Industrial Crops and Products 25 (2007) 101107

Seed oil extraction using a solar powered screw press

J.J. Mpagalile a , M.A. Hanna b, , R. Weber b
a
b

Department of Food Science and Technology, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3006, Morogoro, Tanzania
Industrial Agricultural Products Center, University of Nebraska, 209 L.W. Chase Hall, Lincoln, NE 68583-0730, USA
Received 18 March 2005; received in revised form 26 July 2006; accepted 26 July 2006

Abstract
An efficient and economical oil expression system that can operate on solar power in rural areas of underdeveloped and developing
countries is needed. Recent improvements in both oil extraction and solar energy technologies have indicated the possibilities for
fabricating oil extraction equipment. Thus, the objective of our study was to develop a simple oil expression unit capable of producing
high quality oil based on solar energy in remote rural areas. A photovoltaic (PV), batch operated, low-pressure oil press, using a
190 W, 12 V dc motor, was designed, fabricated, and tested using coconut and groundnut as the raw material. Samples used in
the study were ground to particle size between 500 m and 2 mm and were pressed at 12 1% moisture content. The press was
evaluated based on the oil extraction efficiency (OEE), power consumption, and oil quality. The press had an average OEE of 73%
for coconuts and 70% for groundnuts after 12 min of pressing. The oil expression efficiency was characterized by three main stages
namely delayed, rapid, and retarded. The power consumption was affected greatly by the pressing time, with power consumption
increasing with an increase in the pressing time. The specific energy consumption was found to increase significantly after 8 min
of pressing and correlated with the compaction of the cake, which resulted in more power being required to express the entrapped
oil. The expressed oil was fresh, free from foots, and of high quality with an average moisture content of 0.015% for coconut oil
and 0.019% for groundnut. Analyses showed that the viscosities were 42.1 MPa s (coconut oil) and 59.1 MPa s (groundnut oil), at
25 C. Overall, the press performed well and was comparable in performance to other types of presses.
2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Photovoltaic; Oil extraction efficiency; Oil press

1. Introduction
The design of efficient oil expression systems especially for small-scale, rural-based operations has always
presented a challenge to engineers (Hamzat and Clarke,
1993). The main challenge has been to develop an efficient oil expression system that will operate on sources of
power that are readily available in rural areas of under-

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 402 472 1634;

fax: +1 402 472 6338.
E-mail address: mhanna1@unl.edu (M.A. Hanna).

0926-6690/$ see front matter 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.indcrop.2006.08.001

developed or developing countries. As a consequence,

most rural-based oil extraction equipment has been characterized by low throughputs and efficiencies (UNIFEM,
1987; Uziak et al., 2002; Oyinlola et al., 2004). Most of
them are manually driven, as conventional sources of
power such as electrical or diesel powered engines are
either not readily available or are too expensive for the
majority of farmers and entrepreneurs. However, more
recent developments in both oil extraction technologies
(Hammonds et al., 1991a,b; Etherington et al., 1998) and
renewable energies (Excell, 1980; Goldenberg, 1995;
FAO, 2002; Anhalt, 2003; Anon., 2003) have shown
great potential for non-traditional sources of power such

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as solar photovoltaics (PV) in operating oil presses. For

