Sunflower oil is widely used as a cooking oil. This flower oil has a low saturated fat content and a high vitamin E content. Hence, sunflower oil is one of the most loved cooking oils in India and worldwide. Not only good for cardiovascular health, but sunflower oil is a significant manufacturing base for several cosmetic products. 

This short blog aims to tell you about the refining process of sunflower oil. 

Process of Oil Refining

After being extracted by the chemical solvent extraction process in the sunflower oil machinery, crude sunflower oil undergoes the following steps of refining:

Neutralization

The refining process of sunflower oil does not require the degumming process. The crude oil is first neutralized with the treatment of alkali. Then soap is removed from the crude oil if any traces of soap are found. The soap-separated oil is washed with hot water and carefully dried to follow the next steps. 

Bleaching Process

This is a continuous process that goes on to ensure that no impurities are left in the oil. Bleaching removes pigments, phospholipids, metal traces, soap materials, aromatic compounds and dirt from the crude oil. The process involves heating, bleaching, filtering, and again heating. 

Winterization Process

After the bleaching process comes the winterization process. If the oil still contains traces of wax and triglycerides, they are removed in this stage. These impurities are visible at a low temperature. As the name suggests, the temperature is lowered in the winterization process to trace them down, and then they are removed. 

Deodourization 

The deodourization process in sunflower oil refining demands special sunflower oil machinery. A certain amount of good-quality steam is passed over the hot oil at a lower pressure. This generates a vacuum stripping and removes all the volatile impurities from the oil. A fatty acid distillation plant is required to carry out this final process.

The oil is then cooled and taken for the remaining process of packaging.

Conclusion

Mectech is a popular name in the oil processing machine manufacturing business. They have been manufacturing custom-made plants and fatty acid distillation plants for the oil and fats industry. You can quickly increase your profitability by using their machinery to refine your crude oil into high-quality sunflower oil.