Soybeans Processing Plant Supplier

 Soybeans Processing Plant

Shijiazhuang Xinlu Technology Co., Ltd. – In-Depth Look at a Soybeans Processing Plant

A soybeans processing plant is an industrial facility dedicated to converting raw soybeans into a spectrum of derivative products. The specific configuration of the plant is heavily influenced by its target market, which can range from the production of edible oil and animal feed to the manufacture of high-value food ingredients for human consumption. Shijiazhuang Xinlu Technology Co., Ltd. provides engineering and equipment for such plants, focusing on the core processes of preparation, oil extraction, and product refinement.

The journey of the soybeans starts with storage and pre-cleaning. Soybeans are stored in silos and, upon demand, are conveyed to the cleaning section. Here, vibrating screens, aspirators, and magnetic separators work in concert to remove foreign materials such as stalks, leaves, stones, sand, and metal fragments. This is essential to protect downstream processing equipment from wear and damage and to ensure product purity.

The cleaned beans then proceed to preparation for oil extraction. This multi-step process is crucial for maximizing oil yield. It typically includes:

• Cracking: The whole beans are passed through corrugated roller mills to break them into 6-8 pieces.

• Dehulling: The cracked beans are subjected to aspiration and screening to separate the hulls from the meat. Dehulling increases the protein concentration in the final meal.

• Conditioning: The cracked and dehulled meats are heated and adjusted to a specific moisture content in conditioners or cookers. This step plasticizes the oil within the cells, making it easier to extract.

• Flaking: The conditioned meats are passed through smooth roller mills to be pressed into thin flakes (approximately 0.3 mm thick). Flaking dramatically increases the surface area, which is critical for efficient solvent extraction.

The prepared flakes then enter the oil extraction phase. For large-scale operations, this is accomplished via solvent extraction. The flakes are fed into a counter-current extractor where they are washed with a food-grade solvent, usually hexane. The solvent dissolves the oil, creating a mixture called miscella. The miscella is then distilled to separate the crude soybean oil from the solvent, which is condensed and recycled. The defatted flakes, now containing less than 1% residual oil, are referred to as "spent flakes" or "white flakes."

These white flakes are processed into soybean meal. They are passed through a desolventizer-toaster (DT) which uses steam and heat to remove any residual solvent and to deactivate anti-nutritional factors like urease and trypsin inhibitor. The resulting toasted meal is dried and cooled before being ground into various grinds of soybean meal, a high-protein ingredient for animal feed rations.

For higher-value applications, the white flakes can be the starting point for food-grade protein products. Through a series of steps involving extraction, acid precipitation, washing, and drying, the white flakes can be converted into soy protein concentrate (SPC) or soy protein isolate (SPI), which are used in a vast array of food products for their functional and nutritional properties. An optional oil refining line can be added to process the crude oil into a bland, stable, and visually appealing edible oil through the stages of degumming, neutralization, bleaching, and deodorization. A complete Soybeans Processing Plant from Shijiazhuang Xinlu Technology Co., Ltd. is therefore a highly versatile production center, capable of transforming a raw agricultural commodity into multiple streams of value-added products.