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PARAMETERS INFLUENCING THE SCREW PRESSING PROCESS OF OILSEED

MATERIALS

Conference Paper · January 2014

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 PARAMETERS INFLUENCING THE SCREW PRESSING
PROCESS OF OILSEED MATERIALS
Mariana Ionescu *, Gheorghe Voicu, Sorin-Ştefan Biriş,
Cristina Covaliu, Mirela Dincă, Nicoleta Ungureanu
University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, Department of Biotehnical Systems, Biotechnical
Systems Research and Development Center

ABSTRACT

Vegetable oil, one of the most important component for both food and non-food industry, is contained
by the oleaginous plants in seeds, pulp, stone fruits, in the tubers or sprouts. Depending on the nature of material
and their oil content, various methods can be used for oil extraction from oleaginous material. Mechanical
continuous presses are the most commonly used machines for the pressing of oleaginous materials in oil
industry. These presses have the following advantages: continuous working, high working capacity, operating
without major shocks and vibrations, easy adjustment of the working pressures, etc.The request for the vegetable
oil increases as a result of the increasing number of applications that it can have. Thus, to satisfy the vegetable
oil demand, it is necessary that the oil extraction methods to be faster and more efficient. Processes and
phenomena that occur during the pressing process of the oleaginous materials are very complex. For the
optimization the pressing process it is useful to know the main variables affecting the oil recovery and oil
quality. This study aims to summarize the influence and impact of the main variables on the pressing of oilseed
materials.

1. INTRODUCTION

Oil products industry, one of the most important components of modern agriculture,
produces edible and inedible oils. About 2/3 of total oil products are the edible oils, which are
used directly in food industry as follows: manufacture of margarine, mayonnaise, bakery and
pastry products, cooking fats, preserves etc. The remaining 1/3 of the total volume of
produced oil is represented by the technical oils, used in the production of various products,
such as: detergents, paint, glycerin, fatty acids, varnish, pharmaceuticals or cosmetics, [3].
There are a wide range of raw materials for oils industry. In the vegetable reign are more
than 100 oleaginous plants, but only 40 of them can be are used for oil expression. The other
plants are unprofitable, as they have low oil content in their seeds or as they require a difficult
expression process. The most important oleaginous plants are: sunflower, soya, rape, cotton,
poppy, almond, sesame, nut, palm, coconut, olive, flax, castor, [2].
Worldwide, for extraction of oil from seeds, fruits and nuts, four basic methods are used,
as it follows:

chemical extraction (which is a method based on the use of enzymes or solvent to
extract the oil from the raw material),

extraction using high pressure carbon dioxide (i.e. supercritical fluid extraction,
SFE),

steam distillation (the method used for the extraction of 93% from the essential
oils),

mechanical expression (which requires the application of pressure to force oil out
of the oil bearing material), [9,11].
Separation of oil from oilseeds is an important processing operation. The process
employed has a direct effect on the quality and quantity of protein and oil obtained from
oilseeds. Two general terms “expression” and “extraction” are used frequently when
discussing about vegetable oil separation. Expression is the process of mechanically pressing

