How to Produce Groundnut Oil

 production of  Groundnut Oil has been profitable whether large scale or small scale production. The Nigerian Government sincerely advertises for investors on production section both for foreigners and Nigerians. It’s still not good enough to see that production in agricultural section is not doing well and must be emphasized that there is enough space for anyone that wants to get involved in this agricultural production. Nigeria is richly blessed in the land mass available for cultivation which is about 70% of the total land mass. 

It’s also clear that the importation of many products has been banned in Nigeria to boom the vegetable oil production sector but up to this time, the demand for vegetable oil is far greater than the supply. If this is the case, it’s advisable you go for this production since the demand is high and also can be carried out in large or small scale. This is a good business to do here in Nigeria since the raw materials is available to us. Vegetable oil can be got from groundnut seed, melon seed, sesame seed, cotton seed etc. We will look into the process of making groundnut oil.

               
Stages of Groundnut Oil Production
1.       Preparation stage:

Groundnut kernels are covered by its husk when harvested and washed. The husks need to be removed to get the kernels. This can be achieved using husk removing machine or manually by hands (removing manually by hands takes much time and consumes human energy). After that, you wash the nuts and closely inspect them to remove substances like stones, sands or plant debris using table sieve or by hand picking. It is now ready to go into processing stage.

2.       Processing stage:

Now, the groundnut kernels need to be heated to about 90°C and made a bit moist. But, you should be careful not to overheat it because it will affect the yielding of oil. Use can use a pan and electric heater or any wood fuel if electric heater is not available. The next is to send the moderately hot groundnut kernels to the expeller press machine which will press out oil from the nuts and send the cake out through the other end. The oil ought to be collected in the provided tank. The cake is not a total waste as it is mostly used as feed for livestock. The oil will now move to treatment stage.

3.       Treatment stage:

At this stage, the oil is allowed to set in a tank and filter for nice result. Due to the presence of free fatty acid, the oil needs to be neutralized with caustic soda and thereafter be washed with water because of soap formed as by-product of neutralization.  After this, the oil is mixed with bleaching earth to enhance the taste, smell and also help to achieve oxidation stability. By filtration, the bleaching earth will be filtered and refined low phosphorus groundnut oil is obtained.

4.       Packaging state:

At this stage you are almost done. All that is left is to bottle or can it. You can use 2L, 4L, 5L, 10L or any of your choice containers to can the oil. Congratulations!!! You have got the biz.
Items Required:

1.       Storage space: you want to do this as business so you need a good space to spread the groundnut to avoid damage my fungi, rain or any other thing as you carry out your production at least for one week.
2.       Husk removing machine. You can remove using hand or buy the one with removed husk
3.       Heating pan and electric heater(or wood fuel if electric heater is not available)
4.       Expeller press machine
5.       Collecting tank
6.       Filtering cloth
7.       Bleaching earth and caustic soda
8.       Cans or bottles
This detailed process is made because you will sell the oil. You can place your brand name on it.