Olive oil extraction is an industrial process in the agro-food industry, which aims to extract oil from the drupes of the olive tree.
This processing, carried out in a facility called an oil mill, takes place in two main stages: grinding of the pulp and subsequent separation of the oily fraction from the solid and liquid components.
In the context of this process, Bellin’s progressive cavity pumps and lobe pumps can be successfully used at various steps in the production of a high-quality olive oil.
The olives by means of infeed screw systems are transferred from the collection tank to washing and weighing systems.
During this, step, the olives are crushed to obtain the oil pulp, which is a semi-fluid mass composed of a solid part (fragments of stones, peel and pulp) and a liquid part (emulsion of water and oil).
Mixing is an operation that follows crushing and has the purpose of breaking the emulsion between oil and water and gathering the oil micelles into larger droplets that tend to separate spontaneously from the water.
Oil extraction is achieved by centrifugation in a horizontal centrifuge, which separates the solid part (pomace) from the liquid part (water and oil).
The pomace is then stored, while the liquid phase goes to feed the vertical separator that separates the water from the oil.
The pomace is stored and used as biomass for heating purposes or biogas plants.
During this phase, the oil is separated from the water using a vertical centrifuge, which allows the clarification of the olive oil by removing any solid particles and water droplets. The extracted oil is then transferred into stainless steel silos and stored under nitrogen before final packaging.
