Effect of pre-treatments on mechanical oil expression of soybean using a commercial oil expeller

The effect of expeller screw press and pre-treatments on the quality and quantity of soybean oil and cake was studied using a commercial oil expeller. The pretreatments included whole soybean crushing, soy grits crushing, and crushing of soy grits extruded at 135 degrees C. The screw speeds were 28, 35, and 45 rpm. The moisture content of soybean used in the experiment was 10% wet basis. The average capacity of the oil expeller was found to be 145 kg/h, 110 kg/h, and 120 kg/h for whole, grits, and extrudate, respectively at 45 rpm. The average capacity of oil expression from whole soybean did not vary significantly from 28 to 45 rpm. In the case of soy grits, however, the capacity was higher when the expeller speed was lowest, i.e., 28 rpm. In the case of extrudate, even in a single pass, the recovery was higher, i.e., to 71% at both 45 and 35 rpm. The color of oil from soy grits was lighter followed by extrudate, and the color of oil obtained from whole soybean was dark. The FFA in oil from all the samples was below 1%, however the lowest percentage was for oil obtained from extrudate at 0.5%. The urease activity of the extruded cake was 0.15 pH units, and the protein and oil content were about 48% and 5%, respectively. The optimum process variables for mechanical expelling of soybean were found to be extrusion as a pretreatment and speed of expeller screw at 45 rpm, which yielded throughput capacity 103 kg/h, oil recovery of 70.5%, and urease activity of the cake at 0.15.