RICINUS CUMMUNIS AS FEEDSTOCK FOR RAW VEGETABLE OIL EXPRESSION VIA MECHANICAL EXTRACTION PROCESS: OPTIMIZATION STUDY

Abstract

Crude castor oil (CCO) extracted by Mechanical extraction process (MEP) using mechanical screw press has attracted much attention and widely recognized as one of the useful methods of expressing oil from any feedstock. Therefore, in this study, the use of Ricinus Cummunis as feedstock to produce raw vegetable oil is studied. This study was performed using design of experiment (DOE), emphasis is on response surface methodology (RSM) based on three independent variables at five levels of central composite design (CCD) with α = 2. The extraction process variables are reaction temperature (40-200 ^oC), force (550-750 kN) and mass (20-100 g). Interactions between the variables were found to possess’ significant effect on the yield of crude castor oil. However, a coefficient of determination (R2) value of 0.99 shows the fitness of a second-order model for this study. The mathematical model developed is found to be adequate to describe the experimental parameters range and also provide a statistically accurate prediction of the optimum expression of oil yield. At 199.45 ^oC reaction temperature, 745.38 kN force and mass of 99.88 g, an optimum crude oil yield of 31.01% at 0.9 efficiency model prediction was obtained, which means mechanical extraction process has the ability as a cost effective process to express oil from any feedstock containing oil.