Thanks to the publicity that natural oils have been receiving, you can now go into business if you choose the right castor oil plant to process natural oil. Of course, there are many factors to consider but first, the most important thing that you need to know about going into this business is that you are as good as the mill that you choose. If you can find the raw materials for castor oil, then you will be set to go into business and the good news is that you will find the rewards well worth it.

First, decide whether you will be producing the castor oil on a small-scale or on a large-scale basis. However, even more important than that is to know how the castor oil press works. This need not be hard at all as we will show you here. For example, the castor beans enter the extrusion chamber via the hopper. In the extruding chamber, there is the pressing screw and it is here that the castor seeds are pressed. There is a lot of friction occurring in the extruding chamber and you know that where there is friction, there is heat. This heat enhances the production of very high quality and elastic castor oil. It also ensures that as much oil as there is in the seeds is pressed out.

While the castor oil presses might be out of business today, what is to stop you from using them? However, the most common plant is the oil mill. For commercial purposes, the oil is processed by pre-pressing then resulting the cake is moved to solvent extracting section. For small-scale castor oil production, the plant will have a full pressing mill where the castor seeds are double pressed for high production of oil. Choosing a good brand name for your castor oil mill is paramount.

Oil is produced from a variety of seeds that have to go through a number of steps for the extraction to be completed.  These steps vary depending on the extraction process which can either involve mechanical or even chemical extraction. These two extraction methods are the most common with the chemical method sometimes being preferred more than the mechanical method. For large amounts of oil to be extracted from seeds in an oil mill plant using mechanical extraction, the two processes that they have to go through is the pressing of the seeds until all the oil flows out. There are a number of machines used such as the oil press to make sure that the extraction is successful.

However, the extraction can also be done using chemicals such as hexane which are said to be effective in the ensuring that there is no oil that is lost through wastage. Most times the chemical extraction is done as a backup of mechanical extraction in a bid to ensure that there is no remaining oil left in the seeds. It is at this point that the question, “How is oil refined?” becomes relevant especially since chemicals have been used in the extraction process. To refine oil, there is a process known as solvent extraction that removes any chemical that may have been left in the oil. Furthermore, if there are any remnants of the seeds they are eliminated as well so that the refined oil is as pure as possible.

Nevertheless, if mechanical extraction was the only process the seeds went through then the oil can be refined by filtering or skimming over the surface of the container that holds the oil and removing any impurities that may make the oil inedible.