9 Edible Oils Production Processes

9.1 Introduction

Fats and oils are an essential part of our diet, supplying nutrients, improving flavor, aiding in the
absorption of vitamins, and providing concentrated sources of energy for our bodies. Food fats and
oils are derived from oilseed and animal sources. In order to get high quality edible oil, various
techniques are used in the processing.
The following steps are a general description of the possible steps in transforming Crude Oil to RBD
(Refined Bleached Deodorized) or consumer-edible oil. The steps necessary and exact details may
differ per type of product to be created.
Detailed information on the two most widely used oils, Soy Oil and Palm Oil a technical chart of the
production steps involved is displayed in paragraph 8.6

9.2 Purpose of Oil treatment

All crude oils and fats used for edible purposes contain non-triglyceride substances. These
substances detract from the acceptability of the oils or fat as foodstuff, because of the flavor or color
which they give to the oil, or because they reduce its stability or shelf life. The purpose of refining is to
remove the undesirable components so as to achieve a national or international specification whilst
retaining the desirable features.
Exception to the above paragraph are Olive oil and (to a lesser extent, Virgin Coconut Oil). These are
the oils directly consumable after the oil extraction process. As these are special cases, the
remainder of this chapter is not applicable to these types of oils. Due to the increasing use of Olive Oil
however, a dedicated paragraph is dedicated to the production process of Olive oils.
Even though purer oil is produced through the refining steps, the oil in turn may become less stable
by doing so. The purifying or refining steps do have an affect on the oxidative stability of the oil. In the
case of soybean oil, it was found that the crude oil became less stable during processing with the
order of stability being crude > deodorized > degummed > alkali refined > bleaching. The stability of
the oil is dependent on the presence of minor components including tocopherols, metal ions and
phospholipids, which are partly removed during processing. Again this emphasizes the comment
made in the introduction of this chapter that the order and application of the process steps in the next
paragraphs may differ per product.

9.3 Oil Extraction and Expression Methods

The process of obtaining oil from seeds involves the separation of oil from oil-bearing material by
mechanical means, chemical means, etc.
Oil extraction is exactly what it sounds like, the removal of an oil from a substance, such as a peanut,
olive, coconut, or corn. The oil removed can sometimes contain the aromatic compounds of the
original material, this is called essence oil, an example would be pepper essence or orange essence.
The oil can be removed through mechanical, chemical or enzymatic means, depending on the
material and which method will work best with it. A mechanical method would be like pressing the
olives to remove the oil, while a chemical way could be as simple as boiling a slurry of the material in
water or more involved such as using a solvent for the extraction. The enzymatic method utilizes the
enzymes in such a way that they break down the cell wall of the plant releasing the oil. This last
method is relatively new and has improved the yields of oil extracted in several cases

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 Whole Mechanic Purification Usable
Cleaning Crude Oil
seed pressing Processing Oil

Seed Meal

Figure 11 Mechanical expression:

Example: distillation
Most oils are extracted using steam distillation. As the steam break down the plant, its essential oils
are released in a vaporized form. When these pass through cooling tanks, the volatile essential oils
return to liquid form and are separated and is easily isolated as pure essential plant oil.

Example: expression
Expression is also known as cold pressing (see also paragraph 5.3.2)
Various types of mechanical presses are used to squeeze oil from oil seeds. Oil seeds are first
cooked slightly in order to partially break down the cell culture for easier release of oil. The oil-bearing
material is squeezed through a tapering outlet in the mechanical pressing and filtered to get pure
essential oil.

Example: solvent extraction

It is very common in large-scale operations to remove the oil from cracked seeds at low temperature
with a non-toxic fat solvent such as hexane. When a plant such as jasmine contains very little oil or
when the odorous properties of flavor and plant materials would be destroyed or altered by steam or
water distillation, solvent extraction is used
The plants constituents, including essential oils, fatty acids and waxes, are dissolved using a solvent.
After the solvent is distilled off, the remaining constituents make up the pulp. Alcohol is used to
extract the essential oil from the other constituents. Since the waxes and fatty acids are not alcohol
soluble, they are separated. The alcohol is then released through secondary distillation, leaving the
absolute oil behind.

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9.4 Oil Purification Methods (Refining)

Figure 12: Oil refining and modification steps

Once the oil is extracted from the original material it is called crude oil. The preparation of marketable
oil for human consumption from crude oil requires a series of operations known as " refining ".
Several alternative technologies are available for each one of these operations. Each one can be
carried out in batch wise, continuous or semi-continuous fashion.
Two methods, physically refining and chemical refining, are available for refining crude oil. They differ
basically in the way in which the free fatty acids are removed. In the physical refining process fatty
acids are removed by steam distillation under high vacuum, simultaneously achieving deodorization.
In the chemical refining process fatty acids are removed using an alkali.
Both processes are able to produce refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) oil of desirable quality
and stability.
It is actually the product (or better put, it’s characteristics) that requires the need for physical or
chemical refining. Physical refining is applied to oils that have little or no phospholipids (like coconut
oil). Also Palm Oil is normally refined using physical refining. Only if the Palm oil is of poor quality
(many Free Fatty Acids) chemical refining is applied.
Product derived from e.g. Soya, Fish and to a lesser extent Sunflower contain a high amount of
phospholipids and must be degummed (which implies the use of chemical refining)

9.4.1 Physical Refining

9.4.1.1 Pre-Treatment

Initially the crude oil is degummed with concentrated acid (acid +water). The purpose of the acid is to
precipitate the nonhydratable phospholipids. The hydratable phospholipids will dissolve in the water.
Through a centrifugal separator, the watery phase is separated from the oil. Next the oil will be dried
(heating + vacuum).

