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Pre-extraction of Jatropha Oil
Seed Cleaning
The Jatropha beans have some foreign materials and dirt that get separated by hand picking. The seed cleaner pictured below is a basic type of seed cleaner for efficient cleaning of seeds.
Drying, Heating & Conditioning
The cleaned beans are sun dried in the open, until the casing splits and sheds the seeds. The beans are further dried in the oven at 60°C for seven hours to a constant weight in order to reduce their moisture content, which initially would have been about 5 to 7%. Pre-heating or drying the seeds prior to expelling also improves the release of the oil by breaking the cell walls and by thinning the oil.
Shelling / Dehulling & Winnowing
Most oil-bearing seeds need to be separated from their outer husk or shell. This process is referred to as shelling, dehulling or decorticating. Shelling increases the oil extraction efficiency and reduces wear in the expeller as the husks are abrasive. In general, some 10% of husk is added back prior to expelling as the fibre allows the machine to grip or bite on the material.
After dehulling, the shell may have to be collected separately from the kernels by winnowing. At small scale this can be done by throwing the material into the air and allowing the air to blow away the husk. At larger scales mechanical winnowers are available.
Milling & Grinding
Milling: Milling is carried out to reduce the size of particles and improve the efficiencies of extracting oil.
Grinding: Mortar and pestle are normally used to crush/grind the beans into paste (cake). This process weakens or ruptures the cell walls for oil extraction.
Related Links
- Introduction to the Biofuel Industry
- Properties of Jatropha
- Characteristics of Jatropha
- Extracting Jatropha Oil
- Pre-extraction of Jatropha Oil
- Extraction of Oil from Jatropha Seed
- Filtration & Purification of Jatropha Oil
- Clarification of the Oil
- Getting Clean Jatropha Oil
- Refining the pure Oil
- Typical Processes & Equipments for Jatropha Oil Refinery Plants
- Removing the toxins from the Meal
- Uses of Jatropha Meal
- Properties of Jatropha Oil
- Global Biodiesel Production and Capacity
- Global Market View on Jatropha
- Strategies for Financing
- Status of Jatropha in Asia
- Status of Jatropha in Europe
- Status of Jatropha in Africa
- Status of Jatropha in South America
- Status of Jatropha in North America
- Status of Jatropha Oil Production in India
- Genetic Engineering in Jatropha
- Status of Genetic Engineering of Jatropha in India
- Present Market Scenario for Jatropha
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