• 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).
  • Why is sunflower oil important in Tanzania?
  • One reason for encouraging the greater production and processing of sunflower oil in Tanzania is thus its potential for import substitution, which could generate income and jobs at home and have a beneficial impact on foreign- exchange outflows. Also it is healthier than other types of oil, for example palm oil and groundnut oil.
  • What are the advantages of Refining sunflower oil?
  • This process is more economical (improved yield, lower investment cost, less chemicals used) environmental friendly process (no soapstock to be treated, splitted) but more sensitive to the crude oil quality. Physical refining of sunflower oil is discussed in details.
  • How to refine sunflower oil?
  • Physical refining of sunflower oil is discussed in details. Recent developments in the field of processes, equipment and control have made it possible to refine by physical way the high phosphatide containing seed oils as well.
  • 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.