example, these studies showed that optimization of processing parameters during oil expression lead to acceptable oil extraction efficiencies at relatively low-pressure
in the range of 3 MPa. Such low pressures can be generated using a solar photovoltaic system. The literature
indicates that the most important process parameters during oil expression are the moisture content of the feed
materials, temperature, pressing time, and particle size
(Khan and Hanna, 1983; Adeeko and Ajibola, 1990;
Head et al., 1995).
The application of renewable sources of energy, such
as solar photovoltaic panels, as a source of power to run
oil presses needs to incorporate efforts to reduce power
consumption through process optimization. Solar PV
powered oil presses are likely to perform efficiently when
process parameters are optimized, thus allowing oil to
be extracted at relatively low pressures. The use of small
solar PV units will be encouraged as they become affordable to the majority of rural farmers and food processors.
The use of solar energy in powering equipment is not new
and solar PV units have been used in the past in such
applications as desalination, crop drying, lighting, and
powering small household appliances (Esper et al., 1994;
van Campen et al., 2000). According to van Campen et al.
(2000), solar photovoltaic cells are currently becoming
more efficient while their cost is continually decreasing,
so that a wide range of potential applications in agricultural processing can be exploited. Solar PV energy
is attractive because it is environmentally friendly and
available in remote areas of underdeveloped and developing countries.
In this study, a PV operated oil expeller was designed,
fabricated, and tested using oilseeds at an intermediate moisture content of 12 1% (w.b.). The press
was designed based on the principle of a bridge press
(Hammonds et al., 1991b). The aim was to develop a
simple and efficient oil expression press capable of producing high quality oil in remote rural areas.
2. Materials and methods
Coconuts (Cocos nucifera) and groundnuts (Arachis
hypogaea), were purchased from a local store in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. Both coconuts and groundnuts
were sorted and cleaned before undergoing size reduction and moisture adjustment.
2.1. Preparation of the material
Coconuts were cut into halves and the meat was grated
with a manually operated, single blade grater with serra-

tions 3 mm apart and 2 mm deep. The groundnuts were

reduced in size using a laboratory mortar and pestle. The
grated coconuts were oven-dried at 60 C to moisture
contents of 3 0.5% (w.b.). A sieve analysis was carried out using a Ro-Tap sieve shaker and a set of sieves
(W.S. Tyler, Cleveland, OH, USA) to obtain the samples comprising the 500 m to 1.7 mm particles. Water
was added to the dry groundnuts and the dried coconuts
prior to pressing in order to raise the moisture content to
12 1% (w.b.). Hammonds et al. (1991a,b), Etherington
et al. (1998) and Mpagalile and Clarke (2005) suggested
that the moisture contents in the range of 1013% had
good oil extraction efficiency. However, Etherington et
al. (1998) highlighted the fact that the determination
of moisture content in real time during pressing was
extremely difficult, especially under rural-based conditions in developing countries. Also, when raw materials
are not pressed immediately after preparation, they tend
to deteriorate much faster at the elevated moisture levels that favor mold growth. To address this problem,
Hammonds et al. (1991a) and Mpagalile and Clarke
(2005) suggested drying materials to a moisture content of 34% and then rewetting the materials to the
required intermediate moisture content of 1012% just
before pressing, which resulted in extraction efficiencies
similar to direct drying to intermediate moisture content.
Therefore, in this study fresh coconut gratings of 45%
moisture content (mc) were dried to 3 0.5% mc and
then rewetted to 12 1% mc for pressing, whereas fresh
groundnuts (7% mc) were rewetted to 12 1% mc. After
thorough mixing, 0.8 kg of the prepared samples were
placed in four cotton bags measuring 75 mm in diameter 225 mm long. Each bag contained about 200 g of
sample. The bags were then placed in airtight containers
and placed in an oven at 60 C for 4 h for warming and
moisture equilibration.
2.2. Pressing
A bridge type screw press operated by a 190 W,
12 V dc motor (Dayton Electric, IL, USA) connected to
GEPV-50 solar photovoltaic panels (General Electric,
Newark, DE, USA) with 12 V dc energy storage batteries
was designed and used in pressing trials (Fig. 1). Each
battery had a 75 Ah storage capacity and four batteries
were connected in parallel (Fig. 2). The machine screw
actuator (Duff-Norton, NC, USA) was connected to the
motor using a gear assembly with a theoretical mechanical advantage of 9.6. The machine screw actuator was
an inverted unit with a 907 kg load, 600 mm extension
rating and a theoretical mechanical advantage of 5.
The machine screw actuator was fitted with a circular

J.J. Mpagalile et al. / Industrial Crops and Products 25 (2007) 101107

103

Other important factors considered included charge control, an inefficiency factor of 0.8 and a battery efficiency
of 85%. The system was designed to work off-grid as a
standalone power system in the tropics, with the average
length of sunlight estimate of 6 h/day. The PV array was
sized to recharge the batteries to 20% of their energy per
day for 2 days for the batteries to maintain safe levels of
charge:
battery size (Ah) =
Fig. 1. Schematic design of the solar photovoltaic (PV) operated multi
seeds oil press. (A) Screw actuator, (B) oil press main frame, (C) 190 W,
12 V dc motor, (D) heat tape, (E) switch, (F) 75 Ah solar batteries, (G)
50 W solar pane, and (H) solar charge controller.

