Why is n-hexane used in rice bran oil making process?

What is n-hexane?

N-hexane is a kind of organic solvent, also called No.5 gasoline. It is the most commonly used organic solvent in edible oil industry. If you don't know this, you need firstly learn about edible oil solvent extraction technology. 

Why is n-hexane used in rice bran oil making process?

Different oil seeds and their oil content

The edible oil solvent extraction technology takes advantage of the feature that the oil is more easily dissolved in organic solvent, to extract the oil from oil seeds or cakes. High oil content oil seeds, like groundnut, sunflower seeds, rapeseed, corn germ, palm kernel, should be pre-pressed. And then use solvent extraction technology to extract oil from the oil seeds cakes. But like rice bran, soybean, they belong to low oil content oil seeds, pressing technology is not economical and practical. So in rice bran oil making process, it always uses solvent extraction technology.

How does the n-hexane works in rice bran oil making process?

1. Before working

Before the rice bran is sent into rice bran oil solvent extraction plant, it should be pretreated by a series of machines, so as to easily to extract oil from rice bran by n-hexane. The rice bran pretreatment machines contains chaff rotary sifter, conditioner, puffing machine and plate dryer. And after pretreatment, the rice bran can be stored for longer time, and the acid value is not going to go up.

Four kinds of rice bran pretreatment machines

2. Working process

It is n-hexane's turn. In the solvent extractor machine, the n-hexan will be sprayed on the pretreated rice bran evenly. And then it will take some time to react, so that the oil is dissolved in the n-hexane fully.

The n-hexan is sprayed on the pretreated rice bran evenly

3. After working

From the solvent extractor machine, two kinds of materials will be got. One is mixed oil (rice bran oil and n-hexane), and the other one is wet meal (contains n-hexane and a little rice bran oil). So the next work is to remove the ne-hexane from the wet meal and mixed oil. In rice bran oil solvent extraction plant, there are two system to finish the work: D.T.D.C system and Mixed oil steaming and stripping system.

D.T.D.C system and Mixed oil steaming and stripping system in rice bran oil solvent extraction plant

4. Recycling and reusing

The n-hexane was evaporated out will be cooled and recycled into the solvent holding tank. And in the next time, it will be reused. And every time, the solvent loss is very little.

Use n-hexane to make rice bran is the most economical and practical method. If you want to set up a rice bran oil production plant, welcome to contact us! Henan Doing Company can provide you high quality rice bran oil solvent extraction machines and best after-sale service.