Oilseed Processing

• Vegetable oils constitute an important part of our diet. They are

mainly used as cooking (frying) medium.

• The oils and fats are composed of different mixtures of glycerides

of various fatty acids.

• The waxes are mixtures of higher polyhydric alcohols with fatty

acids.

• The main constituents of the vegetable oils are 16 and 18 carbon

acid. Esters containing more unsaturated acids and having lower
melting points are oils.
 Oil content of major oilseeds and oil bearing
materials

Oilseed/oil bearing materials Oil content (%)

Cottonseed 18-20
Shelled groundnut 45-50
Rapeseed 40-43
Soybean 18-20
Palm kernel 45-50
Safflower 30-35
Sesame 50
Flaxseed 35-42
Sunflower 35-45
Rice bran (from various mills) 5-18
 Processing Operations
Pre-cleaning and cleaning:

• Pre-cleaning is to remove wastes, stones and extraneous materials.

• It is essential that seed delivered to the press be clean and free from the impurities.

• If these operations are neglected, oil of poor quality will result.

Storage:

• Deterioration of oilseed occur in storage.

• The effect on seed oil and its constituent is important, since it will affect a plant's
profitability.

• In India experience has shown a major loss of oil quality in terms of colour, free fatty
acids, iodine and other values in oil from seed kept in unsuitable or prolonged storage.

• High moisture, relative humidity and temperature and

fungal infection are the main reasons for this deterioration.

• If full benefit is to be obtained from oil seed production, rapid movement from
producer to processing plant is essential.
Hulling:
Hulling/Decortication:
• Hulling is recommended to produce high quality of edible oil and
this also reduces the fibre content of the meal, increasing its
marketability on stock feed.
• Hulling also increases the cost of production.
• Hulling may be omitted if the meal is to be used solely for
fertilizer, but extraction rate of unhulled seed will be lower unless
higher pressure is used.
• This will increase the extraction cost and the merits of hulling and
lower pressure or not hulling and higher pressure must be
determined.
• Some oils are possibly hulled partially and consist of cracking the
seeds and pressing them through an air blast adjusted to remove
only higher hull particles.
• The mixture is less liable to mash during screw pressing and
requires only a moderate increase in operating pressures.
• Disc or roller huller may be used.
• In case of the delivery of pressed cake with a residual oil content of 10 to 15% to
the extractor directly takes place where a combination of press and solvent
extraction method is used. If the meal is too ground prior to pressing it tends to
disintegrate in the solvent, the fine particles then remaining in suspension.

Cooking and Drying:

• Prior to pressing material with a high protein content must usually be cooked.
• This not only coagulates the protein but frees the oil for efficient pressing.
• Following cooking, which is normally carried out at a moisture content of 10-12
% the raw material must be dried to approximately 2-3 % before entering the
screw press.
• Low protein materials with a high oil, high fibre, for example, copra, usually
require drying only.
• The art of commercially cooking vegetable oil seeds which contain a high
proportion of protein is almost as old as vegetable oil milling itself.
• When hydraulic presses predominated, cookers are invariably considered a
necessary part of the mill.
• Duration of the cooking period was originally determined
empirically by touch and visual inspection of a drawn sample.
• A modern automatic circular cooker with a diameter of 90 cm
should be capable of handling 40,000-50,000 kg per day of meal.
• A cooker must be large enough to hold material upto 20 minutes
under air tight conditions at a temperature of 88-93 oC but
drying is carried out approximately higher temperatures,
between 110 to 115 oC .
• The higher temperatures are critical when processing oil seeds
whose oil is heat sensitive.
• The temperature during drying of vegetable oil seeds must be
controlled to avoid burning because of its composition.
• Retention time must be as short as possible as over long
retention even at a controlled atmosphere and may have a
deleterious effect on oil colour.
 Oil Extraction Methods
Ghani:
• Ghani is basically a large pestle-mortar. the mortar is an inverted cone, the pestle
is a heavy bank of timber seated at the bottom of the cone and inclined at an
angle so that meal is crushed against the mortar during rotation.
• The timber bank is pulled against the sideway mortar by weight and is rotated
by a pole inserted through it at right angle.
• One or two bullocks yoked to the pole provide power by walking blind folded
in a circle around the mortar.
• The traditional bullock ghanis fast disappearing and power ghanis have come up.
• The mustard oil expelling by ghanis is still preferred over screw pressed oil, as
the former preserves characteristic pungent smell of mustard oil more.
• Traditional ghais leave about 7-10 % oil in cake.
• Power ghains are two types, nam ely, stationary mortar type and stationary pestle
type.
 Bullock driven ghani

