Slow Press Makes High-Quality Oils

Slow Press Makes High-Quality Oils CROPS New Techniques The made-in-Wisconsin M70 oil press makes soybean oil that can be burned in a diesel engine as well as sunflower oil that can be poured on a salad You can run practically any kind of seed or nut through to get a food-grade oil and a high-protein meal The secret is in the way it works “Our expelled oil comes out between 90 and 120 degrees well below the 138-degree limit for cold pressed oils ” says Ryan Thomas OilPress Co “Anyone who farms can process their own commodities and extract the oil to use for medicinal cooking or soap making purposes anywhere vegetable oil is used ” Thomas explains that soybean oil produced at higher temperatures by most conventional presses starts to polymerize Before it can be used as fuel or for most other purposes it has to go through a toxic chemical process to break up the polymers “Cold press soybean oil is very low viscosity ” he says “It can be used directly in a diesel engine ” Finding a farm-scale oil press is what got Thomas into the business Prior to 2001 he was selling a multi-oil combustion system he had patented to farmers who were burning oil they pressed from their soybeans “They were using European farm-scale presses built to handle canola and sunflower seeds ” says Thomas “They were destroying them on soybeans ” A mechanical engineer since 1990 Thomas set out to make a better press “I could see why the European presses failed so I set out to build one that could handle soybeans ” he says “In the 20 years since I’ve sold more than 3 000 worldwide ” He has continued to improve the design The M70 has been in its 5th generation for 3 years With it he doubled the size of the bearings in the chain drive That allowed him to offer a full 5-year warranty on the $9 840 oil press “Our oil press will produce 50 to 70 gal of oil a day ” says Thomas “That’s 1 500 to 2 100 gals per month with most oilseed crops ” The M70 is rated at 700 lbs in 24 hours It’s engineered to run 24 hrs a day for months on end without intervention It draws only 4 to 6 amps under normal operation In a 24-hr period while crushing soybeans it used 21 3 kWh roughly $2 a day in most communities estimates Thomas “The fact that it’s a value-added process appeals to me ” he says “I have one customer who leases his canola and sunflower seed oil to the local school district to use in their kitchen At the end of the week he takes back the used oil and extracts it for diesel fuel ” Clay Oliver Pitts Ga operates several of Thomas’ oil presses He uses them on everything from sunflower sesame and pumpkin seeds to coriander seeds peanuts and pecans In addition to oil sales he dries and grinds the meals to make specialty flour His specialties include pecan oil at $17 for 8 oz and pecan flour at $10 a pound He even processes okra into oil and meal In recent years Thomas has seen a rising demand for his presses for use with hemp seed He sees tremendous potential for the hemp oil noting that his Canadian customers report producing from 150 to 300 gals of oil per acre It’ll burn directly in diesel engines “I have one customer who makes a health supplement with hemp oil ” says Thomas “She sells it for $30 per fluid ounce That’s $3 840 per gallon ” While OilPress Co does have some dealers 99 percent of his sales are direct “The machine is so simple; it doesn’t require a dealer to set it up and teach a person to operate it If you can make a smoothie with a blender you can operate our press ” Thomas also sells a centrifuge oil cleaner to remove contaminates down to one micron as well as water Made completely of stainless steel it’s easy to use easy to clean and produces a food-grade quality oil Contact: FARM SHOW Followup OilPress Co 20430 70th Ave Chippewa Falls Wis 54729 ph 715-926-1193; toll-free 877-645-7737; oilpressco@protonmail com; www oilpress co

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