Small edible oil refining equipment and principle

To meet the international industry’s standards for edible oil, the crude edible oil produced by edible oil mill plants or edible oil solvent extraction plant should be refined in edible oil refinery plant. So the edible oil refining machine is very necessary. Depending on the level of automation and the investment scale, edible oil refining machine can be divided into three types, they are: batch type, semi- continuous and fully continuous. Today, we mainly introduce the small edible oil refining process, which belongs to intermittent refining in terms of refining type. Henan Glory Company will introduce the small edible oil refining equipment and principle to help investors better understand.

The Refining Principle

The same purpose as other edible oil refining equipment, small edible oil refining equipment is also mainly used to remove some unuseful impurities in crude edible oil, such as phospholipids, FFA, pigment, odor, etc, to improve the final edible oil storage stability, flavor and color. About the batch type edible oil refinery plant, it included four mainly sections：degumming, deacidification, decolorization, deodorization.

Degumming

Crude oil often contains phospholipids, also known as gums. These gums can cause problems during storage and frying, such as foaming and darkening of the oil. In the degumming process, a small amount of water or an acid - based degumming agent is added to the crude oil. The phospholipids hydrate and form a sludge that can be separated from the oil through centrifugation.

Deacidification

Free fatty acids in crude oil can cause unpleasant taste and odor. In the deacidification step, a certain concentration of NaOH (sodium hydroxide) is added to perform an acid-base neutralization reaction to remove free fatty acids from the oil.

Decolorization

After neutralization, there may still be some color impurities in the oil. Decolorization is performed by treating the oil with a decolorizer (usually activated clay). 1-3% of the weight of the oil is added to the decolorizer for physical adsorption, and then a filtration device is used to separate the oil from the decolorizer to achieve the decolorization purpose.The decolorizer absorbs the impurities that cause the color, making the oil lighter and more attractive.

Deodorization

The last step in the refining process is deodorization. At high temperatures of 220-260°C and certain vacuum conditions, a certain amount of superheated steam is introduced to strip the oil, and the deodorization is achieved according to the different volatilization points of the oil and volatile small molecules. In this step, volatile compounds (including unpleasant odors and tastes) are removed, resulting in refined oil with a neutral taste and odor.

After the above four steps, we will get edible oil, that also means the ending of edible oil refining process.

Process flow of cooking oil refining

Small scale edible oil refining equipment is the most commonly purchased equipment by customers, especially popular in Nigeria cooking oil processing market, since it has many outstanding features. Batch type edible oil refining equipment is suitable for small oil mills or oil plants with a daily processing capacity of less than 20 tons. It has small investment, small equipment footprint, simple and flexible operation, and is also suitable for frequent replacement of various oils. Although batch type edible oil refining equipment is cheap, its process is the same as semi-continuous and fully continuous edible oil refining equipment, including four sections of degumming, deacidification, decolorization and deodorization. After four refining sections, you can get standard oil.

The small edible oil refining equipment and principle have been introduced. If you want to know more or want to choose suitable edible oil refining equipment, you can contact Henan Glory. Henan Glory's small edible oil refining equipment is designed with precision and built to last. The equipment is compact, easy to install, and requires minimal maintenance, making it ideal for small scale operators with limited resources. In addition, professional engineers will offer you customized edible oil refining equipment according to your requirements.