pressing plate of 60 mm diameter to match the inside

diameter of the sample cylinder. The machine screw
actuator was set to extend at 50.8 mm/min. The speed
of the motor was controlled using a speed controller
(Spectrum Engineering, Loveland, CO, USA). The
system had a pressing cylinder 66.7 mm in diameter,
700 mm high and perforated with 10 mm holes spaced
5 mm apart. Also, the pressing cylinder was fitted with
a 2 mm screen on the inside. The press cylinder was
preheated and maintained at 60 5 C with a heat tape.
The meals also were preheated to 60 5 C.
The PV array size was determined based on the power
rating of 190 W for the motor that was to be used on the
experimental setup. The calculation for the size of the
PV array was based on 4 h of continuous press operation.

Ld
V

(1)

where L is the total daily load (Wh/day), d the days of

energy storage, V the battery voltage, the battery efficiency (%), and is the maximum depth of discharge
(%). Based on Eq. (1), the necessary battery size was
465 Ah allowing for 5 days of energy storage.
The size of the PV array was determined to be 198 W
based on Eq. (2) and, therefore, four 50 W, 12 V solar
PV panels (General Electric, Newark, DE, USA) were
selected:
array size =

L
S

(2)

where L is the total load (760 W), S the peak number of

sunlight hours (h), the battery efficiency, the battery
charge regulator efficiency, and is a factor for unforeseen inefficiencies.
During pressing, the bags were quickly removed
from the airtight containers and loaded into the cylinder.
Pressure plates of diameter 65 mm were placed between
the bags to distribute evenly the applied pressure in the

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of electrical components of oil extraction unit.

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J.J. Mpagalile et al. / Industrial Crops and Products 25 (2007) 101107

pressing cylinder. The rotation of the screw closed the

gap between the two ends of the cylinder, thus compressing the oilseeds to release the entrapped oil. After
expelling the oil, the press was stopped and the lower
cap was unscrewed from the cylinder and then pressing
was continued to remove the press cake from the bottom
of the cylinder. The expelled oil was collected in a pan
placed below the press cage. To allow reloading of the
press, the direction of screw rotation was reversed.
2.3. Analyses
The press performance was evaluated from the oil
expression efficiency and the energy consumption. The
oil expression efficiency was calculated from the amount
of extracted oil to the oil available in the sample. The
analyses of the oil available in the oilseeds were carried out using a Soxhlet extraction apparatus (Soxtec
System HT6, Foss Tecator AB, Hoganas, Sweden) and
AOAC (1990) standards. The extraction solvent used was
petroleum ether. The oil content of the sample was calculated as a ratio of the weight of extracted oil to the
weight of the sample. Consequently, the oil expression
efficiency was calculated as a ratio of the weight of oil
extracted to the weight of oil available, expressed as a
percentage. Moisture contents were determined using
a HG53 Halogen Infrared Moisture Analyzer (Mettler
Toledo, Switzerland). The voltage (V) and current (I)
were monitored and recorded using a solar charge controller (Specialty Concepts, CA, USA) and a portable
digital multimeter comprising of a voltmeter and an
ammeter (Everett, WA, USA). The viscosity of the
expressed oil was determined using a digital rotational
viscometer (Brookfield, Middlebro, MA, USA) and was
expressed in MPa s.
2.4. Statistical analyses

Fig. 3. Particle size distribution for dry coconut gratings and groundnuts.

total oil contents, as determined from the Soxhlet extractions were 61% for coconuts and 47% for groundnuts,
calculated on a dry weight basis. The oil expression efficiency increased with pressing time (Fig. 4), which was
expected and consistent with the results of Etherington
et al. (1998) and Hammonds et al. (1991a,b).
The oil expression efficiency profile appeared to have
been divided into three main oil expression stages. The
first stage involved about 2 min of pressing of the oilseed
matrix without much oil being expressed until the oil
point was reached and oil started flowing out of the perforations. This period was characterized by very low oil
expression. More time was required initially to squeeze
oil from the groundnut than the coconut.
The second stage occurred between 2 and 8 min of
pressing and was characterized by a rapid increase in
oil expression resulting from oil being released under
pressure from the oilseed matrix. Most of the oil was
extracted during this period. This is likely attributable to
the condition that the oilseed matrix still contained a sufficient amount of oil and that passages were still available
because the oilseed matrix was not fully compressed.

