Rice Bran Oil Extraction and Refining Plant
By weight, rice bran has 17% oil content. The rice bran oil extraction process begins with raw material preparation. Rice bran is first screened and then heated by steam at temperature higher than 100 degrees Celsius to stop Lipase hydrolysis in rice bran prior to extraction. You can choose a rice bran oil mill to extract rice bran oil out or you can select setting up a rice bran solvent extraction plant.
There are lots of impurities in the crude rice bran oil such as Gum, Free Fatty Acid, color pigment, odor- volatile matter and wax. All these impurities have to be removed to make crude rice bran oil to be edible oil. After the refining process, the refined rice bran oil weighs only 12% of the rice bran raw material.
Free Fatty Acid in crude rice bran oil is removed by neutralize the oil with caustic soda and become soapstock. In the same time, gamma Oryzanol, Tocopherol, Tocotrienol and some color pigment also been removed from rice bran oil. Refined rice bran oil from this process has lighter colour, less gamma-Oryzanol, less Tocopherol, less Tocotrienol.
With this process, Free Fatty Acid in crude rice bran oil is removed by heat and vacuum in De-Acid process and let most of gamma Oryzanol, Tocopherol and Tocotrienol remain in rice bran oil.