TECHNOLOGY FOR OIL SEPARATION

RAMA CHANDRA PRADHAN

 INTRODUCTION

 Oilseeds play an important role in Indian agriculture.

 It is the second largest crop next to food grains;

production is 125 million tonne of edible oilseeds and 50
lakhs tonne of non-edible oilseeds.

 There is a potential for employment generation up to 30

million in farming, seed collection, oil extraction and other
associated activities during Eleventh Five year Plan.

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Average oil contents of different oilseeds & oil bearing
materials
 DIFFERENT PROCESS

Oil recovery from oil-seed is done by different methods

namely:
• Aqueous method
• Hydraulic press
• Ghani (Animal/Power driven)
• Solvent extraction
• SC-CO2 extraction
• Screw pressing/mechanical expeller

Expression of Oil: It is the process of mechanically pressing liquid out of

liquid containing solids.

Extraction of Oil: It is the process of separating a liquid from liquid-solid

system with the use of a chemical.
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 Aqueous method (Traditional Method)
• The seeds are ground into paste
• The paste is heated in boiling water (~100 oC) and the
mixture is being stirred periodically.
• It is being heated until the oil is seen floating on the
meal-water mixture.
• Then mixture is then allowed to cool off during
which time oil is scooped off from the from the top of
the mixture.
• Efficiency : <40%
Several types of Oil Extraction Unit are:

Hydraulic Press

Efficiency : 50%

More Loss of oil

 Hydraulic Press

• In Hydraulic pressing the seeds are

crushed under hydraulic pressure of
113 – 141 Kg/cm2 till the oil begin to
ooze out.

• Efficiency: 50%
Several types of Oil Extraction Unit are:

Traditional Ghani

Efficiency: 57%

Loss of Oil
Traditional Ghani for oilseed crushing
 Ghani (Animal/Power driven)
• The wooden ghani of western India has a capacity of 8-15
Kg/hr.
• The Oilseeds are placed in the wooden pit.
• The load-beam is weighted down with either heavy stones or
even the seated operator.
• As the animal moves in a circular ambit, the pestle rotates,
exerting lateral pressure on the pit and then 1st pulverizing the
oilseeds and then crushing out for separating the oil.
• The oil is collected at the base of the pit.
• Efficiency: 57%
Several types of Oil Extraction Unit are:

Solvent Extraction

Efficiency: 99%

More cost

The apparatus
used for this called
Soxhlet apparatur

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 Solvent Extraction
• Higher yield can be obtained (>99 wt. %), but this is at the
expense of a reduced oil quality.
• The quality reduction is caused by the extensive solvent recovery
processes that are necessary and the fact that the solvent co-
extracts undesired components from the seeds.
• Plant security problems, emission of volatile organic compounds
into atmosphere, high operation cost and poor quality products
caused by high processing temperature.
• For high value added oils the quality reduction is unacceptable,
limiting the production process to mechanical expression
• The solvent is dangerous to handle, and unacceptable as it is quite
harmful to human health and the environment, which may restrict
its use in food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.
Supercritical CO2 Extraction (SC-CO2): An Green
Technology

• An alternative method for the extraction of oils

from natural products

• Allows SC-CO2 at temperatures near room

temperature and relatively low pressures (Naik et
al., 1989; Rout et al., 2008).

• Furthermore, the low critical temperature of CO2

(31oC) allows extraction of thermolabile
compounds without degradation and solvent
residue (Rizvi, 1994).
 Contd…
• The oils obtained by SC-CO2 extraction are of
outstanding quality and the yields are
comparable with those by organic solvent
extraction method (Friedrich and List, 1982;
Gomez et al., 1996).

• In fact, CO2 extracts are Generally Recognized

As Safe (GRAS) to be used in food products .
Therefore, SC-CO2 may serve as a very
promising technology in food and
pharmaceutical processing (King, 2000).
 Supercritical CO2 Extraction
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5 13
3
4

7 11
2
1 6

8 12

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1. Carbon dioxide gas cylinder 2. Chiller
3. Cold heat exchanger 4. High pressure CO2 Pump
5. Pressure gauge 6. Hot heat exchanger (heater)
7. Extraction vessel 8. Pressure control valve
9. Vent 10. Automatic back pressure regulator
11. Separation/collection vessel 12. Veil for collecting extracted sample
13. CO2 Exhaust
Supercritical CO2 Extraction
 Mechanical Expeller

Mechanical pressing is the most popular method of oil

separation from vegetable oilseeds in the world.
- simple and sturdy in construction
- easily maintained
- operated by semi-skilled supervisors
- adapted quickly for processing of different
kinds of oilseeds
 - Generally, Oilseeds are expelled by wet pressing

Cold-pressing, meaning there is no thermal treatment before

or during operation.
Wet pressing means conditioning the seeds with water or
steam.