Statistical analyses of data were performed on

duplicate measurements. Data were analyzed using a
Microsoft Excel program. Analysis of variance and multiple range tests (least significant difference) were carried
out to determine the significant differences of means.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Effect of pressing time
The particle size distributions for both coconuts and
groundnuts are presented in Fig. 3. In this experiment,
particles in the size range of 500 m to 1.7 mm were
used as suggested by Mpagalile and Clarke (2005). The

Fig. 4. Performance of the press showing the change in oil expression

efficiency (OEE) with pressing time.

J.J. Mpagalile et al. / Industrial Crops and Products 25 (2007) 101107

In the later stages of pressing, which was between 8

and 12 min, a very small increase in oil expression was
present. It appeared that as pressing continued beyond
8 min, the oilseed matrix became compacted to cause
the closing off of the oil escape routes, and the inherently lower oil content required much higher pressure
to express additional oil. Sukumaran and Singh (1989)
and Faborode and Favier (1996) related this phenomenon
to the need to compress sufficiently a material to reach
an oil point, which was related to the occurrence of an
apparent saturation point in silage dewatering. The oil
expression efficiency was significantly higher (P < 0.05)
for coconut than groundnut between 2 and 8 min of
pressing. However, as pressing continued, there was no
significant difference in oil yield for the two oilseeds.
According to Adeeko and Ajibola (1990), oil expression
was a self-defeating process and, as pressing progressed,
the oilseed cake solidified and the oil was depleted,
thereby requiring a large amount of additional energy
to extract more oil. Our results supported such observation.
3.2. Effect of oilseed type
The oilseed type significantly affected the performance of the designed press as related to the oil
expression efficiency and energy consumption. Overall, coconut had higher oil yields than groundnut. The
reasons for this were two-fold. First, the higher oil content of coconuts (61% d.b.) than groundnut (47% d.b.),
meant that oil was more readily available in coconut than
groundnut. Second, the softness of the grated coconut
materials meant that the coconut gratings were more easily squeezed to express oil. According to Faborode and
Favier (1996), difficulties in oil expression are related to
low compressibility, which is related to low oil content
as compressibility expresses resistance to deformation
of the cellular matrix of the oilseeds. This suggests that,
to obtain more oil from the oilseeds, pretreatments that
soften the oilseed matrix may be needed. Such treatments include adding moisture, reducing particle size,
and heating. However, care is needed to prevent excessive size reduction, which can lead to production of a
paste, especially for groundnuts, that will be even more
difficult to process.
The trends shown in Fig. 4 suggest that the press likely
would be more efficient for high oil content crops and
especially those that have softer meals at 12 1% (w.b.)
moisture content. Also, the press likely would be efficient
with other oilseeds as well, but would require thorough
material preparation such as size reduction, heating, and
moisture optimization. For both coconuts and ground-

105

Table 1
Average power consumption during oil expression from coconuts and
groundnuts
Pressing time (min)

2
4
6
8
10
12

Average power consumptiona (kW)

Coconuts

Groundnuts

0.054 a
0.056 a
0.054 a
0.056 a
0.076 c
0.090 e

0.061 b
0.063 b
0.061 b
0.081 d
0.131 f
0.162 g

Means separation within a column by Duncan multiple range test.

Means with the same suffix letter are not significantly different at the
5% level of significance.

