• How are sunflower seeds extracted?
  • The seeds are confined within an achene consisting of a shell composed of lignin and cellulolytic materials covering the kernel, which accounts for 80% of its total weight. Raw sunflower seeds usually contain about 25% oil, but through plant breeding, it has increased to 40%. The seed oil can be extracted by cold extraction and hot©pressing.
  • 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.
  • What is solvent extraction of sunflower meal?
  • Solvent extraction of sunflower meal was first commercially available, not until two decades now that the use of mechanical pressure becomes more popular with the advent of organic farming and on©farm oil production. Solvent extraction by extrusion reduced the fat content of the processed seeds.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.