Filtration In The Process of Edible Oil Production

Edible oil is plant, animal, or synthetic fat used in frying, baking, and other types of cooking. It is in liquid state at room temperature. Most common edible oils are vegetable oils and fats, including canola oil, peanut oil, corn oil, olive oil, camellia oil, palm oil, sunflower seed oil, soybean oil, sesame oil, etc. The general process of edible oil production includes extraction, filtration, refining (degumming, neutralization, bleaching, dewaxing, deodorizing), canning, etc.

The crude oil extracted from plants contains a large number of solid impurities, such as mucilaginous substances, phosphates peroxides, volatile impurities (water solvents ethers, etc.), and requires a series of processing to obtain the product edible oil. Hanke provide you with a wide range of edible oil filtration solutions to help you get edible oils with great appearance quality and good taste.

For details, please refer to:

Edible Oil Filtration Solutions

3 bottles of edible oil are placed on the table.

Crude Oil Filtration
Bleached Oil Filtration
Dewaxed or Winterized Oil Filtration
Catalyst Filtration

Crude Oil Filtration

Background
Oil obtained by separating oil from raw materials by means of physical pressure pressing or chemical solvent extracting is called crude oil.
Problem
Crude oil contains a large number of solid impurities, such as mucilaginous substances, phosphates peroxides, volatile impurities (water solvents ethers, etc.). These impurities will deposit at the bottom of oil tanks, causing downstream equipment clogging and lowering the appearance quality of the oil products.
Solution
To obtain high quality edible oil productions, impurities need to be removed before refining. Vertical pressure leaf filters are adopted for crude oil filtration as they require a small footprint and can effectively remove impurities from crude oil to get high quality oil products and get prepared for the next procedure.

Vertical pressure leaf filters for crude oil filtration

Bleached Oil Filtration

Background
Removing pigments and other impurities are removed from crude fats and oils ensures the appearance, quality and stability of the refined oil product. Therefore, bleaching is usually performed during the refining process.
Problem
A typical bleaching process starts from mixing bleaching agents such as bleaching clay, activated carbon or activated clay mixed with heated oil, and then uses bleaching agents to adsorb pigments and other impurities. Bleached oil remains mixed with bleaching agents, therefore, filters are required to separate oil from bleaching agents.
Solution
Pressure leaf filters or candle filters are generally adopted for blenching agent filtration. Typically, pressure leaf filters are recommended when bleaching earth serves as the blenching agent and candle filters are recommended when active carbon acts as the blenching agent.

Horizontal pressure leaf filters for bleached oil filtration

Dewaxed or Winterized Oil Filtration

Background
Some edible oils produce crystals and become cloudy when the temperature goes down in winter. Most of edible oils are packed in transparent bottles. When the oil becomes cloudy in winter, its appearance quality is also greatly reduced. Therefore, many manufacturers will dewax or winterize the oil to improve its stability and prevent crystal formation and cloudy at low temperatures.
Problem
To get high quality edible oil, dewaxing is required in the refining stage. The general process of dewaxing is lowering the temperature to make the oil produce crystals and then remove these crystals by filters.
Solution
Horizontal pressure leaf filters are generally adopted for dewaxed or winterized oil filtration as they can effectively remove wax contained in fats and oils and improve the appearance quality of edible oils.

Horizontal pressure leaf filters are installed in edible oil workshop for winterized oil filtration.

Horizontal pressure leaf filters for winterized oil filtration

Catalyst Filtration

Background
Hydrogenation of oils applied in the production of solid fats and margarine is required to give refined oil products a higher melting temperatures and better oxidation stability, thereby improving its resistance to spoilage.
Problem
Nickle-based catalyst is generally used in this process, once the hydrogenation is complete, the nickel catalyst must be filtered out. As catalysts are inedible and very expensive, therefore, catalysts are required to be filtered for recycling.
Solution
Candle filters are generally adopted for catalyst filtration as they are your perfect choice for recovering very low content of solids from liquids and are more efficient, safe and reliable than conventional filters.

Candle filters for catalyst filtration