243
liquid out of liquid-containing solids. Extraction is the process of separating a liquid from a
liquid-solid system with the use of a solvent. There has been some confusion in the literature
between the operations of “expression” and “extraction”. The latter word has been rarely used
to designate either operation. This tendency has been so extensive that the distinction between
the two terms appears to be disappearing from the literature. The term ”extraction” is also
used for mechanical oil expression, [5].
Mechanical pressing and solvent extraction are the most commonly used methods for
commercial oil extraction. Screw pressing is used for oil recovery up to 90-95%, while
solvent extraction is capable of extracting 99%. In spite of its slightly lower yield, screw
pressing is the most popular oil extraction method as the process is simple, continues, flexible
and safe, [4].
Mechanical oil extraction (also known as pressing) is based on mechanical compression
of oleaginous materials. Through pressing, oil is separated from the oleaginous material
(solid-liquid mixture) under the action of compressive external forces that arise in special
machines called presses. This method ensures extraction of a non-contaminated, protein-rich
low fat cake at relatively low-cost. The disadvantage of this method is that the mechanical
presses do not have high extraction efficiencies, about 8-14% of the available oil remain in
the press cake, [1].
Pressing operation may be conducted by using hydraulic presses, which are driven by
fluid pressure, or in screw presses, where the pressing force is created by a helical body
(worm) which rotates in a closed space (press chamber). The hydraulic presses were replaced
with continuous screw presses and continuous solvent extraction plants, which are less labor
intensive. The olive oil industry still utilizes hydraulic press in the present.
The first screw oil press was developed in 1900 by V.D. Anderson in the United States.
This press allows continuous operation of hydraulic presses which resulted in greater
capacities with smaller equipments and less labor, [3].

Figure 1: Screw press design, [12]

The mechanical screw press consists of a vertical feeder and a horizontal screw with
increasing body diameter to exert pressure on the oilseeds as it advances along the length of
the press. The barrel surrounding the screw has slots along its length, allowing the increasing
internal pressure to first expel air and then drain the oil through the barrel. Oil is collected in a
trough under the screw and the de-oiled cake is discharged at the end of the screw. The main

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advantage of the screw press is that large quantities of oilseeds can be processed with minimal
labor, and it allows continuous oil extraction, [10].
Before the pressing process, the oilseed materials are subjected to various pre-treatment,
such as cleaning, conditioning, heating, flaking, dehulling, in order to improve the quantity
and the quality of the oil obtained from the raw material. Considerable efforts have been made
in the past to improve the oil extraction efficiency of screw presses. Most of them have
focused on optimization of process variables such as applied pressure, pressing temperature
and moisture conditioning of the fed samples, [1]. Others improvements on oil screw presses
were made for the design of the presses and for the material of presses construction.

2. DISCUSSIONS ON THE PARAMETERS INFLUENCING THE SCREW

PRESSING PROCESS

When discussing about screw pressing process, a number of parameters had to be taken
into account for optimization of the oil production. This study is a short overview of the
scientific literature regarding the parameters influencing the pressing process. Literature data
show that the most important parameters which influence the pressing process are: screw
speed, restriction size, hull content, moisture content, cooking process, temperature, pressure.
Screw speed
The increase of the screw speed leads to the increase of the throughput, while the residual
oil content in the press cake will be higher due to the fact that less time is available for the oil
to drain from the solids. Also, at higher speed of the screw the viscosity remains lower
resulting in less pressure build-up, which leads to the obtaining of relatively high residual oil
content, [6]. At slower screw speed, the extraction efficiency will be higher and the oil left in
the meal will be lower. In the case of cold pressing, a slower speed is often necessary because
as screw speed increases, the temperature of the oil and meal moving through the machine
also increases, [12].
At the pressing process of rapeseed using a Mini-40 Rosedown Simon press, [14], it was
found that the residual oil from the cake will decrease at a lower screw speed. The decrease of
the residual oil may be a consequence of the residence time increasement that occurs as a
result of the decrease of the transport speed. An additional reason may be the fact that there is
an increase in pressure at the cake outlet nozzle as a result of the increase in the viscosity of
the material at lower speeds.
Using a twin screw extruder for pressing sunflower seeds, [8], it was studied the influence
of working conditions on the yield of oil obtained. Thus, it was observed that if the screw
speed was reduced, for several values of throughput or pressing chamber temperature, there
has been a rise in the yield of oil extracted. Energy consumption has also increased with
increasing of screw speed, due to the increasement of the specific mechanical energy.

