Sunflower seed oil is a kind of healthy vegetable oil, and its production process needs to go through several pretreatment processes to ensure the quality and nutritional components of the oil. The following are the main steps of sunflower seed oil pretreatment:

Clean up impurities

In the production of sunflower seed oil, the raw materials need to be cleaned first. Sunflower seeds may contain impurities such as sediment, stones, metal fragments and dust. In this step, screening machine, magnetic separator and air separation equipment are usually used to remove different types of impurities, so as to ensure the smooth progress of subsequent processes.

Shell

Sunflower seeds are covered with hard shells, which will affect the oil yield during oil extraction. Therefore, it is necessary to remove the shell of sunflower seeds by sheller, and only the kernel is left. The shelled seeds will be further processed, and the shell can be used as fuel or other purposes.

Crush

Crushing the shelled sunflower seeds to make them into small granules. The purpose of this step is to increase the surface area of the seed kernel and provide better conditions for subsequent steaming and pressing processes.

Steaming and frying

The crushed sunflower seeds need to be steamed and fried. Steaming and frying can adjust the moisture and temperature of seed kernel, destroy the cell structure and promote the release of oil. This step plays an important role in improving oil yield and oil quality.

Press or leach

The steamed sunflower seeds can be pressed or leached. The pressing method is to directly extrude oil through mechanical equipment, while the leaching method is to extract oil by solvent. These two methods can be used separately or in combination to improve the oil yield.

These pretreatment processes are closely linked, which directly affects the yield and quality of sunflower oil. Through scientific and reasonable technological process, the nutritional components in sunflower seeds can be preserved to the greatest extent, and high-quality vegetable oil can be provided for consumers.