Soybean oil is widely used oil which is a very healthy food ingredient despite the bad publicity of making people fat.The idea of crushing soybeans to separate them into oil and meat is apparently a relatively recent development in the long history of soybean utilization.
Soybeans owe their dominance of the oilseed market to the value of their protein, Of the money made on extracting soybeans, the meal accounted for between51% and 76% of the total in the last 10 years. Soybean oil of typical composition performs well as a salad oil, but it is usually hydrogenated for use as a margarine stock or frying oil.
Soybean Oil Extraction
First of all, the soybeans are cut in flakes which are put in a percolation extractors and immerged with a solvent, normally hexane. Counterflow is used as extraction system because it gives the highest yield. After removing the hexane, the extracted flakes only contain about 1% of soybean oil and is used as livestock meal or to produce food products such as soy protein. The hexane is separated from the soybean oil in evaporators. The evaporated hexane is recovered and returned to the extraction process. The hexane free crude soybean oil is then further purified.
