Vegetable Oil Processing Machineries

These set of machinery processes vegetable seeds such as groundnut, soybean, beniseed, castor seed etc into oils and cakes. It is comprised of the following set of machines and equipment:

  1. Nut heater: This equipment pre-heats vegetable seeds in order to increase the fluidity or reduce the viscosity of the oil in the seed with a view to accelerating its extraction process.

    Description: It is comprised of two chambers: boiler and nut heating units. The boiler unit generates steam by heating water to boiling point with the aid of electric heating elements and releases it to the nut heating chamber containing the seeds. Both the boiler and nut heating chambers are insulated to minimize heat loss. The nuts are agitated by an automated stirring mechanism for even heat distribution.

    Performance indices and Specifications:

    • Capacity = 3000kg, 5,000kg and 750kg per day
    • Heat utilization efficiency = 90%
    • Temperature of nuts before oil expulsion = 650C
    • Initial nut heating time from room to 650C = 45mins
    • Revolution per minute (R.P.M) of stirrer = 60
    • Heat energy requirement = 6,000 watts
    • Power requirement of gear motor for stirrer = 5 -10HP

    Features:

    • Continuity in feeding of expeller
    • Production of good quality oil
    • Less tendency in oil discolouration due to mild heat transfer from steam to the nuts
  2. Oil expeller: This extracts oil from oil bearing vegetable seeds by crushing the seeds and forcing the paste through an orifice.

    Description: The expeller is essentially made up of a worm that rotates within a barrel having clearance for exit of oil. The machine is powered by an electric motor through a gearbox. An adjustable lever is provided to vary the pressure of the worm on the seeds to enable it to extract oils from different types of seeds and the extraction rate.

    Features and Specifications:

    • Capacity = 2,000kg, 4,000kg and 5,000kg per day
    • Oil extraction efficiency = 95%
    • Cake dryness = 92%
    • Revolution per minute (R.P.M) of worm = 65
    • Power requirement (electric motor) = 15 -25HP

    Features:

    • Incorporation of adjustable mechanism to extract oils from different seeds
    • Expression of oil in one pass of the seeds instead of two or more passes
    • Continuity in operation due to automatic feed from the nut heater
  3. Oil refining System: The refining system clarifies crude vegetable oils to pure and hygienic edible one.

    Description: The system is made up of two stainless conical and one flat bottom tanks interconnected by a network of pipes. An automated stirrer is also incorporated to each of the tanks for effective mixing of the oil, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and hot water in the two conical tanks in order to coagulate the impurities. The conical section of the tanks allows for free flow of both the coagulated impurities (sludge) and clean oil in separate fractions. The clean oil is then transferred to the flat bottom tank containing electric heaters to evaporate the water fraction of the oil.

    Performance indices and specifications :

    • Capacity = 6,000 litres per day
    • Refining efficiency = 98%
    • Temperature of hot water in tank before mixing = 700C
    • Oil retention efficiency = 99%
    • Revolution per minute of stirrers = 60 rpm
    • Power requirement of heaters in each tank = 5,000kw

    Features:

    • Automation of oil transportation from expeller to refining system
    • Stainless cylindrical tanks
  4. Cake breaker: This equipment breaks the cakes after oil extraction into small fragments for ease of bagging.

    Performance indices and specifications :

    • Capacity = 5000, 7500 and 10000kg per day
    • Cake breaking efficiency = 99%
    • Cake retention efficiency = 98%
    • Revolution per minute of milling cylinder = 550rpm
    • Power requirement (diesel engine or electrical) = 7.5HP

    Features:

    • Low noise
    • Simplicity in operation