A plethora of health benefits has placed Sunflower oil on millions of tables as one of the most favored cooking medium in India and abroad and across the world.
Process of Sunflower Oil Refining
- Neutralization
The crude oil is neutralized as a first step in the process at sunflower oil refinery in India. It primarily involves the treatment of crude oil with an alkali. Soap separation follows in order to remove soap from the oil. Hot water is subsequently employed to wash the soap-separated oil to remove the soap traces from the oil followed by a drying process to evaporate the moisture of the oil.
The steps involved are
- Conditioning Neutralization Washing Drying
2. Continuous Bleaching
In the Bleaching process at the sunflower oil plant trace metals, dirt, color pigments, phospholipids, polycyclic aromatic compounds, and numerous other impurities are eliminated from the Neutralized oil.
The multi-step process involves:
- Primary heating Acid and bleaching clay mixing
- Secondary heating Bleaching
- Filtration
3. Winterization
Waxes and saturated triglycerides, which are fairly visible at low temperatures are removed at this stage.
4. Deodorization
Deodorization is a vacuum stripping process in which a given amount of steam is passed for a given period of time through hot oil @ a low pressure.
This process involves:
- De-aeration
- Pre-heating
- Striping
- Cooling