Restriction size
When the restriction size (the dimension of the press nozzle) is reduced the pressure in the
pressing chamber increases (because a higher force is required to overcome the restriction)
and that will conduct to a higher oil yield, [4,6].
During the experiments conducted by Vivek S. Vadke, [14], it was observed that with
decreasing of choke opening (nozzle size) will decrease the amount of residual oil in the cake.
This is explained by the fact that when the nozzle size is smaller, the pressure is higher due to
higher flow resistance. It was also shown that press productivity will decline if the choke
opening will be reduced.
Another study, [7], has revealed the influence of choke opening on the press performance
(press with 100 kg/h throughput produced by ICAERD) when pressing the jatropha seed with
245
a moisture content of 15%. The experiments were carried out using different size for the
choke opening, such as 6, 7 and 8 mm. It is noted that the varying of the choke opening had a
significant influence on the processing capacity of the press. However, by increasing the size
of nozzle achieved a reduction in the yield of oil extracted. Therefore, when increasing the
nozzle size from 6 to 8 mm, the oil yield decreases from 30.4% to 25.8%.

Hull content
The hull content of the raw material subjected to the pressing process is expected to affect
both oil recovery and energy requirement. Removal of the hull, which is a hard material,
would require less energy for breaking and compressing and result in zero presence of hull
fibers in the crude oil. However, the oleaginous material needs to contain a certain percent of
hull, because, seeds without hull will turn into a paste inside standard expellers, which sticks
to the worm and keeps rotating along with it. As the hull of the oleaginous seeds contains a
low percent of oil, the removing of hull may lead to decreased absorption of oil, which will
mean the increasing in oil recovery, [4,6].
In order to study the influence of seeds dehulling on the pressing process, experiments
using flaxseeds, variety Omega, were conducted, [16]. After the pressing process has finished
has been observed that, although the oil yield obtained from dehulled flaxseeds was smaller
than the oil yield obtained from whole flaxseeds (72.0% to a moisture content of 10.5%), the
oil productivity for dehulled seeds was higher. It also has been observed that the temperature
of the oil and the cake obtained from dehulled flaxseeds was much lower than for whole
seeds. Thus, the pressing of dehulled flaxseeds presents several advantages for the production
of organic flaxseed oil.
To analyze the necessary energy to press whole or dehulled seeds, [17], a study was
conducted on a S 87G Komet screw press. The study revealed that the decrease of the fraction
of hull removal (FHR) led to significant increases in oil and cake temperature. This is due to
the fact that the lower fiber content of the dehulled seeds leads to smaller friction during the
pressing process. When pressing whole flaxseeds, specific mechanical energy (SME) was
much higher than in the case of dehulled flaxseeds pressing. The oil yield obtained at dehulled
flaxseeds pressing was lower than that obtained at the whole seeds pressing, but taking into
account that the specific mechanical energy and the oil/cake temperature obtained from
dehulled seeds is lower we can consider that pressing dehulled seeds is a convenient process.

Moisture content
The moisture content of the oleaginous material is another important factor affecting the
pressing process. An optimal moisture level for oil expression is expected to exist. In the
literature, it is considered that in case of rapeseed the optimum moisture level is close to 7%,
while for flaxseed the optimal moisture content is expected to be around 6%, [4]. The
increasing of the moisture content of the oilseeds leads to the increasing of the yield until a
maximum point. After this point, the increasing of moisture content will conduces to the
decrease of the oil yield. This phenomena is explained by the fact that the increasing of the
moisture content make the cell walls more permeable (which increases the yield), but it also
cause a plasticization of the seed material which reduces the oil yield, [15].
In a study whose objective was to analyze the necessary energy for pressing Omega
flaxseeds, whole or dehulled, [17], it was used a S 87G Komet screw press and experiments
were carried out in four stages, where the process variables were the moisture content of the
seeds and the fraction of hull removal (FHR). Moisture content of the seeds take the values
from 6.3 to 12.6% (dry basis) and the fraction of hull removal was 20%, 62% and 85%, in a
first step whole seeds being pressed to. It is noted that, for pressing the whole seeds, reducing
the moisture content from 12.6 to 6.3% (dry basis) resulted in increased yield of extracted oil ,

246
the maximum yield (89.4%) being obtained at the lower moisture content of the seed (6.3%).
Instead, when pressing dehulled seeds, the maximum oil yield was not achieved at the
minimum moisture content. It was also observed that the decrease in moisture content resulted
in significant increases in oil and cake temperature; also, the specific mechanical energy
(SME) increased significantly from 81.1 to 104.7 kJ/kg when the moisture content of the
whole flaxseeds decreases from 12.6% to 6.3%.

