Paper Contents
Abstract
Palm kernel (Eliaeisguinensis) and Soybean (Glycemhzalepidita) oil have gained popularity in food, cosmetic, soap, pharmaceutical and medical industries for the production of cooking oil, margarine, pomade, toilet soaps, drugs, and medical ointments. This research work involve improvement in the design, construction and testing of a small scale screw press extractor for palm kernel and soybean oil extraction. The design improvements made are in clearance reduction between the worm shaft and the cylindrical barrel for effective compression to achieve increased extraction capacity and efficiency per batch. Design components included cylindrical barrel, worm shaft, gear reduction box, prime mover, hopper, pulley, bearing, and transmission belt. Parts like oil outlet, cake outlet, supporting frame were fabricated based on machine load function demand. The operational principle of the oil extraction is that the worm shaft is at an increasing diameter while, the screw system is at a decreasing pitch. This process gradually build-up pressure along the worm shaft as it moves along cylindrical barrel thus, crushing, grinding, pressing and squeezes the oil out of the seeds. The screw press was fabricated using materials sourced locally at affordable cost. Performance evaluation using test result for palm kernel and soybeans shows improved average oil yield, extraction efficiency and reduction in system oil extraction loss over previous versions. From the study, it is recommended that low initial capital cost, optimum operational procedure and effectiveness in promoting hygienic oil extraction should be fundamental in the development of oil extraction devices.
Copyright
Copyright © 2025 Benjamin Ternenge. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
