• What is sunflower seed processing?
  • Sunflower seed processing focuses on sunflower oil as the most valuable product. It is used as high-value oil in various food applications. The deoiled meal is considered a byproduct and is mostly used as animal feed. In 2011, annual world production of deoiled sunflower meal was at 16 million tons (FAO, 2013).
  • How is sunflower crushed for oil recovery?
  • Sunflower is crushed for oil recovery via one of two process methods, hard pressing or prepress solvent extraction. Hard pressing relies upon exerting high pressure on the prepared seed to separate oil from the solids fraction, historically recovering about 25% oil from the seed.
  • What is a prepress solvent extraction method in a sunflower crushing plant?
  • In a typical sunflower crushing plant using the prepress solvent extraction method, the initial steps of seed pre-cleaning and seed drying are located in the seed receiving section of the facility, prior to seed storage.
  • Why is prepress solvent extraction better than sunflower meal?
  • Because sunflower oil has a substantially higher economic value than sunflower meal, process economics improve significantly as the oil recovery yield increases. Therefore, prepress solvent extraction, with the highest oil recovery yield, is the process method utilized today for the majority of the sunflower seed that is crushed globally.
  • How does a sunflower extractor recover the solvent pumped to the extractor?
  • The solvent evaporated from the sunflower meal and the miscella are both recovered in the solvent recovery system within the solvent extraction process area. A typical sunflower plant will recover 99.8¨C99.9% of the solvent pumped to the extractor.
  • How is sunflower meal extracted from mineral oil?
  • The solvent vapor stripped from the mineral oil in the mineral oil stripping step is sent to the vacuum condenser for solvent recovery. After the solvent extraction process, an additional increase of the protein content of sunflower meal can be obtained by tail-end dehulling.