OIL EXTRACTABILITY FROM ENZYMATICALLY TREATED SOYBEAN AND SUNFLOWER - RANGE OF OPERATIONAL VARIABLES

An evaluation of the feasibility of enzymatically treating oil seeds (soya beans and sunflower kernels) to improve the extractability of oil is presented. The effects of each variable affecting the process (mechanical treatment, moisture percentage, enzyme concentration and time of hydrolysis) were studied to define the optimum range of operation for each of them as a function of the extractability of samples treated with different enzyme formulations. Size reduction of the seeds favours the efficiency of the enzymatic treatment related to oil extractability. For a fixed particle size, moisture contents of 60 and 40% selected for soybean and sunflower respectively, regardless of the kind of enzyme, are suitable to efficiently increase the extractability of the seed. The enzyme/seed ratio is dependent on the formulation. Time of hydrolysis must also be optimized to avoid long reaction times which do not result in notable increases in the amount of recovered oil.