Jatropha Oil Extraction Machines
Usually by using different jatropha oil extraction machines,jatropha oil can be extracted from the seeds by three ways. They are: Mechanically, Chemically and Enzymatically.
Jatropha Oil Extraction Machines
1. Oil Presses: Oil presses have been used for the purpose of oil extraction as simple mechanical devices - either powered or manually driven. Among the different oil presses that are used for jatropha oil extraction, the most commonly used presses include the Bielenberg ram press.
2. The Bielenberg ram press involves the traditional press method to extract oil and prepares oil cakes as well as soaps. It is a simple device that yields around 3 liters of oil per 12 kg of seed input.
The Yield of Jatropha Oil Extraction
It is often considered that a more effective extraction technique would yield greater quantities of oil. This is partly inaccurate, since an effective extraction method would only yield the optimum quantity and not more than that. The optimum oil content in jatropha plants varies between species and genetic variants.
Climatic and soil conditions generally affect the yield of the oil as well. However, improper processing techniques such as prolonged exposure of the harvested seeds to direct sunlight can impair the oil yield considerably.
The maximum oil content that has been reported in jatropha seeds has been close to 47%. However, the accepted average is 40%, and the fraction that can be extracted is taken to be around 91%.