent extraction units etc…

 12

OIL EXPELLERS: GHANI EXTRACTION

oConsist of a wooden mortar and a pestle
oMortar fixed to the ground and pestle to the
animal

oAnimal is rotated in the mortar

oSeed get crushed by the generated
friction/pressure

oOil moves out through an opening at the

bottom

oCake is scooped out from the top in the mortar

 13

OIL EXPELLERS: SCREW PRESS

oConsist of horizontal shaft , the screw assembly
is formed integrally with this shaft

oScrew rotates with in a cage or barrel •

Configuration of screw is such that the volume

odisplacement at the feed end is considerably

ogreater than at the discharge end
o• Movable choke in the discharge end controls
othe operating pressure
 14

CONTINUOUS MECHANICAL PRESSING (SCREW PRESS):

o Among the physical processes for the extraction of vegetable oils, the continuous mechanical
pressing emerges as the best technology to serve small farmers.

o That´s because this type of equipment associates both small scale and low cost when compared
to the other methods cited.

o Another important advantage is the possibility of using cake resulting from the pressing as
fertilizer or animal feed, since it is free of toxic solvents.

o The operating principle of this equipment consists a helical screw which moves the material,
compressing it, and at the same time, eliminating the oil and producing the cake.

o Optimization of the continuous mechanical pressing consist of defining the optimum

parameters, such as temperature and moisture content of grain, or adjustments on the press, in
order to reach optimum yields of oil, using a minimum value of pressure applied by the press.
 15

CONTINUOUS MECHANICAL PRESSING (SCREW PRESS):

o Among the physical processes for the extraction of
vegetable oils, the continuous mechanical pressing
emerges as the best technology to serve small
farmers.