1. Sunflower oil refining processing — Degumming
Crude sunflower oil contain gums, or gum like material. These consist largely of different carbohydrates, proteins and nitrogen compounds, and can be divided into hydratable and nonhydratable gums.If these are not removed before the fat or oil is exposed to the high temperatures used in deodorization or deacidification/deodorization, quality problems can well emerge. This is because the gum can give rise to problematic emulsions that in turn result in a significant waste of oil that could otherwise provide revenue.Water, chemicals or enzymes These gums can be removed using either water degumming, other specialist degumming and special degumming processes. Hydratable gums can be removed using water, because they absorb water and then become insoluble in oil. They are then removed using centrifugation .
Nonhydratable gums, on the other hand, are normally removed using a form of acid hydrolysis or caustic soda neutralization – phosphoric acid is the most common because it is the most cost effective.
Adding such acids also helps remove any trace metals by making them form insoluble complexes.
Main equipment of degumming section
Buffer tank
Blending Device
Centrifuge Separator
Heat Exchanger
2. Sunflower oil refining processing — Bleaching
Bleaching is one of the key processes in palm oil refinery, designed to remove not only pigments, but also a wide range of other impurities. Most crude fats and oils contain impurities that have to be removed for both commercial and health reasons. Modern industrial bleaching technologies are the way to do this.
Main equipment of bleaching section
Heat excahnger
Bleacher
Blending Device
Leaf Filter
3. Sunflower oil refining machine — Deodorization
Deodorization is an absolute necessity in processing palm oil fats and oils. How efficiently it is done determines what you can achieve in your processing operations as a whole, in terms of removing odours, pigments and volatile substances.
When processing palm oil and animal fats, it is crucially important to remove any undesirable compounds that can affect flavour, odour, stability and colour. Deodorization is a vacuum steam distillation process in which steam is passed through such oils at very low pressure and relatively high temperature in order to remove any such substances still present after the preceding processing stages.
Main Equipment of Deodorization
Dearator
Heat Exchanger
Deodorizing Tower ( Packing structure)
Free fatty Acid Recovery device
4. Sunflower oil refining — Dry Fractionation
In edible oil processing, a fractionation process consists of a controlled cooling of the oil, thereby inducing a partial, or ‘fractional’, crystallization. The remaining liquid (olein) is then separated from the solid fraction (stearin) by means of a filtration or centrifugation.