Introduction To Sunflower Oil Extraction Technology
Average seed yields are 1 – 4 tonnes per ha. The oil content is 25 – 48%, but high temperatures during seed development can reduce the oil content to below 25%. The processing of sunflower seed involves cleaning and drying, followed by decortication because sunflower seed shells contain silica, which can cause wear and damage to expellers.
The sunflower oil extraction plant can be divided into four main parts which are as follows
- Sunflower Cracker
- Sunflower Oil Expeller
- Sunflower Filter Press
- Steam Boiler
Sunflower Cracker Machine
The sunflower seeds are allowed to undergo the sunflower seed cleaning process to make the best use of them. A sunflower seed cracker is an important machine which finds a place in the sunflower oil extraction plant. We all know that all the sunflower seeds differ in size. Sunflower seed crackers are used to reduce the size of the sunflower seeds and make them suitable for oil extraction.
There is an inlet hopper at the top of the machine for feeding the seeds into the machine. The internal structure of the machine is enclosed with the casing. When the sunflower seeds fall into the chamber, the rotating blades will break the sunflower seed into smaller pieces. A special outlet is provided at the bottom of the sunflower seed cracker for the sunflower seeds to come out.
Sunflower Oil Expeller
Cracked sunflower seeds are fed in the feeding hopper of long cooking kettle for cooking purpose. Cooking of sunflower seeds is necessary for highest recovery and long life of sunflower oil. Long cooking kettle is provided for the proper cooking of the sunflower seeds. The cooking kettle has given a special shape for maximum heating surface and the better cooking.
The cooked sunflower seeds will be automatically dropped in the expeller and the expeller extracts (crushes) the cooked sunflower seeds with the highest extraction pressure and produces the oil and by product (cake). The extraction chamber of expeller is specially designed for the highest recovery of oils as well the complete design of expeller is heavy duty for the best performance.
The filter pump is attached with the expeller and it supplies the extracted sunflower oil from the sunflower oil tank of expeller to filter press with high pressure.
Sunflower Filter Press
The filter press filters the extracted sunflower oil by using the micro filter cloths to make it edible. Filtered sunflower oil will be a very cleaned, transparent, fresh, pure and natural in taste without any chemicals and hence there is a big demand of the same sunflower oil at everywhere. The filtration chamber of the filter press is specially designed with membranes plates for the best performance.
Salient Features Of Reusing From Jagdish Sunflower Oil Extraction Plant
- The husk or any waste wood or any agricultural waste or diesel is used in the boiler for firing as a fuel.
- The boiler produces the steam from the water and which is given to the cooking kettle for the cooking of the sunflower oilseed.
- Water feed pump is provided to feed the water in to the boiler.