- Moisture content and FFA are the most

important factor
- Maximum oil yield can be achieved after 2-3
numbers of pressing
- Consumed more energy

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Several types of Oil Extraction Unit are:

Screw Press Expeller

Capacity: 30 kg/hr

Efficiency: 73-85%
Oil Expeller

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Major components of the screw
press oil expeller

(1) Expeller screw,

(2) barrel cage,
(3) cage bar,
(4) choke nut and
(5) Nuts, bolts and
washers
4-Bolt Oil Expeller
6-Bolt Oil Expeller
German Design Oil Expeller

Efficiency : 80-85%
 Principle of Operation
There are two steps involved in the Oil Expression
of oil through the expeller:

1. Disintegration
- Oil globules are separated.

2. Pressing
- The tough membrane surrounding the
oil droplets is exposed and brust
under pressure, there by oil to ooze
out.
 Principle of Operation
• The oil press has a horizontal main shaft.
The screw assembly is formed integrally with
this shaft.
• This screw rotates within a barrel / casing.
The barrel is made up of case hardened tool
steel bars i.e. casing bars.
• The casing bars are fixed inside the barrel.
• At the discharge end, a movable choke
control the operating pressure.
 Basic Geometry of the Screw

 

Dbo : Outside diameter of barrel

Dbi : Inside diameter of barrel
D: Mean diameter of the screw
Df: Root diameter of the screw at feed section
De: Root diameter of the screw at plug section
: Flight clearance h : Flight height
w : Channel width P : Pitch of the
screw
: Helix angle e : Flight width
L: Length of screw t b : Thickness of the
barrel
 Components of Oil Expeller

• The Casing / The Barrel

• The Screw
• The Check nut
• The cake outlet point
• Motor
• Gear Box / AC Variable Frequency
Drive panel
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Screw
• The configuration of screw is such that the volume
displacement at the feed end of the press is
considerably grater than at the discharge end.
• As a result of such configuration, as the materials
is conveyed from feed end to discharge end, it is
subjected to increase pressure.
• As the pressure increases the materials is
compressed and oil is expelled through the casing
bar gaps.

Compression ratio (C. R.) = (Db2 – Df2) / (Db2 – De2)

Where, Db is dia of barrel

Df is root dia of screw at start of feed section
De is root dia of screw at start of plug section
Screw has Three Section:
Feed Section Ram Section Plug section

Compression
ratio = V1 / V2

Compression ratio is the volume displaced per revolution of screw at

feed end divided by volume displaced per revolution at discharge end.
Different Zone of Screw Press:

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 Problem Statement
• According to estimates of Govt. of India, the country
requires about 24 million tonnes of oilseeds equivalent
to 6.6 million tonnes of oil per year as against the
present production of 31-32 million tonnes.
• To bridge this gap and to make India self reliant in
vegetable oils, it has become necessary to not only
augment the resources for more production of oilseeds
but also conserve the oilseeds and their products by
proper processing.
• It is reported that not less than 0.5 million tonnes of oil of
the value about ten thousand million Rupees is lost due to
improper processing of oilseeds.
 Some major constraints:
 In-efficient processing
 Inadequate utilization of some oil bearing materials such as
rice bran, waste, etc
 Unscientific and inadequate storage,
 Exploitation of oilseed based proteins,
 In-efficient and expensive packaging,
 Inadequate research and development, and
 Problems in exporting oilseed materials are the big hurdles
in increasing oil yields in the ceuntry which need attention.
 POST HARVEST TECHNOLOGY
• Post Harvest Technology plays a key role in
minimizing losses during handling, processing and
preservation of oilseeds and their products.
• By adopting proper post harvest technology, the input
cost in processing of oilseeds is reduced and oil yield
is increased.
• Besides, several value added products can also be
produced even at rural level by introduction of
appropriate post harvest technology and
• thus the farmers can be motivated to grow more
oilseeds.
The various post harvest operations of oilseeds are
as follows:
• Handling, Drying and Storage
• Grading
• Pre-treatments
– Cleaning
– Dehulling (decortication)
– Size reduction and flaking
– Heat treatment
• Recovery of Oil
– The ghani
– The expellers
– Solvent extraction plants
• Refining and Vanaspati Production
• Packaging of Oil
• Utilization of Deoiled Cake/Meal
• Marketing of Oilseeds
 Handling, Drying and Storage
• Proper handling and storage of oilseeds is important for their processing
into quality products since oilseeds are prone to catalytic deteriorative
processes, enzyme action, microbial spoilage (Immature seeds become
dormant, deteriorate more rapidly than normal seeds during storage).
• The moisture content of oilseeds at the time of harvest is usually high arid
uncongenial for their safe storage (Consequently all the oilseeds need to
be dried prior to their storage)
• Some seed Suffer mechanical injury during handling and storage, respire at
a faster rate. As a consequence, the oxygen uptake increases leading to
the oxidation of polysaturated fatty acids and reduces the nutritive
value and organoleptic quality of oils present in oilseeds.
• The faster rate of respiration also generates excessive heat that raises the
temperature of seed mass and thereby accelerates its deterioration.
• Most oilseeds in India are packed in ordinary gunny bags for handling,
transportation and storage.
• Storage is practised in heaps, stacks of bags, bins and cribs.
 Grading
• Grading of oilseeds is required to establish their general quality
based on soundness, moisture content and freedom from impurities
and also to evaluate their oil milling quality based on yield and
quality of oil.