Power ghanis

Stationary pestle Stationary mortar

Hydraulic Press • Originally majority of presses were hydraulic
but most have been replaced by mechanical
screw press, primarily because of saving of
labour and increased oil recovery.
• The cooked flakes are placed in the hydraulic
press and gradually pressure is applied.
• The pressure is raised to a maximum of 113-
141 kg/cm2 till the oil begins to flow.
• The the pressure is maintained for 30-45 min
and then cake is discharged.
• The capacity of a press may be as high as 7
tons per day.
 Screw Press:
• The invention of continuous high pressure screw press,
commonly known as "expeller" by A.D. Anderson in 1990
radically changed the structure of the oil expelling industry. This
has greatly reduced the capital investment.
• Since the introduction of screw press, there had been some
change in design but the basic design remained the same and
whatsoever changed had occurred were not introduced in Indian
expellers.
• These expellers were introduced when energy was not a major
consideration, the oil recovery was much higher and continuous
operation was available, when compared to oil ghanis and
hydraulic press.
• As an estimate, Indian expellers require 15 times more energy
and have residual oil in cake 2-4% higher compared to those
available in developed countries (European models).
• Indian expellers consume about 53 kWh energy/t of oil.
• The screw press operating in a cage like perforated cylinder through
which the oil diffuses has a major advantage over batch type
hydraulic press is that it need not be stopped for recharging.
• A screw press operating at a greater pressure (1550-1860 kg/cm2)
than in hydraulic press, with consequently higher oil extraction
rate.
• The hot oil bearing material is forced through a cylindrical cage and
then through a tapered outlet by means of powerful rotating screw.
• An extremely high pressure is developed by this restricted
discharge, oil being expelled through narrow slits around the press
barrel.
• The compressed cake is extruded the discharge outlet.
• A modern type of screw press could be expected to process 13,000
and 26,000 kg/day of meal.
• The improvement in mechanical extraction techniques through
proper preconditioning of oil seeds and control of pressure can raise
the average recovery in mechanical extraction from 73 to over 83%
in ground and mustard, etc. and from 60 to 65% for cottonseed.
• The cost is the main obstacle in adoption of improved
mechanical extraction technology.
• The smaller capacity model are not efficient, however, two
models of oil expellers namely (i) 6-bolt, 16 plate "Tiny-Tech"
model and (ii) 4-bolt, 12 plate "Super " model of Rajkot used for
extracting oil from groundnut and mustard have given the
suitability of these models.
 Solvent Extraction:
• This is the most efficient method of oil extraction.
• The soluble constituent in the process of extraction is removed
from solid or liquid by the use of solvent.
• When the solid constituent is separated from the feed, the
process is called leaching or solid extraction and when the
liquid constituent is separated then the process is called solvent
extraction or liquid extraction.
System of Leaching
• Single stage: It represents the complete operation containing the
solids, feed and fresh solvent and subsequent mechanical
operation.
• Multi stage Co-current: In this system fresh solvent and solid
feed are mixed in the first stage. Underflow from first stage is
sent to second stage where more fresh solvent is added for
better separation.
• Multi stage counter-current: In this system the underflow and
over How streams flow counter-currently to each other.
System for Solvent Extraction
A. Single contact
B. Simple multistage contact
C. Counter current multi stage
• These systems utilize the difference in solubilities of the
components. Since the solubility depends on chemical properties
this type of extraction exploits chemical difference.
Leaching Equipment
Stationary bed type
i. Open tank, ii. Extraction Battery iii. Diffusion Battery
Moving bed type
i. Bullman extractor
ii. Hilderbrandt extractor.
• In stationary bed type the feed is stationary in any tank with
false bottom. Solvent is applied at the top until the feed is
extracted.
• In moving bed type the feed is moving counter currently
with solvent until the feed is extracted.
 Solvent Extraction Process:
• This process is most suitable for low oil bearing materials, such
as, soybean, rice bran or oil cakes obtained from hydraulic press.
• After cooking the material, it is flaked/palletized to prevent
dispersion of fines.
• Flaked material is charged in to the continuous extraction unit
where solvent (normal hexane) is sprayed in counter current
fashion.
• The solvent containing oil (called miscella) is passed through a
preheater and sent to a flash evaporator utilizing steam for
vaporization of solvent (being low in boiling point).
• The deoiled cake containing absorbed solvent is sent to
desolventizer where the solvent is vaporized using steam.
Deoiled and solvent free cake is discharges from desolventizer
• Oil containing trace of solvent is sent to a distillation column
and under low pressure and by the use of live steam, the
remaining solvent is again vaporized and crude oil, almost
completely solvent free, collected in the tank.
• Solvent vapour from flash evaporator, distillation column and
desolventizer are sent to condensers where solvent and water both
condense and separated by virtue of difference in specific gravity.
• Recovered solvent is used repeatedly.