Solvent extraction as the name describes is “extraction of oil” from seeds, cakes or oil bearing material by using a Solvent. Normally Hexane a petroleum by-product is used as a solvent.

Solvent extraction is carried out regularly in the laboratory by the chemists as a common purification procedure in organic synthesis. In analytical separations certain solvents preferentially remove one or more constituents from a solution quantitatively. Batch extractions of this sort, on a small scale, are usually done by separator funnels, where the mechanical agitation is supplied by handshaking of the funnel.

A technique, also called liquid extraction, for separating the components of a liquid solution. This technique depends upon the selective dissolving of one or more constituents of the solution into a suitable immiscible liquid solvent. It is particularly useful industrially for separation of the constituents of a mixture according to chemical type, especially when methods that depend upon different physical properties, such as the separation by distillation of substances of different vapor pressures, either fail entirely or become too expensive.

Industrial plants using solvent extraction require equipment for carrying out the extraction itself (extractor) and for essentially complete recovery of the solvent for reuse, usually by distillation.

The plant is designed to extract oil directly from oil seeds containing less than 20% oil like soybean after flaking or it extracts oils from pre-pressed or fully pressed cake of seeds containing more than 20% oil like sunflower, peanuts, cotton seed, palm kernel, canola, copra, castor and variety of other materials.

Mitsun’s Solvent extraction plants have been operating globally for more than a decade. Mitsun has delivered a proven design for solvent extraction plant which is simple to operate, robust in working and operator friendly and flexible for easy change-over of the process material and with inbuilt safety features.

The solvent extractor is horizontal in construction. The solvent extractor works on counter current, moving bed principle with variable bed height and variable speed mechanism which permits excellent penetration and percolation of the solvent for absolute extraction. The adjustable speed of extractor conveyor ensures lowest maintenance. Distillation takes place under vacuum and the de-solvented the material is recovered from the vent air stripping system.

Solvent extraction plant is used for extracting oil from seed or cake. For soya bean seed it is widely use in all over the world, for that seed preparation and seed cleaning system is requires.