• The grade specifications of different oilseeds are based on:

– quantity of non-prime seeds including damaged, insect-infested
seeds, slightly damaged seeds, shrivelled and immature seeds,
– Type and quantity of impurities or foreign matter,
– moisture content of seeds,
– oil content, and
– colour, acid value, iodine value and other indices of quality of
extracted oil.
 Pre-treatments
• Irrespective of the method of oil separations used, certain
pre-treatments of raw seeds are essential,
• If highest possible recovery of quality oil at an economical
rate is to be obtained, Following pretreatments improve oil
yields and their quality.
– Cleaning
– Dehulling (decortication)
– Size reduction and flaking
– Heat Treatment
 Size reduction and flaking
• The separation of oil from oilseeds is facilitated by reduction of the
seed in small particles by grinding or rolling.
• The cell walls are more readily acted upon by heat and moisture if
the seed particles are small.
• Hence the size reduction of oilseeds is important for efficient
recovery of oils.
• Hammer mills/attrition mills are used for the preliminary reduction
of size of large oilseeds while milling rolls are used for final
reduction.
• The flake particle size of 0.13 - 0.25 mm obtained by rolling is
satisfactory for hydraulic pressing.
• In case of expellers, the production of thin particles or flakes is not
essential as heat is generated and seed particles are broken by
shearing stress developed in the barrel of the expeller during oil
expression.
 Heat Treatment
• Almost all the oilseeds yield oil more readily if cooked adequately prior
to their mechanical expression and/or solvent extraction.
• The cooking process coagulates the proteins present in the seed causing
coalescence of oil droplets and making the seed permeable to the flow
of oil.
• The process also decreases the affinity of oil for the solid surfaces of
seed because of which the best possible yields of oil are obtained on
expression/extraction of cooked seed.
• The cooking process also helps in imparting proper plasticity to seed
mass.
• The cooking process destroys the molds and bacteria to improve the
micro-biological as well as keeping quality of oil cake.
• Heat treatment weakens the cell walls by cooking and causes volumetric
expansion of the droplets which result in the rupture of cell walls and
expulsion of oil.
• The cooking temperatures and its duration periods for most oilseeds range
between 105 – 130 oC and 30—120 minutes, respectively.
 ………Heat Treatment
• Normal cooking of oilseeds has little effect on oil colour,
rather it reduces impurities in oil and improves processing
quality of oil and nutritive values of cakes.
• However, over cooking of oilseeds produces oil and cake of
dark colour. Oil thus obtained is difficult to bleach and has
low nutritive value.
• The moisture content of cooked oilseeds is critically
important in efficiency of their oil expression/extraction
process.
• If the moisture content is more than the optimal, it results in
slippage of the material in the expeller.
• If such oilseed is solvent extracted, the excessive moisture
prevents the proper diffusion of the solvent into the oilseeds
as well as creates non-percolation problems.
 Examples of Some Research Papers

on

Size reduction, flaking & Heat treatment

Effect of Pre-Treatments on Mechanical Oil Expression of
Soybean Using a Commercial Oil Expeller

 Quality of oil obtained by mechanical expression &

 Quality of cake obtained by mechanical expression also studied in this
 Table: The range of parameters investigated in the study (Hydaulic Press)
Independent variables Dependent
variables
Pressing time (4 and 8 min) Oil expression
Particle size, fine (0.6 - 1.18 mm) and coarse (1.18 - 2.36 mm) efficiency (%)

Pressure, 3- 33 MPa
Moisture content, 3%, 7%, 11% and 15%
Temperature, 30oC, 60oC and 90oC
 Effect of processing parameters on coconut oil
expression efficiencies
• Results showed that 8 min of pressing and finer particles
both led to significantly higher oil expression efficiency.
• The pressure increase within the range 3 - 13 MPa led to
significantly higher oil yields, with yields leveling off
thereafter.
• The effect of pressure increase was highly associated with
the moisture content of the gratings, and the optimum
moisture content under low pressure pressing was found to
be 11%.
• A pressing temperature of 60oC led to higher oil expression
efficiency, whereas a further increase of temperature to 90oC
did not lead to a significant increase in oil yield.
 Table: The range of parameters investigated in the study (Screw Press)
Independent variables Dependent variables

