What are the edible oil processing steps? What machines are needed?

The edible oil processing steps include crude oil extraction, refining, fractionation or de-waxing, in which it needs oil seeds pre-treatment machines, oil pressing machines, solvent extraction machines, oil refinery machines, fractionation machines and de-waxing machines.

Three workshops inluded in edible oil processing

Crude oil extraction is getting the crude oil from the oil seeds, which has two types of methods: pressing method and solvent extraction method. Pressing is the physical way to press the oil from oil seeds. Solvent extraction method is the chemical way to extract the oil by solvent. These two crude oil extraction methods have different advantages and are suitable for different capacity edible oil processing plants.

Pressing method is suitable for the edible oil processing plant with capacities from 5 tons per day to 1000 tons per day. And generally, the crude oil from edible oil pressing plant can be cooked directly after filtering. But the disadvantage of the pressing method is the oil residual ratio is a little higher. The oil residual ratio of the best edible oil pressing machine is at least 6%.

Edible oil press machine

Solvent extraction method is using the solvent (normally it is n-hexane) to extract the oil from oil seeds or cakes. Before that, the oil seeds need pretreatment process, such as cleaning, crushing, cooking, bulking , flaking, and so on. This method has the very low oil residual ratio -- less than 1%. But it is suitable for the capacity more than 30 tons/day.

Edible oil solvent extraction machine

Edible oil refining is the purification process of crude oil by degumming, deacidification, decolorization and deodorization. After refining, the crude oil will become refined edible oil with high quality.

Edible oil refining machine has three kinds: batch type, semi-continuous type and full-continuous type. Normally batch type edible oil refining machine is suitable for the smaller scale oil refinery from 1tpd to 10tpd with the lower investment. Semi-continuous and full-continuous type are suitable for the bigger capacity of 10-500 tons/day, which can produce higher quality final edible oil, but the investment is higher than batch type.

Three types of edible oil refining machine

Fractionation process is to separate the solid part and liquid part in edible oil at a specific temperature. Generally, palm oil, palm kernel oil, coconut oil, cottonseed oil need to be processed by fractionation equipment. And de-waxing process is to remove the wax in the edible oil, often used in the production process of rice bran oil, sunflower oil, corn germ oil and flaxseed oil. The equipment of fractionation process and de-waxing process are similar, including crystallization tanks, filter machine and refrigerating unit.

Fractionation or dewaxing machine

These machines are for the complete edible oil production line, and can be customized based on customers' needs. If you want to buy a part of them, such as oil seeds pretreament and press machine or edible oil refining machine, Doing Company can also design for you. Welcome to contact us!