Soybean Oil Refining Machine | Soy Oil Refinery Plant Cost

Introduction

Soybean oil refining transforms crude soybean oil obtained through pressing or extraction into high-quality edible oil that meets industry standards through physical and chemical processing.

Henan Huatai Intelligent Equipment Group provides soybean oil refining machines that use food-grade stainless steel materials and automated control systems. These machines come in small, medium, and large specifications based on processing capacity, meeting the needs of different-scale oil mills.

For investors, understanding the complete soybean oil refining process, equipment configuration, and cost structure forms the basis for successfully building and managing a refinery. (View our project: 1000 TPD soybean oil project in South America >>)

Soybean Oil Refining Process and Corresponding Equipment

The following steps outline the main soybean oil refining process and their corresponding equipment. These steps work together to ensure the final oil product achieves high quality and safety standards.

Degumming

The first step in crude soybean oil refining is degumming, which removes phospholipids and other gum-like impurities from the oil.

Hydration degumming utilizes the water-loving properties of impurities like phospholipids. Operators add hot water or electrolyte solution to the crude oil, causing the impurities to absorb water, expand, and coagulate into precipitates. They then remove these precipitates through centrifugal separation or static precipitation.

Degumming equipment mainly includes hydration tanks, mixers, heating devices, and centrifuges. Small oil mills commonly use hydration machines, achieve integrated phospholipid removal and degumming.

Deacidification

The next step is deacidification, which removes free fatty acids from crude oil. The main deacidification methods are alkali refining and distillation.

Alkali refining involves adding an alkaline solution (typically sodium hydroxide) to the oil. This solution reacts with free fatty acids to form soap, then removed through centrifugal separation.

Distillation (physical refining) removes fatty acids through steam distillation under high-temperature, high-vacuum conditions.

Deacidification equipment includes neutralization tanks, centrifuges, and vacuum dryers.

Decolorization

Decolorization treatment removes pigment from oils to improve their appearance.

Decolorization mainly uses adsorption methods, using adsorbents such as activated clay, bleaching earth, or activated carbon. Under specific temperature and vacuum conditions, these adsorbents absorb pigments and other impurities from the oil.

Decolorization equipment mainly includes decolorization towers, adsorbent addition systems, and filtration units.

Deodorization

Deodorization is the final key step in soybean oil refining. This process removes odorous substances and volatile components from the soybean oil.

The deodorization principle utilizes the volatility difference between odorous substances and triglycerides in oil. Under high temperature (usually above 200°C) and high vacuum conditions, steam distillation removes by odorous substances.

Deodorization equipment mainly includes deodorization towers, high-temperature heating systems, vacuum devices, and heat exchangers. After deodorization, the oil becomes colorless and odorless, with a significantly higher smoke point and greatly enhanced stability.

Finished Oil Processing and Storage

After refining, soybean oil requires final processing before sale. This mainly includes cooling and filtration, nitrogen protection, and quantitative filling.

• Cooling and filtration uses plate heat exchangers to reduce oil temperature to safe storage levels, then filters remove any possible trace solid particles.
• Nitrogen protection injects nitrogen gas during storage and filling to prevent oil oxidation.
• Quantitative filling uses automated filling lines to package finished oil into containers of different specifications.

Finished oil storage typically uses stainless steel storage tanks equipped with air filters and breathing valves to ensure hygienic safety.

Large refineries also build quality control laboratories to conduct physical and chemical testing on each batch of finished oil, ensuring compliance with national edible oil standards.

Price Analysis of Soybean Oil Refining Equipment

Soybean oil refining equipment prices vary significantly due to factors such as processing capacity, automation levels, and materials. Understanding equipment price ranges and influencing factors helps investors develop reasonable budget planning and investment strategies. (Related Post: Soybean oil extraction machine >>)

The following table shows the configuration and price ranges for different scales of soybean oil refining equipment:

Note:

1. The above prices are mostly factory prices, excluding shipping, installation and commissioning fees, and taxes (some quotes may include taxes).
2. Small-scale units typically operate batch or semi-continuous processes, while large-scale equipment operates fully automatic continuous production.
3. Equipment materials are mostly food-grade stainless steel to ensure compliance with standards.

Equipment using food-grade stainless steel materials and advanced technology requires higher initial investment, but offers longer service life, lower maintenance costs, and more significant long-term economic benefits.

When selecting equipment, while high-performance equipment is more expensive, it typically less energy, achieves higher oil yield, produces better quality soybean oil, and delivers better long-term returns. Additionally, choosing reputable suppliers who provide after-sales service and technical support proves very important, ensuring long-term stable equipment operation and timely resolution of production issues.

Cost Analysis for Building a Soybean Oil Refinery Plant

Building a soybean oil refinery plant is a systematic project requiring comprehensive consideration of equipment investment, plant construction, supporting facilities, environmental requirements, and operational capital. (Related Video: Bolivia 1000TPD Soybean Oil Processing Plant >>)

The following table shows the main cost components and investment budget for building a soybean oil refinery plant:

Taking a medium-sized soybean oil refinery plant (5-10 T/D) as an example, its investment mainly includes:

• Equipment Investment (40%-50%): Includes all main and auxiliary equipment for pretreatment, pressing/extraction (if starting from crude oil), refining, filtration, and filling.
• Civil Engineering (20%-30%): Includes new construction or renovation of production workshops, raw material warehouses, finished product warehouses, office buildings, and other structures. Plant size requirements can reference (12m×6m×5.5m).
• Public Utilities (10%-15%): Includes power supply systems (380V, tens to hundreds of KW), water supply systems, steam boilers (required for some processes), and environmental protection facilities (such as wastewater treatment and soap stock recovery).
• Installation and Commissioning (5%-10%): Equipment installation, pipeline connections, electrical automation system integration, and commissioning operations.
• Working Capital and Others (10%-20%): Initial raw material (crude oil) procurement, product certification, operating funds, etc.

From an investment return perspective, soybean oil refining projects typically offer good economic benefits.

According to relevant data, a soybean oil refining project can achieve annual operating revenue of $35,665,000 at full production, total costs of $28,399,675 and total profit of $6,265,325. The investment profit rate can reach 43.87%, with an investment payback period of about 4.54 years.

These data indicate that although soybean oil refinery construction requires substantial initial investment, as long as operators can guarantee oil quality and sales channels, they can typically recover their investment within a relatively short time and achieve considerable investment returns.

Conclusion

In conclusion, purchasing soybean oil refining machine or building a soybean oil refinery plant is a complex but promising investment project. Through scientific planning, reasonable equipment selection, and meticulous management, investors can obtain stable returns.

If you have more specific production capacity requirements or target investment amounts for soybean oil production line, Henan Huatai Group can provide more targeted equipment solutions and quotations. Please feel free to consult us anytime!