What is the sunflower oil extraction process?

Sunflower oil is a common edible oil that is extracted from sunflower seeds. The extraction process of sunflower oil includes multiple steps such as cleaning, shelling, kernel shell separation, cooking, pressing, filtering, and refining. Let's take a closer look at the extraction process of sunflower oil.

Sunflower oil extraction process flow chart

Step 1: Clean Up

After the sunflower seeds are picked, the machines need to be cleaned to remove impurities and dirt. Generally, we use special cleaning machines, such as vibrating screens, stone removers and magnetic separators. Vibrating screens can remove light impurities, such as leaves, etc., and stone removers are mainly used to remove stones, clods, etc. Finally, a magnetic separator is used to absorb impurities such as iron blocks, so that we can get cleaner sunflower seeds.

Step 2: Shelling and kernel shell separation

Since sunflower seed hulls will reduce the oil yield, we first use a sheller to shell sunflower seeds to obtain sunflower seed hulls and sunflower kernels, and then use a kernel shell separator to separate the sunflower seed hulls and sunflower kernels to obtain sunflowers seeds.

Step 3: Cooking

Then, we use the cooker to adjust the temperature and humidity of the sunflower seeds, so that the sunflower seeds are in the best pressing conditions and improve the oil yield of sunflower oil.

Step 4: Pressing

The cooked sunflower seeds need to be pressed to extract the oil. The pressing method can be cold pressing or hot pressing. The method of cold pressing is to put the sunflower seeds in a press, and through mechanical pressing, the oil is pressed out of the sunflower seeds. Hot pressing is based on cold pressing, heating sunflower seeds to make it easier to squeeze out the oil.

Sunflower oil press machines picture

Step 5: Filtering

Pressed sunflower oil needs to be filtered to remove impurities and residues from the oil. The filtering method can be physical filtering. The method of physical filtration is to use a plate and frame filter to filter out the moisture and impurities in the oil.

Step 6: Refining

Pressed sunflower oil is refined to remove odors and impurities from the oil. Refining generally adopts the method of chemical refining, absorbing the odor and impurities in sunflower oil to the adsorbent, and then separating the adsorbent and odor impurities through filtration.

Sunflower oil refining machines photo

The above is the extraction process of sunflower oil. If you want to develop sunflower oil processing business, please contact Henan Glory Company, we can provide you with professional sunflower oil extraction machines.