Design of Twin Screw Oil Expeller for Pongamia Pinnata Seeds

Biodiesel is obtained by processing edible and non-edible oils. Due to the increase in demand for fuel and stringent emission norms, biodiesel is preferred as it meets the emission norms. To meet the exponentially growing demands in developing countries, continuous production is required which can be achieved by mechanical screw presses. Currently, single screw press is being widely used for extraction of oil. The problems associated with the single screw expeller is that, it requires three or more passes to expel oil from seeds, which increases the production time and are also less efficient. In this paper, a counter rotating twin screw expeller is designed for extraction of oil from the Pongamia pinnata seeds. This paper focuses on comparison between the twin screw and single screw press technology based on both technical and economical appraisals, study is been carried out on how twin screw technology is better compared to single screw. Keywords— biodiesel, Pongamia pinnata seeds, single screw press, twin-screw expeller, oil extraction.