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9.4.1.2 Bleaching

The next step of refining is "bleaching'. Its purpose is to remove the yellow-orange carotenoid
pigments and the green chlorophyll of the oil. The extent of bleaching depends on market
requirements. The market in the U.S.A. requires almost water-clear appearance while somewhat
darker color may be perfectly acceptable or even preferred in other markets. Treating the oil with solid
adsorbents such as Fuller’s earth or activated carbon or both carries out bleaching. The pigments and
some other impurities are adsorbed on the solid surface and removed by filtration. In order to prevent
oxidation, the process is carried out under vacuum. Continuous "in-flow" bleaching processes exist.

9.4.2 Chemical Refining

Also known as “caustic" or “alkali” or “Conventional” Refining

9.4.2.1 Degumming

Degumming is usually carried out at the extraction plant, even if the subsequent steps of refining are
performed elsewhere. Whenever further processing of the crude gums is not economically feasible,
due to insufficient plant scale or insufficient market demand, the crude gums can be added-back to
the meal, increasing the bulk and caloric value of the latter.
Degumming is the removal of the phospholipids. The phospholipids should be removed before
refining takes place in order to prevent the separation and settling of gums (sticky, viscous oil-water
emulsions stabilized by the phospholipids) during transportation and storage of crude oil, to reduce oil
losses in the subsequent phases of refining and to avoid excessive darkening of the oil in the course
of high-temperature deodorization.
The crude oil is degummed with the help of concentrated acid. The purpose of the acid is to
precipitate the nonhydratable phospholipids. The hydratable phospholipids will dissolve in the water,
present in the acid.

Example of the use of the by-products of Degumming: Soybean Lecithin example

In the case of the Soybean degumming, the phospholipid fraction may be separated from practically
all the oil by a series of solvent extraction and precipitation processes. Oil free soybean phospholipids
are solid. All these by-products of the degumming process are known as "soybean lecithin" and sold
under different trade names and in a variety of quality grades. The principal quality parameters for
commercial lecithins are: phospholipid content (measured as percent acetone insolubles), free
acidity, non-lipid impurities (measured as hexane insolubles), viscosity and color.
It can even be the case that the phospholipids are separated from the crude soybean oil fraction,
purified (extracting the useable oil from it, which is then redissolved in any desired type of refined oil.
Lecithins act as emulsifiers in sauces and salad dressings, as viscosity reducers and stabilizers in
chocolate, as anti-spattering agents in margarine, as pan release agents in bakery and confectionery,
as dough improvers and staling retardants in bread, as wetting agents in instant food powders etc.
They also have some antioxidant characteristics.

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9.4.2.2 Neutralizing

In the "chemical " (or "caustic" or “alkali” refining process the fatty acids are neutralized with alkali
(sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate) to form salts (soaps) soluble in water.
Once the oil is degummed, the oil is treated with an alkali solution (sodium hydroxide and sodium
carbonate) .The concentration depends on the free fatty acid content of the crude oil. The reaction
between the alkali solution and the free fatty acids results in the formation of sodium soaps, which is
removed by centrifugal separator (see soap-stock) Treatment with caustic solutions also removes
residues of phospholipids not removed by degumming and results in some degree of bleaching due
to the destruction of some of the pigments or their adsorption by the heavy phase.
The neutralized oil is then washed with water to remove traces of soap still present. After a second
centrifugal separator the oil is dried under vacuum, in preparation for the next step, bleaching.

9.4.2.3 Soap Stock

Soap stock can be used for making soap or it can be converted back to fatty acids by treating with a
strong mineral acid. The crude mixture of fatty acids obtained, known as "acidified soap stock" can
be used as a caloric component in animal feed or for the manufacture of distilled fatty acids.
Bleaching and Deodorizing are the same for physical and chemical refining.

9.4.3 Bleaching

The purpose of Bleaching is to remove the yellow-orange carotenoid pigments and the green
chlorophyll of the oil. The extent of bleaching depends on market requirements. The market in the
U.S.A. requires almost water-clear appearance while somewhat darker color may be perfectly
acceptable or even preferred in other markets. Treating the oil with solid adsorbents such as Fuller’s
earth or activated carbon or both carries out bleaching. The pigments and some other impurities are
adsorbed on the solid surface and removed by filtration. In order to prevent oxidation, the process is
carried out under vacuum. Continuous "in-flow" bleaching processes exist.

