If you are planning to establish a castor oil extraction plant, especially in South Africa. This article is a gread guide for you. Even if you want start edible oil extraction business with other oilseeds and plant, this article is also worth reading!

Lately, the South African industry for these nutritious seeds has been pretty volatile in terms of production, while the demand for vegetable oil has increased by almost 40%. The volatility experienced by the production of castor seed caused visible fluctuation in the volumes produced. After a few years of ups and downs, lately, production in South Africa has been increasing. South Africa is a major exporter of the seeds for countries like Kenya, Namibia, Uganda, Botswana, and Pakistan. The largest factories for castor seeds in South Africa can be found in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces. South African domestic production is stable enough to be able to accommodate the local demand, thus most of the castor seeds products consumed in the country are produced locally.

 About Castor Oil

Castro oil is usually obtained by pressing the castor beans. The pressing involves one or a combination of solvent extraction or mechanical pressing. The oil has a bland taste and is pale yellow in color. It is also non-drying, non-volatile and viscous. Castro oil has many industrial uses. It is utilized in the beauty industry as hair oil and cosmetic, production of biodiesel, and is also used as a purgative in varnishes and paints.

Castor oil is preferred to other types of mineral oils because it is a renewable, eco-friendly, and biodegradable energy resource. Unless exposed to very high temperatures, castor oil is not prone to oxidation compared to other types of oils. The local demand for castor oil in South Africa has significantly increased. Therefore, it is necessary to establish an industrial scale production plant in the country.

Screw Castor Oil Expeller At Factory Price

Castor oil processing involves a complete set of Oil Production Equipment, among which oil expeller press is the most important machine. Screw castor oil expeller makes use of the rotation of screw shaft that is designed with various screw worms to push the materials advancing within the pressing cage continuously. Due to the gradual shortening of the screw worm, the gradual shallowening of the screw worm depth, the spatial volume of the inner hole of the screw worm and the inner hole of the pressing rings is gradually reduced, and the squeezing effect of the sawtooth of the pressing rings to the embryo is use, and the oil in the embryo is separated, and is extruded from the gap between the pressing bars and the oil grooves in the pressing rings, and the residue is pressed into a cake and discharged from the outlet end.

The castor oil expeller machine has many outstanding features that can great improve the whole castor oil extraction process.

  • High quality carbon steel and stainless steel are used to manufacturer the most robust oil expeller machine
  • Compact size with useful designs (such as oil cake smash device) enables easy operation, less maintenance, small noises, stable and smooth oil pressing
  • Factory direct supply price of the castor oil expeller helps to lower the cost of whole castor oil production business
  • Sufficient and cheap spare parts of castor oil expeller machine ensure your long-term production

Turnkey Castor Oil Extraction Plant

 Mechanical Pressing Process

The ripe castor seeds are dried and passed via dehulling to eliminate the shells before extraction. The seeds are then thoroughly pre-cleaned before cooking and then passed through another drying process. Cooking helps to thicken protein and to release the castor oil for optimal pressing. Pre-pressing is the initial phase of castor oil extraction. Pre-pressing is performed under very high pressure and consistent screw press or expeller. Afterward, the extracted castor oil is filtered before removing the materials from the castor oil and adding them back to the mainstream together with the fresh materials. The cake refers to the material that is eventually released from the screw press and incorporates eight to ten percent of the oil. It is then squeezed into a rough meal and then exposed to extraction with hexane (solvent extraction).

 Solvent Extraction Process

Solvent extraction or liquid-liquid oil extraction plant involves distributing components between two immiscible phases. During the process, the castor seeds are thoroughly cleaned, and an oven is used to dry them before crushing the seeds and subjecting them to the solvent extraction procedure. PM (Particulate Matter) and VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) are the primary discharges from vegetable oil processing. PM comes from the transfer, handling, and the processing of raw castor seeds while VOC discharges result from hexane, the oil extraction solvent, and is classified as a harmful air pollutant. Smaller quantities of the solvent (approximately 0.2 percent of oil by volume of castor oil) are present in the crude oil after hexane is recovered by the distillation stripper and film evaporators.

Why Castor Oil Is Important?

Castor oil is a vegetable oil with unique properties in nature. Castor oil contains ricinoleic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid and stearic acid, among which, ricinoleic acid accounts for 88%~90%. Castor oil is a kind of dry oil made from castor seeds (47%~50% oil content). It does not solidify under -18°C and not degenerate and burn under 500~600°C. The crude castor oil is deacidificated, washed, dehydrated, decolorized and filtered to prepare refined castor oil.
In nature, castor oil contains the highest hydroxyl value of fat. Refined castor oil is an important chemical raw material, and its derivatives have been applied in many fields. Refined castor oil can be used as a premium lubricant for aircraft, ships and other high speed machinery. It is also the main raw material for engineering plastics. It can manufacture mechanical parts and radio parts for steel and other non-ferrous metals. Castor oil also can be used to produce biodiesel oil for green energy. Anyway, castor oil and its derivatives are very important industrial materials. Therefore, investing on castor oil production would be profitable, especially in Africa, Asia, America and South America, such as India, Jamaica, Columbia, America and more!