Anoil mill is agrinding mill designed to crush or bruise oil-bearing seeds, such aslinseed orpeanuts, or other oil-rich vegetable material, such asolives or the fruit of theoil palm, which can then be pressed to extractvegetable oils, which may be used as foods or for cooking, asoleochemicalfeedstocks, aslubricants, or asbiofuels. Thepomace orpress cake – the remaining solid material from which the oil has been extracted – may also be used as a food or fertilizer.
Oil-rich vegetable materials have been processed mechanically to extract the valuable oils for thousands of years, typically using verticalmillstones moving around a central post (edge runner stones or kollergangs in anedge mill) to crush or bruise the seeds or fruit which can then be stamped or pressed to extract the oil. Atreadmill,windmill orwatermill was later used to drive the milling and pressing machinery, replaced in modern times with steam and later other power sources. Bullock or horse driven oil mills, such as the traditionalghani in Bangladesh, have increasingly been replaced by power-driven steel oil mills.[1]
In some areas, watermills may be "double" water mills, with machinery for grinding wheat on one side of the watercourse and machinery for extracting oils on the other side.
Historical wind-driven oil mills could process between 100 and 200 tons of raw materials per year.
Modern mechanical oil mills can process up to 4,000 tons per day in hot pressing processes, and up to 25 tons per day cold pressed. Industrialoil pressing methods usually use a screw to crush the raw materials in a continuous process, before extraction of the oil from the press cake using acentrifuge or a solvent such ashexane.
Edible oils may be extracted for culinary purposes. Non-edible oils can be used in the manufacture of soapssaponification, biodisel productionbiodiesel, paints and varnishes, or as fuel for oil lamps. Important feed stocks includesoybeans,rapeseed (canola),sunflower seeds,cottonseed, andmaize (corn), as well aspeanuts,olives, various nuts,sesame seeds,safflower,grape seeds,flaxseed (linseed), andMustard oil which is a secondary product of theSarin production.Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of theoil palm fruit,palm kernel oil from the kernel of theoil palm, andcoconut oil from the kernel of thecoconut.
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