About Soybean Oil

Soybean oil is a vegetable oil extracted from the seeds of the soybean. Soybean oil is mostly used for frying and baking. It is also used as a condiment for salads. As a drying oil, processed soybean oil is also used as a base for printing inks (soy ink) and oil paints.

Soybean oil

When the farmer sells soybeans to a grain dealer, the beans may then go to a number of ultimate destinations. When processed, a 60-pound bushel will yield about 11 pounds of crude soybean oil and 47 pounds of soybean meal. Soybeans are about 18% oil and 38% protein. Because soybeans are high in protein, they are a major ingredient in livestock feed. Most soybeans are processed for their oil and protein for the animal feed industry. A smaller percentage is processed for human consumption and made into products including soy milk, soy flour, soy protein, tofu and many retail food products. Soybeans are also used in many non-food (industrial) products.

Some soybeans are needed to produce another crop each year. High quality soybeans are grown, harvested and purchased by the seed industry to be used as seed for the next year’s crop. Researchers in the seed industry focus on developing new soybean varieties with outstanding characteristics including high yield, lodging resistance, nematode resistance, herbicide tolerance, and many other desirable characteristics.

Production

Soyabean Growth

Soybeans are grown from seed planted in rows in the field. The soybean seeds are mature soybeans that are cleaned and bagged specifically for use as seed. Farmers select seed based on desirable plant characteristics, like high yield, ability to withstand drought, colour, or ability to withstand wind and weather. In North Carolina, farmers plant soybeans beginning in May and as late as July.

Seed may be planted in cultivated or tilled land by a tractor and a planter which deposits the soybean seed about 1 1⁄2 inches deep in rows that are up to 30 inches apart. There is no rule about how wide rows must be, but 30 inches is typical.

Or soybeans may be “drilled” into the ground in seven-inch rows by a special “no-till” planter. When a farmer uses the “no-till” method, the land is not cultivated and the seeds are planted directly into the stubble left over from the previous crop, for example wheat harvested in May or June. The “no-till” method is a great improvement that saves time, conserves moisture and greatly decreases the possibility of soil erosion. “No-till” is often acceptable for farmers, but sometimes tillage is required, especially for dealing with fields infested with pests like tough weeds.

Large tractors and multi-row planters are used to plant many rows at the same time. This requires fewer trips across the field and more works gets done in less time.

When the soybeans sprout and small plants begin to grow (about four to seven days after planting), there are many things a farmer must consider to protect his crop. The farmer has already invested in seed, planting, and weed control and wants the crop to grow its best. Bugs and worms really like small tender plants; so when the farmer notices that there is a heavy insect infestation, he or she must calculate the degree of risk to the crop. If the infestation is bad enough to harm the crop, the farmer sprays a pesticide to control the harmful pests. If the farmer is using organic methods, there are still products that can be sprayed but the choice is much more limited, and the risk is somewhat greater.

Another threat to the young crop comes from weeds that grow faster than soybean plants. They can crowd out the soybean plants and prevent necessary sunlight and nutrients from enabling the soybean plants to grow strong and healthy. This will reduce the soybean yield. Also, if allowed to grow some weeds will produce seeds that will be harvested with the soybeans and will reduce the value. The farmer will get less money when he sells his soybeans if there are lots of weed seeds in with the soybeans.

In July, August and September, the plants bloom. The flowers are small and vary from a white to a beautiful violet or purple. From these blossoms, the soybean plant grows small pods that contain the young seeds. The soybean is a self-pollinating plant, which means that each flower has male and female parts. A single plant can produce seed and essentially clone itself. Soybean plants produce many more flowers than they need.

Edible Oil Manufacturing Process

Edible Oil Manufacturing Process

First of all, Raw materials should be removed of all external material. If you want to process cotton seeds, the ginned seeds have to be stripped of their lint along with dehulling.( If you are going to press corn oil, the corn germ must undergo pressing to separate the germ. The stripped seeds or nuts are then ground into coarse meal to provide more surface area to be pressed.) The meal is then heated to facilitate the extraction of the oil. While the procedure allows more oil to be pressed out, more impurities are also pressed out with the oil, and these must be removed before the oil can be deemed edible.

Pressing section is one of the most key procedures in the edible oil manufacturing process. The heated meal will likely be fed continuously into an oil screw press, which increases the pressure progressively as the meal passes through a slotted barrel. Pressure generally increases from 68,950 to 20,6850 kilopascals for the reason that oil is squeezed out of the slots in the barrel, where it could be recovered.

Solvent extraction is another pressing method in the edible oil manufacturing process. Soybean is a high oil bearing material, as a result, after the first pressing process, there would possibly still have a little oil left and most high oil bearing materials take extraction method with the both, which means using oil press to extraction oil first and then using solvent to extraction the residue oil o attain the most yield.

In the edible oil manufacturing process, however, 90 % of the solvent staying in the extracted oil simply evaporates, and, as it does, it is collected for reuse. The rest is retrieved with the use of a stripping column. The oil is boiled by steam, and the lighter hexane floats upward. As it condenses, it, too, is collected.

Last but not the least, crude oil refining is also important in the edible oil manufacturing process if you want to produce oil for edible uses. The oil is refined to clear out colour, odour, and bitterness. Oils are degummed at the moment by treating them with water heated to between 188 and 206 degrees Fahrenheit (85 and 95 degrees Celsius), steam, or water with acid. The gums, most of which are phosphatides, precipitate out, and the dregs are removed by centrifuge. Finally, the oil is deodorized. In this process, steam is passed over hot oil in a vacuum at between 440 and 485 degrees Fahrenheit (225 and 250 degrees Celsius), thus allowing the volatile taste and odour components to distill from the oil.

To produce soybean oil, the soybeans are cracked, adjusted for moisture content, heated to between 60 and 88 ºC (140–190 °F), rolled into flakes, and solvent-extracted with hexanes. The oil is then refined, blended for different applications, and sometimes hydrogenated. Soybean oils, both liquid and partially hydrogenated are sold as "vegetable oil," or are ingredients in a wide variety of processed foods. Most of the remaining residue (soybean meal) is used as animal feed.