Efficient Techniques for Extracting Cottonseed Oil

Cottonseed oil is an edible oil extracted from the seeds of cotton plants after ginning and delinting. It contains a high amount of essential fatty acids, with linoleic acid content ranging from 44% to 55%, oleic acid from 18% to 30%, and palmitic acid from 21% to 24%. Additionally, it includes stearic acid, arachidic acid, and others. The human body can absorb and convert cottonseed oil at a rate of up to 98%, making it a significant component of China's edible oil structure, accounting for about 17%.

As public understanding of cottonseed oil deepens, it has been discovered that cottonseed contains high-value substances such as gossypol, vitamin E, and xylitol, which have considerable development and utilization value, creating higher economic benefits. Although gossypol has made strides in various industries in recent years, the gossypol content in finished cottonseed oil is strictly controlled, as consuming gossypol-containing cottonseed oil can be harmful to humans. Therefore, oil mills pay special attention to separating gossypol during processing.

Separating gossypol from cottonseed oil requires appropriate extraction techniques. Henan Huatai ,with over 30 years in the industry, has provided production plans and machinery to many cottonseed oil manufacturers, tailoring solutions based on customers' actual production conditions. Considering the characteristics of cottonseed , engineers recommend the extraction method for producing cottonseed oil and provide processes that can effectively separate gossypol.

The extraction method combines traditional pressing and oil extraction processes, ensuring high oil yield and quality meal, thus aiding the economic development of oil mills. Additionally, this method can reduce the presence of gossypol in crude cottonseed oil. Gossypol is a toxic phenolic pigment found in cottonseed, weakly acidic, typically present in crude cotton oil at 0.08% to 2.0%, easily soluble in edible vegetable oils and other polar solvents, but insoluble in water, petroleum ether, and hexane.

During oil production, gossypol can react with free fatty acids to form gossypol esters or gossypol resins and can also combine with phospholipids and proteins to form bound gossypol. In the processing of cottonseed oil, it is crucial to separate gossypol and avoid its reaction with other substances in crude oil, forming impurities that are difficult to separate. A common method for separating gossypol is the high-moisture steaming method.

After a reasonable steaming process, the moisture content in the material embryo is high, causing phospholipids to absorb water and gather in the meal, thus avoiding combination with free gossypol and not adversely affecting the overall use of cottonseed meal. However, the limiting amino acid in cottonseed protein is lysine. During the high-moisture steaming process, free gossypol can combine with proteins, causing some proteins to lose their function, leading to the destruction of cottonseed protein and the loss of some nutrients.

Considering this, some oil mills choose to separate gossypol during the deacidification stage. Gossypol, being weakly acidic, can react with alkali to form gossypol sodium salt, which is soluble in water but not in organic solvents, and can be removed with soapstock during alkali refining. Additionally, the fatty acid salts produced by the alkali solution and free fatty acids are good surfactants and adsorbents, capable of adsorbing proteins, colloidal impurities, and pigments in crude oil, thus achieving deacidification, degumming, and decolorization. Therefore, the alkali refining deacidification method is commonly used in the refining process of cottonseed oil.

The extraction of cottonseed oil differs from most vegetable oils due to the harmful and difficult-to-separate gossypol it contains. To produce standard-compliant cottonseed oil, reliable solutions and machinery are necessary. Huatai Intelligent Equipment Group has served customers from various regions, providing feasible solutions and stable performance equipment, earning a good reputation in the industry and worthy of your trust.