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The milling of rice bran, the cuticle between the paddy husk
and grain, produces either rice bran (RB) or parboiled rice bran
(PB), depending on whether the grain is milled raw or had
previously been soaked in hot water, steam-treated and dried.
Rice bran is a rich source of oil, protein, fiber and life-essential
nutrients (Heinemann et al, 2005; Amarasinghe et al, 2009).
Bran accounts for 5%8% of the weight of brown rice milled
(Houston, 1972; Sarmento et al, 2006). The oil content of
parboiled rice bran varies from 22% to 28% depending on the
paddy variety (Sivala et al, 1991). The two most common
methods for separating oils from raw materials are extraction
and pressing (Proctor and Bowen, 1996). Mechanical pressing
is the most popular method worldwide for separating oil from
vegetable oilseeds (Mrema and McNulty, 1985; Singh and
Bargale, 2000) using either of two pressing methods, hydraulic
or screw. The mechanical screw press, used for the extraction
of oil from oilseeds (Omobuwajo et al, 1999), also called an
expeller, is popular because of its simple and sturdy design. It
is moreover easily maintained, operable by semi-skilled
workers. It adapts quickly for processing different oilseeds and
utilizes a continuous expulsion process.
Even though solvent extraction is more efficient than the
mechanical press (Amarasinghe and Gangodavilage, 2004; Ghosh,
2007), the latter is favored for its simplicity and safety (Singh
and Bargale, 2000). Nonetheless, it displays a significant
shortcoming: relative inefficiency, leaving 8%14% of the
available oil in the cake (Srikantha, 1980). Prior investigations
of this shortcoming have not produced any conclusive results.
Previous studies focused on the press design (Singh and
Bargale, 2000; Oyinlola et al, 2004) and the absence in visual
inspection of the rice bran press cake to identify the optimum
degree of extraction.
This study therefore aims to investigate the press cake
Received: 6 April 2011; Accepted: 16 May 2011
Corresponding author: Supakit SAYASOONTHORN (agrspks@ku.ac.th)
76
d
b
c
e
a
f
Fig. 2. Control of screw and barrel clearance by a scale mounted
on the screw shaft.
The press could not extract oil at 1.0, 1.3 and 1.5 cm
clearances and 8.5 r/min rotation speed due to clogging of the
press cake inside the bar cage and screw (Fig. 3-A and B).
Screw speed was also observed to affect the oil extraction level.
For both bran types, oil recovery rate increased when screw
speed was decreased to 8.5 r/min from 19.8 r/min. A screw
speed of 8.5 r/min was thus found optimal for oil extraction.
Results showed that the effect of the clearance between the
screw and the barrel was significant at 95% of the confidence
level, likely because of the time and the screws compressing
the rice bran. The more tightly the clearance is set, the more
slowly the rice bran press cake moves through the exit aperture.
The longer the rice bran remains under compression, the more
oil is delivered. However, at 1 cm clearance, the screw was too
tight and the oil recovered was reduced as a result of the cakes
clogging between the bar cage (Fig. 3-A) and the screw (Fig. 3B). Conversely, a greater clearance between the screw and
barrel led to lesser oil recovery presumably due to the rice
brans short exposure to compression. The low screw speed
(8.5 r/min) showed the highest oil recovery rate for a particular
clearance, presumably because its force was applied during a
longer extraction time.
Fig. 4 showed press cake for the corresponding oil recovery
rate categories as fully described in Table 3. The rice bran press
Supakit SAYASOONTHORN, et al. Rice Bran Oil Extraction by Screw Press Method
77
Fig. 4. Rice bran (AC) and parboiled rice bran (DF) press cake characteristics at various conditions.
AC, Rice bran press cake at the oil recovery rates of 0%1%, 1%2%, and more than 3%, respectively. DF, Parboiled rice bran press cake at
the oil recovery rates of 2%4%, 4%6%, and more than 6%, respectively.
Table 3. Physical characteristics of rice bran (RB) and parboiled rice bran (PB) press cake.
Rice bran Oil recovery
type
Rate (%)
RB
01
12
3
PB
24
46
6
Texture
Soft, crumbles on touch, flat small pieces, oil visibly embedded in press cake
Soft, flat small flakes larger than 0%1%, oily with embedded press cake
Hard and crispy, dry, large, slightly shiny flakes polished on one side and dull
and coarse on the other side
Soft, small pieces, oily with embedded press cake
Crispy, small, shiny flakes polished on one side and dull and coarse on the other side
Hard and very crispy, dry, large, shiny flakes polished on one side and dull and
coarse on the other side
Discharge
Discharged in discontinuous pieces
Discharged in discontinuous flakes
Continuous discharge from machine
(Fig. 3-C)
Discharged in discontinuous pieces
Continuous discharge from machine
Continuous discharge from machine
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors acknowledge the Thailand Research Fund (TRF)
for their financial support.
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