Moisture content, d.b., 7.22%, 9.69%, 12.16% and 15% Oil recovery, %, Residual
Cooking temperature, oC, 50, 70, 90, 110 & 130 oil, %, Pressing rate, kg/hr
& Sediment content, %
Cooking Time, Min, 5, 10, 15, 20
 Oil expression from Jatropha seeds using a screw press
expeller

 A maximum oil recovery of 73.14% was obtained when the seeds were conditioned to a
dry basis (db) moisture level of 9.69% and cooked at 110 C for 10 min.
 At optimum processing conditions, oil recovery from cooked seed was 7% higher than
that of uncooked seed.
The various post harvest operations of oilseeds are
as follows:
• Handling, Drying and Storage
• Grading
• Pre-treatments
– Cleaning
– Dehulling (decortication)
– Size reduction and flaking
– Heat treatment
• Recovery of Oil
– The ghani
– The expellers
– Solvent extraction plants
• Refining and Vanaspati Production
• Packaging of Oil
• Utilization of Deoiled Cake/Meal
• Marketing of Oilseeds
 Refining and Vanaspati Production
• Normally the crude oil obtained from mills is passed through a
filter press at high speed so that sediment free oil is obtained.
• In case of oil expression, most of the sediments are allowed to
settle gradually by keeping the oil for 24 hours, then the oil is
filtered once the sediments are settled.
• However, for refining of solvent extracted oil and for
production of Vanaspati, several other unit operations viz;
degumming, neutralization of fatty acids, bleaching,
deodorization, hydrogenation etc. are practiced.
 ……….Refining and Vanaspati Production
• Refining:
– To remove the objectionable co-constituents in the oils with the least possible
damage to neutral oils and minimal loss of desirable constituents
– To improve the oil quality with better taste and color and produce high quality
oils.
• Degumming:
– Designed to remove the phosphatides and certain ill-defined slimes or
mucilaginous/proteineous materials from the oils, which is so called " GUMS“.
• Neutralization of fatty acids:
– Removal of free fatty acids (FFA) and residual gums
• Bleaching:
– It is an adsorption process to remove coloring pigments (carotene, chlorophylls)
and minor impurities like residual phosphatides, soaps, metals and oxidation
products.
• Deodorization:
– A steam distillation process in which the volatile odoriferous components like
aldehydes, ketones, peroxides and residual free fatty acids is stripped out.
• Hydrogenation:
– A modification process which harden the physical properties of the oil by altering
the unsaturation of the acyl groups in addition of hydrogen with nickel
 Packaging of Oil
• The crude oil as well as refined oils are packed in glass, or
plastic containers for marketing.
• The Packaging materials should fulfil the following
requirements:
 Should be a barrier to volatile and taint proof towards prints,
inks, solvent used for inks, adhesive, etc.
 Should be opaque or pigmented to screen the UV light.
 Should have good impact resistance to prevent loss or
contamination due to breakage or leakage of the package.
 Should possess good stiffness, tensile strength, tear resistance
and heat seal strength to work well on automatic Form ­Fill-Seal
machines (for flexible films).
 Should be non-toxic and be compatible with the product.
 Should be tamper proof and have airtight sealing.
 Should be economical, easily available, printable and
disposable.
Requirements for flexible packaging materials for
packaging oils/fats as per IS 12724-1989
specification
 Advantage of Packaged oil and fats:

 Ease in quick disposal at retail points

 Ease of identification
 Tamper evident and therefore chances of mixing or
adulteration minimized
 Quality is guaranteed
 No need for consumer to carry own container
 Convenience in storage and use by the consumer
 No wastage due to spillage at retail shops/containers
 Brand identification can be established
 Marketing of Oilseeds
• The oil seeds market include:
– local markets at rural level where in small
processors purchase oil seeds
– urban markets, normally governed by large scale
processors and
– the government regulated markets.
 OIL SEEDS

CLEANING

Foreign materials / DECORTICATION /

DRYING OF CLEAN SEEDS
Undesirable materials DEHULLING / DESHELLING

Shell or hull

DECORTICATED SEEDS / DEHULLED SEEDS

CLEANING

PREPARATORY TREATMENTS

SIZE REDUCTION HEAT TREATMENT / COOKING

MECHANICAL EXORESSION CAKE

(Screw Press Oil Expeller)

RAW OIL ( Oil + Foots) Solvent Extraction / utilization as Animal Feed

 RAW OIL ( Oil + Foots)

Impurities ( Foots) SETTLING TANK / FILTRATION

(1 – 2% foots)

REFINING

STORAGE OF OIL / MARKETING