Preparation

An efficient Extraction would need that every oil bearing cell of the material is in contact with the solvent. In other words, the smooth preparation prior to main extraction is very vital to comply with this contact, smaller the material size, better the penetration of the solvent into the oil bearing cells, but too fine a size will prevent the solvent from percolation through the mass. Hence an optimum size is absolutely essential for efficient extraction.

The method of material preparation does vary from material to material depending upon its oil content and physical properties. We group them as follows:

• Oil Cakes
• Oil Bearing Seeds (Soybeans, Sunflower, Rape Seed, Canola)
• Floury Materials (Rice Bran)

In the case of oil cakes, being big pieces, has to be reduced to proper size and without fail, ensuring that there are no ‘fines’. OILTEK Cake Sizer and Cake Cracker are the finest to this process.

In case of high oil content seeds like soybean, sunflower, rapeseed, canola it passes through, the well proven OILTEK Expander after cracking, cooking & flaking. Seeds like sunflower, rapeseed, canola will pass through the squeezomatic attachment for squeezing the oil before the collects goes to extraction, passing through updated OILTEK Drier Cooler.

In case of Floury materials like rice bran, etc. any of the above equipment are not workable. Hence an OILTEK Pelletiser or Expander with conditioning arrangement has been used to form pellets before extraction.

The prepared material is transported to the Main Extraction Section via an OILTEK Conveyor.