Techno-Economic Analysis of Extruding-Expelling of Soybeans to Produce Oil and Meal

Mechanical expelling (pressing) is a common and developed technique used to separate soybean oil from soybean protein and fiber. Due to the relatively higher oil content in the expelled meal compared to solvent-extracted soybean meal, the mechanical process is often used for specific purposes in industry, such as targeted livestock feed applications. For improving oil recovery and profits, two-stage mechanical process combining extrusion before the expelling process has been introduced and adapted by industrial applications. To examine the viability of this improved two-stage extruding-expelling process, techno-economic analysis was performed by using SuperPro Designer for simulation of the soybean extruding-expelling process. Soybean oil yield increases to over 70% compared to the conventional single-step expelling process with 60%. Soybean oil and soybean meal contributed about 25% and 75% of total revenues, respectively. Through fluctuations in economic conditions, soybean meal plays an important role in earning profits, making the whole mechanical process profitable. According to the sensitivity analysis, the sale of soybean meal is one of the driving forces for the mechanical expelling process, especially in large industrial scales.