Established in 1980, Mectech has been the turnkey supplier of plant & machinery in
the field and ever since its inception it has delivered delight in all of its
projects. The 400 plus projects spread across the world (Pakistan, Srilanka, Bangladesh, Nepal,Turkey, Iran, Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia & Argentina. ) are best in class, of
global standards and ensure increasing returns. The number of plants is highest
in the country. Castor
Oil is a fatty acid with 18 carbon atoms and a double bond, and finds
great demand as it yields a wide variety of chemical derivatives, essential in for
diverse applications. Castor oil or its derivatives can be found in the
manufacturing of soaps, lubricants, hydraulic and brake fluids, paints, dyes,
coatings, inks, cold resistant plastics, waxes and polishes, nylon,
pharmaceuticals and perfumes. Although Castor has historically being one of the oldest, it contributes a
minuscule part of the total vegetable oil produced. Yet, it is of critical importance to
the global specialty chemical industry as it is the sole commercial source for hydroxylated
fatty acid. While the castor bean castor oil processing plant method can typically be considered a simple
process, it becomes complicated if the operators are unaware of its exact
processing parameters and operating procedures. Extraction of oil from castor
seeds is done in a manner similar to that for most other oil seeds.
The
first stage is known as pre-pressing that by employing a
high pressure continuous screw press – the expeller. The Extracted oil is then filtered,
and the residue obtained is transferred along with fresh raw material. The
ripe seeds are dried, are split open and the seeds discharged.
Some
of the stages are:
o
Settling and Degumming of the Oil
Eliminates the aqueous phase from the lipids, also
removes phospholipids
o
Neutralization
This removes free fatty acids from the oil.
o
Bleaching
Eliminates impurities that lend spurious colors,
phospholipids and oxidation impurities.
o
Deodorization
For removing odor from the oil.
The major operations in the process include cleaning of the raw
materials, conditioning, pressing, cleaning and storage.
Castor cake is obtained after the extracted oil is filtered and the physical
impurities eliminated. It contains around 8-10% and the castor cake is then crushed
into a course meal and subjected to solvent extraction. Hexan
is employed to extract the remaining
oil as it is the most suitable. After the oil has been extracted, any
impurities present are eliminated using a filter press by removing any
water, dissolved gases and acids.
The extracted oil is finally refined
as the last
step.