nuts, the oil expression efficiency started to level off at

about 8 min of pressing. This suggested that the oilseed
matrix was significantly compressed after 8 min of pressing and higher pressure was required to express more oil.
3.3. Power consumption
The power consumption requirements for the respective oilseed expressions are given in Table 1 and Fig. 4.
The power consumption increased with an increase in the
pressing time for both coconut and groundnuts. Groundnut pressing required significantly (P < 0.05) more power
than coconut, which was attributed to the differences
in the oilseeds matrix structure. The press cake condition indicated that the groundnuts oilseed matrix tended
to compact much faster than coconuts oilseed matrix.
Therefore, higher power consumption was required for
groundnuts than coconuts. For example, power consumption during coconut pressing increased slightly
from 0.054 to 0.56 kW during the first 8 min of pressing,
but then increased significantly (P < 0.05) from 0.056
to 0.090 kW at 12 min of pressing. However, groundnut showed a different power consumption pattern with
power remaining almost constant at 0.61 after 6 min
of pressing, but then increased significantly to 0.081,
0.131 and 0.162 kW at 8, 10, and 12 min of pressing.
The increase in power consumption for both coconuts
and groundnuts during pressing coincided with the time
at which the oil expression efficiency was leveling off.
This further confirmed the earlier observation that it was
becoming more difficult to express oil towards the end
of the pressing time. The control unit showed that the
motor was drawing more current from the PV system.
The higher increase in power consumption experienced
with the groundnut correlated with the nature of its press
cake, which was more compacted, and therefore, more
difficult to compress.

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J.J. Mpagalile et al. / Industrial Crops and Products 25 (2007) 101107

Table 2
Selected characteristics of the expressed oil and press cake
Material
Coconut oil
Groundnut oil
Coconut cake
Groundnut cake

Moisture content
(% w.b.)

Viscosity (MPa s)

0.015
0.019
18 2.5
16 1.8

42.1
59.1

Table 3
Estimates of cost involved in making a solar photovoltaic press based
on average market prices of different components in Tanzania
Component

The increase in power consumption seemed to be

related to the increase in the current that was drawn
from the PV system. The current was proportional to
the torque and as the materials become compacted, more
torque was required. The permanent magnet (PM) motor
used with the press provided high torque at low speed.
When the speed of the motor was not controlled, low
torque was obtained and the motor was subjected to
excessive heating.

Four 50 W, 12 V dc solar panels

Four sealed lead batteries
One charge control unit
Various balance of system units
Oil press and its accessories all
manufactured locally using
materials available in Tanzania
Total cost
a

Average market price

Tsha ($ US)
800000 (695)
400000 (350)
120000 (105)
120000 (105)
500000 (435)

1940000 (1690)

1 US $ = 1150 Tanzania shillings.

the cost and to maximize the use of an extraction unit. It

also is important to note that the unit could be used for
other purposes, such as lighting, when the system is not
being used for pressing.

3.4. Quality of oil and press cake

4. Conclusions

The press cake obtained after oil expression was of

high quality. This was due to the freshness of the oilseeds
resulting from the procedure involved in the preparation of oilseeds. The oilseed press cakes contain protein
and residual oil that could be used in the preparation
of vegetables and stews for human consumption. However, owing to a relatively high moisture content of
the resulting cake, which averaged 18 2.5% (w.b.) for
coconuts and 16 1.8% (w.b.) for groundnuts, it is recommended that cake be spread and dried in thin layer
immediately after pressing. If this is not done, the cake
is likely to deteriorate rapidly through mold growth. The
moisture contents of the expressed oils (Table 2) were
very low at 0.015% (w.b.) for coconut oil and 0.019%
(w.b.) for groundnuts. These low moisture contents indicated that the expressed oil had good storage qualities.
This is an important attribute especially for the oil produced under small-scale operations in rural areas where
storage always poses a problem. The viscosities of the
expressed oils at 25 C were 42.1 MPa s for coconut oil
and 59.1 MPa s for ground nut oil and within the range
for vegetable oils.

Solar photovoltaic (PV) panels have great potential as

a source of power for oil expellers working on intermediate moisture content products. Based on the obtained
results, PV panels can effectively power a low-pressure
oil press to obtain satisfactory levels of oil expression
with little energy consumption. Further research on lowering the required oil expression pressure, while improving the expression efficiency through optimization of
process parameters is recommended.

3.5. Cost
The costs of the components of the photovoltaic system are given in Table 3. The initial investment is relatively high and the expected 20-year life expectance of
the system also is high. Therefore, it is anticipated that
farmers will need to form cooperative groups to share

Acknowledgements
The senior author was funded by the Fulbright Foundation, Washington, D.C. and the Industrial Agricultural
Products Center, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE.
Journal series no. 14539.
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