9.4.4 Deodorization

Deodorizing consists in the removal of odorous substances by steam distillation under high vacuum
and at temperatures in the range of 2500 C. typically, the deodorizer is a vertical cylindrical vessel
with internal trays. The oil enters in the top in the first tray. First tray is to heat up the oil. Generally a
tower contains 4-6 trays depending on the capacity. After certain time the oil from the first tray is
dropped in the tray below, which was previously emptied in the tray there below. At the bottom tray
the oil is cooled down and transported to the storage tanks. Several layouts are used to intimate
contact between the oil and steam. At the end of the stripping process, the oil must be cooled while
still under vacuum to prevent oxidation. Citric acid is usually added in order to chelate any metal ions,
which may catalyze peroxide formation. In modern deodorizers, all the parts in contact with oil are
made of stainless steel to prevent such metal contamination. While the main objective of
deodorization is the removal of odor-bearing compounds such as aldehydes, ketones and
hydrocarbons, other substances such as sterols and tocopherols are also distilled off. In physical
refining, this operation is responsible for the removal of free fatty acids. All these substances may be
recovered from the deodorizer condensate stream, if necessary.

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9.5 Further optional processing steps

9.5.1 Fractionation

Fractionation can transform the refined oil into two or more new oil products - each with its own
unique properties and applications. This is done by separation of solids from the oil at certain
temperatures. The most common method of this is through crystallization, or winterization, where a
mixture of triglycerides is separated based on their melting points. The temperature of the mixture is
adjusted, usually lowered, so that one of the fractions is a solid. This is then passed through a filter
removing the solid fraction and letting the liquid purified fraction pass.
Fractionation is a physical modification process - so there is no chemical change to the products. And
of course in the dry fractionation process, there is no use of costly of hazardous chemical additives,
no yield loss and no contamination of the oils. Because it produces no effluent, the dry fractionation
process is also environmentally friendly.

Figure 13: Fractionation

Especially Palm Oil is suitable for the fractionation process. The Palm Oil is separated into different
fractions, each having its own melting characteristics / melting point which are determined by the
method of cooling and the final end temperature.
In general Palm Oil is separated in Palmstearine and Palmolein. In a second step one can produce
products like Softstearine en Superolein. A third fractionation step will provide products like
palmmidfractions, superstearin, etc.

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 PALM OIL

Cooling / Crystalisation

Filtration

(liquid) OLEIN (solid) STEARIN

Soft Stearin Super Olein

Figure 14: Product derived from the fractionation of Palm Oil

As with fractionation, dewaxing also is basically the separation of oils with different melting points. In
the fractionation process, the oils are cooled in a simple way and kept at a low temperature for
sometime. The liquid and the solid fractions are separated by filtration. In the Dewaxing process, the
cooling of the oil and the separation of the waxes are done in a more sophisticated way, under
controlled conditions.

9.5.2 Hydrogenation

In hydrogenation, hydrogen is added directly to react with unsaturated oil in the presence of nickel
catalyst. The need for the hydrogenation is based on (1) converting liquid oils to the semi-solid forms
and (2) increasing the oxidation and thermal stability of fats and oils. This process greatly influences
the desired stability (e.g. shelf life) and properties (e.g. flavor) of many edible oil products.

Figure 15: Hydrogenation

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Hydrogen gas is bubbled into the heated oil at a controlled rate and pressure. The hydrogenation
process is therefore easily controlled and can be stopped at any point. A gradual increase in the
melting point of fat and oil is one of the advantages. If all unsaturated bonds are eliminated entirely
with hydrogenation, the product is a hard brittle solid at room temperature. Shortening and margarine
are typical examples of products manufactured with this type of oil.

9.5.3 Interesterification

Another process used by oil processors permits a rearrangement or a redistribution of the fatty acids
on the glycerol fragment of the molecule. This process, referred to as interesterification, is
accomplished by catalytic methods at relatively low temperature. Under some conditions the fatty
acids are distributed in a more random manner than they were present originally. Other conditions
permit the rearrangement process to direct the fatty acid distribution to an extent that allows further
modification of shortening properties to be obtained. The rearrangement process does not change the
degree of unsaturation or the isomeric state of the fatty acids as they transfer in their entirety from
one position to another.

Figure 16: Interestification

Molecularly rearranged shortenings have a satisfactory consistency over a much wider temperature
range.
The predominant commercial application for interesterification in the US is the production of specialty
fats for the confectionery and vegetable dairy industries. In the EU this concerns most vegetable fat
spreads. This process permits further tailoring of triglyceride properties to achieve the required
melting curves

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9.6 Technical Charts

The following technical charts display the common processing of both Soya and Palm Oil and can be
used to place the above mentioned process descriptions in perspective.

9.6.1 Soybean Processing

Figure 17: Soybean processing steps

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9.6.2 Palm and Palm Kernel Oil

Figure 18: Palm and Palm Kernel processing steps

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