Temperature
In order to obtain good quality oil, the temperature of the material during the pressing
process should not exceed maximum allowable values. This is necessary in order to prevent
undesired cell wall components polluting the oil. The higher temperatures on the pressing
process leads to the dissolving of the phosphor in the oil, [6]. Therefore, it is desirable to
obtain the high yields at lower temperatures, [15].
In a study regarding the influence of moisture content and cooking on the pressing process
of crambe seeds, [13], it was observed that at moisture content in the range of 3.6 and 9.2%,
the extracted oil yield from cooked crambe seeds was higher than the uncooked seeds. For the
same values of the moisture content, the processing capacity of the press was higher for the
uncooked seeds. Another conclusion of this study was the fact that in the case of uncooked
seeds, the residual oil in the cake was higher than for the cooked seeds, while the foot content
of the oil was higher for cooked seeds.

Pressure
The radial pressure which arises in the pressing chamber is a parameter directly
proportional with the oil yield. Therefore, with the increasing of the pressure, the oil yield
increases reaching a maximum limit at higher pressures. This maximum is dependent on the
type of seed, pre-treatment applied to the seed and the equipment used. Generally, the
specialty literature presents data which limite the pressures below 35 MPa, with a few
exceptions, [15].
The effects of compressive stress, feeding rate and speed of shaft screw press on palm
kernel oil yield were studied, [1]. They used an expeller with a rated capacity of 180 kg/h for
experiments which were conducted by using a factorial experimental design with 3 variables
at 3 levels: compressive stress (10, 20 and 30 MPa), feeding rate (50, 100 and 150 kg/h) and
shaft screw press speed (50, 80 and 110 rpm). A maximum efficiency of 94,5 % (meaning a
maximum oil yield of 46,3%), was obtained at 30 MPa compressive stress, 150 kg/h feed rate
and 110 rpm of screw speed, while the minimum express efficiency of 33,6 %, (which
represents a 16,3% oil yield) was obtained at 10 MPa compressive stress, 150 kg/h feed rate
and 50 rpm of screw speed. For the studied range, oil yield increases with increase in speed of
shaft screw press and in feeding rate. Oil yield is directly proportional to compressive stress
while influence of speed is marginal, and also it is possible to predict a further increase in oil
yield with an increase in compressive stress.

3. CONCLUSIONS

Vegetable oils have a great importance for human health as well as to the oil chemistry.
Vegetable oils can be obtained from many oleaginous materials using various technological
processes, chemical and mechanical. Solvent extraction technology is still the most widely
used process and the one with higher extraction efficiency, but due to the fact that this method
use chemicals which affect the environment and human health, new technologies have been
researched. The object of this study is the screw pressing method of obtaining oil from
oleaginous seeds, which is a simple process that obtain high quality oil at a lower cost. In

247
 order to optimize the pressing process, it is important to know the parameters that have the
higher influence on the process. Analyzing the literature, the most important parameters
which influence the pressing process are: screw speed, restriction size, hull content, moisture
content, cooking process, temperature, pressure.
References
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[3] Bargale, P.C., Mechanical oil expression from selected oilseeds under uniaxial compression, Ph.D. Thesis,
University of Saskatchewan, Canada, 1997.
[4] Beerens, P., Screw-pressing of Jatropha seeds for fuelling purposes in less developed countries, Ph.D.
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