A new aqueous method for recovering high quality oil and deoiled meal
from pecan kernels
Abstract
The extraction of oil by a new aqueous method has been promoted because
it is environmentally friendly, safe and economical of cost. A new
aqueous method using 1.4:10.0 water-to-pecan kernel slurry ratio was
developed, which recovered 97.73% of oils from the kernel containing
70.47% crude oil content. The method had a higher oil recovery as
compared to enzyme-assisted extraction or solvent extraction or cold
pressing in terms of producing oil for safe consumption. The method
recovered oils with 0.47 mg KOH/g acid value and 0.34 mmol/kg peroxide
value which were identical to that obtained by enzyme-assisted aqueous
method and lower than that obtained by solvent extraction. The de-oiled
pecan meal obtained by the new aqueous method only contained 5.14%
residual oils, which was edible since no harmful chemical was added
during oil extraction. No waste water was produced during the aqueous
extraction of oils.