• 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 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.
  • How is sunflower seed processed for oil production?
  • Figure 1 shows a flowchart of sunflower seed processing for oil production that results in sunflower seed byproducts (whole and defatted sunflower meals) (Figure 2). The process starts with the crushing of the seed, where the whole sunflower meal is generated.
  • 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?
  • Then, the whole sunflower meal is subjected to a new extraction process using solvent, usually hexane or methanol and defatted sunflower meal/cake is generated as a byproduct (Table 1). After this, the oil filtration or decantation step is realized, whose purpose is to separate waste.