Edible Oil Refining Methods: Types & Selection Guide

How many types of refining methods are there in the edible oil refining process? For those planning an edible oil refinery, this is a key question. Edible oil refining methods are mainly classified by operation mode and deacidification technology.
By operation mode, there are three types: batch refining system, semi-continuous refining system, and full-continuous refining system. By deacidification technology, there are two: chemical refining and physical refining. Choosing the right one is vital for your refinery's success.

First, let's clarify the 4 core stages of edible oil refining: degumming, deacidification, decolorization, and deodorization. These stages remove gums, free fatty acids (FFA), pigments, and off-flavors from crude oil, improving storage stability, flavor, and color to meet edible standards. All three operation modes cover these four stages—their similarities lie in this core function, while differences determine your choice.



Key Differences Between the Three Refining Systems

1. Equipment Configuration: Batch systems use four independent tanks (degumming, deacidification, decolorization, deodorization). Semi-continuous systems replace the deodorization tank with a deodorization column. Full-continuous systems use both decolorization and deodorization columns instead of tanks, with optimized supporting equipment.

2. Automation Level: Batch systems process oil batch by batch, requiring frequent manual operation. Semi-continuous systems achieve continuity only in deodorization. Full-continuous systems run automatically throughout the entire process, ensuring stable quality and low labor input.

How to Choose the Right Refining Method?

Your choice depends on capacity, crude oil type/finished oil requirements, and budget.

1. Capacity: Batch systems suit small scale (1-10 T/D) due to low investment. Semi-continuous systems fit medium scale (20-50 T/D), balancing efficiency and cost. Full-continuous systems are for large scale (50+ T/D), with high throughput and low long-term costs.

2. Crude Oil & Quality Requirements: High FFA crude oil (palm oil, rice bran oil, coconut oil) needs physical refining—semi-continuous or full-continuous systems (using columns with direct steam) are ideal, with lower oil loss. Batch systems use chemical refining (NaOH neutralization), suitable for low FFA crude oil but with higher loss.

3. Budget: Batch systems have the lowest initial cost. Full-continuous systems have the highest initial investment but the lowest operating and labor costs long-term.

Henan Doing Mechanical Equipment Co., Ltd. is a professional Chinese manufacturer of edible oil refining equipment, with global export experience. If you’re planning an edible oil refinery, contact us for tailored advice on choosing the best refining method!


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Crude Oil Chemical Refining Plant

Refining plant

Chemical Refining is a kind of process using strong bases to neutralize most of the free fatty acids and remove them in the form of soaps. It is also known as alkali refining process.

Although most palm oil processing plant adopts physical refining equipment, for other kinds of vegetable oil such as soybean oil refining, chemical refining is still the best refining choice.

Palm Oil Chemical Refining Process

During the crude oil chemical refining process, the FFA will be removed and the neutralized crude oil and soap stock will be produced. And the soap stock will be separated from oil by using of high-speed separator. And the color pigments and the metal ions will be removed from the neutralized oil. If the crude oil contains high carotene, high FFA (more than 5% ) and relative low phosphatides, it will be great to have the chemical refining process to reduce the refining losses and the operation costs.

 

Related reading: Batch type edible oil refinery plant

Batch type oil refining machine

This is the simple introduction about crude oil chemical refining plant and our machines. If you want to know more detailed information, please contact us!

Contact information:

Email: market@doingoilmachine.com   

Website: http://www.edibleoilrefinerymachine.com

WhatsApp/Wechat/Mobile: +86 13526627860 

1-10tpd Batch Type Oil Refinery Plant

About Oil Refining

Oil refining is an essential process for a complete oil pressing line because there are still some impurities such as phospholipids, FFA, pigment, odor, etc. in the crude oil. As a prominent oil processing machines manufacturer who is devoted to processing pure edible oil for worldwide customers, we can provide professional technical support and manufacture first-rate oil machines for your edible oil refining. We can provide this 1-10tpd batch type oil refinery plant.

Batch type edible oil refining machine

 1-10tpd batch type oil refinery plant Features

1. Wide application: various kinds of oil can be refined by our oil refining machines such as peanut oil, sunflower seeds oil, soybean oil, coconut oil, palm kernel oil, rapeseed oil, etc.

2. The capacity of edible oil refining can be customized. The complete oil refining plant can work independently or together with the whole oil production line.

3.High oil output: this bath type oil refinery plant can assure the low loss of crude oil, so as to help you get profits as many as possible.

Related reading: How to calculate the loss of refined edible oil?

Main Steps of Edible Oil Refining

1. Crude Oil Degumming: In this step gums in crude oil are removed by hydration with the help of phosphoric acid.
2. Neutralization: In this step, free fatty acids are neutralized by using sodium hydroxide and convert them into soap. Additional impurities are also removed by adsorption on the soap.
3. Bleaching: During bleaching, unwanted pigments are adsorbed physically and oil will become much clearer.
4. Deodorization: Deodorization is used to remove unacceptable odors by steam distillation, the odoriferous compound are stripped off with the help of live injected steam into heated oil under high vacuum pressure.
5. Dewaxing (necessary for cold areas)
Some kinds of oil like sunflower, maize germ or corn oil have waxes inside, if these impurities are not removed, the oil will freeze easily under low temperature, thus affecting oil quality and appearance. so this process is necessary for extremely cold areas.
 

Edible Oil Refining Equipment
 

1. Refining tanks: degum and neutralize the cude oil.2. Decoloring tank: bleach pigments from oil.

2. Deodorizing tank: remove the un-favored smell from decolorized oil.

3. Heat conductive oil stove: provide enough heat for the refining sections which need a high temperature of 280℃.

4. Vibrate filter: filter the clay into the bleached oil.

5. Steam generator: generate steam distillation.  

The machines mentioned above are mainly made of carbon steel. We also have refining machines made of stainless steel, which is more durable and healthy. The stainless batch type oil refining machine is as follows:

Stainless batch type oil refining machine

The whole information about our 1-10tpd batch type oil refinery plant is all above. Henan DOING HOLDINGS CO.,LTD can provide you the best products and service. If you are interested in our palm oil processing machine, please contact us.

Contact information:

Email: market@doingoilmachine.com   

Website: http://www.edibleoilrefinerymachine.com

WhatsApp/Wechat/Mobile: +86 13526627860