How is soybean oil made?

Soybean oil is an edible oil extracted from soybeans. As a common crop, soybeans are widely grown around the world, providing sufficient raw materials for the production of soybean oil. Soybean oil is light yellow to orange-yellow in color, clear and transparent, with a unique bean flavor. It is rich in unsaturated fatty acids (such as linoleic acid and oleic acid), vitamin E and phytosterols, and has the effect of lowering cholesterol and promoting cardiovascular health.

How is soybean oil made?

Soybean pretreatment

First, it starts with the preparation phase of the soybean oil production process. This initial phase processes the raw soybeans to make them ready for oil extraction.

1. Washing: The soybeans are washed to remove impurities. Magnetic separators are used to remove metallic impurities. Non-metallic impurities are removed by sieves and vibrating screens.

2. Crushing: The cleaned soybeans need to be crushed to make the particles smaller and increase the surface area, which is beneficial for subsequent softening, embryo rolling and other processes.

3. Softening: Due to the low oil content of soybeans, they are usually softened. The crushed soybean particles are conveyed to the softening pot for softening to increase the extensibility of the soybeans and make them more suitable for flaking.

4. Flaking: Flaking machines are used to crush oilseeds into flakes from pellets. This process breaks up the cellular structure of the oilseeds, increasing the surface area for oil extraction.

5. Steaming and frying: Use a steaming and frying pan to adjust the temperature and moisture to make it reach a suitable state for pressing.

6. Pressing: The steamed and fried cooked dough is transported to the soybean oil press for pressing, and then crude soybean oil can be obtained.

Soybean oil solvent extraction

Soybean oil extraction is a modern oil production method that uses organic solvents (usually n-hexane) to extract the oil from soybeans. Compared with the traditional pressing process, the extraction process has the advantages of high oil yield, low residual oil rate in the meal, low labor intensity, high production efficiency, and easy large-scale continuous production. It is currently a widely used process in soybean oil production.

Extraction: The oil extraction process adopts the principle of solid-liquid extraction, adding solvent (n-hexane) to the oil soybean embryo to dissolve it in the solvent to form a mixed oil. (Extractor: horizontal rotary extractor, ring extractor, drag chain extractor)

Wet meal desolventizing: The wet meal after leaching contains a certain amount of solvent, which needs to be removed through the desolventizing process. The principle of desolventizing is to use high-temperature steam to vaporize the solvent in the wet meal and extract the solvent vapor through a vacuum system. (Desolventizing equipment: desolventizing machine)

Mixed oil treatment: After the mixed oil is left to stand, the solvent and oil are separated by evaporation, stripping and other processes based on the principle of different boiling points of solvent and oil to obtain crude oil. The crude oil is transported to the refining equipment for refining treatment, the purpose of which is to remove impurities and improve the purity and stability of the oil.

Solvent recovery process: The solvent is separated by evaporation and stripping in the evaporator. The separated solvent is stripped and enters the condenser for condensation treatment. The condensate then enters the water separation tank for water separation. The separated solvent returns to the solvent turnover warehouse for continuous recycling.

Soybean oil refining

1. Degumming: Degumming is the first step in refining soybean oil to remove phospholipids. The commonly used degumming method is hydration degumming, that is, adding a certain amount of hot water or dilute alkaline solution to the crude oil to make the phospholipids and other colloids absorb water, swell and condense, and then separate the colloids from the oil by centrifugation.

2. Deacidification: Deacidification is to remove free fatty acids in crude oil. Generally, alkali refining is used to add an appropriate amount of alkali solution to the crude oil to neutralize the free fatty acids with the alkali to produce soap and glycerin, and then the soap and grease are separated by centrifugation.

3. Decolorization: Decolorization is to remove the pigment in the oil and improve the color and transparency of the oil. The commonly used decolorizer is activated white clay. The activated white clay is added to the deacidified oil and stirred and adsorbed under certain temperature and vacuum conditions so that the pigment is adsorbed on the surface of the soil, and then the white clay and the oil are separated by filtration.

4. Deodorization: Deodorization is the process of removing odorous substances from oils and fats. The purpose of deodorization is achieved by directly passing steam into the oils and fats under high temperature and high vacuum conditions, so that the odorous substances evaporate along with the steam.

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