Overview

Processes in this NAICS Definitions are:

311223 Canola (rapeseed) oil, cake and meal, made in crushing mills

311223 Castor oil and pomace made in crushing mills

311223 Coconut oil made in crushing mills

311223 Cottonseed oil, cake and meal, made in crushing mills

311223 Flaxseed oil made in crushing mills

311223 Lecithin, cottonseed, made in crushing mills

311223 Linseed oil, cake and meal, made in crushing mills

311223 Olive oil made in crushing mills

311223 Palm-kernel oil, cake, and meal made in crushing mills

311223 Peanut cake, meal, and oil made in crushing mills

311223 Rapeseed (i.e., canola) oil made in crushing mills

311223 Safflower oil made in crushing mills

311223 Shortening (except soybean) made in crushing mills

311223 Sunflower seed oil, cake and meal, made in crushing mills

311223 Tree nut oils (e.g., tung, walnut) made in crushing mill

311223 Vegetable oils (except soybean) made in crushing mills

The culinary oils listed in a recent natural foods catalog include – in addition to olive oil – sesame, safflower, sunflower, grape seed, canola, apricot kernel, coconut, hazelnut, peanut, pumpkin, and walnut oils. Advertisements for these culinary oils tout their health benefits and unique flavors. Some of these plant-derived oils can be used to make soap, body and hair oils, detergents, and paints. Some can also be used to make industrial lubricants. A wide range of oilseeds and other oil producing plants are high quality feedstocks for biodiesel. Oilseed processing expands the use of crops such as sunflowers and brings value to grape seeds, which are usually waste products.

Farmers and small-business owners are asking whether it is possible and profitable to add value to their seeds and nuts by extracting the oil. This is not an easy question to answer because there are so many variables, some of which are noted in the first section of this publication.

Most oil processing in the U.S. is done on a large industrial scale, and the processes use proprietary information. Small-scale oil extraction is more commonplace in other parts of the world; thus many of the useful resource materials and much of the appropriate-scale machinery come from other countries. This publication describes the basic process, with additional details on producing oil from sunflower seeds and sources for additional information.

Source: http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/oilseed.html

Major Processes

Major Equipment

Natural Gas Technologies