Sunflower Seed Cake Extraction Project in Ukraine

Ukraine is one of the largest sunflower producers in the world, and most of its crushing capacity is built around pressing. Huatai supplied sunflower seed cake extraction equipment into that market — the section that recovers the oil pressing leaves behind.

What is left in press cake

A well-run screw press leaves somewhere around 6–8% oil in sunflower cake. Push the press hard, or run difficult seed, and that climbs to 12%. On a plant processing hundreds of tons a day, that residual oil is the single largest recoverable loss in the building — larger than anything you will find in the refinery, and it is sitting in a truck on its way out of the gate.

Solvent extraction brings that under 1%. The arithmetic is simple. You have already paid for that oil in seed. The only question left is whether the annual volume justifies a solvent plant.

Why cake extraction is not the same as direct extraction

Extracting press cake is a different job from extracting flakes. And the differences bite both ways.

• Cake is denser and harder. It does not percolate the way flakes do. It usually needs to be conditioned and sized first, or the solvent channels through it and leaves oil behind unevenly.
• Throughput is lower per unit of extractor volume than on a direct flake line, which affects how the extractor is sized.
• It is an addition, not a replacement. The presses keep running and the extraction section is bolted on behind them, which is a very different retrofit conversation from building a new line.
• The meal changes. Cake that went to feed at 8% oil now leaves at under 1%, which changes its energy density and what it is worth as a feed ingredient. Usually that is fine, sometimes it needs renegotiating with buyers.

The solvent question

Running solvent extraction means running hexane. Which means ventilation, explosion-proof electricals, solvent recovery, and a safety regime the plant has to actually maintain rather than one that lives in a binder in the office.

None of this is exotic. The industry has done it for decades. But it does change what the plant needs in trained people and procedures, and that is a real operating cost, not a footnote.

Huatai supplies the extraction section with solvent recovery built in, because one number decides whether the section pays for itself. Solvent loss. That is it. Which is why the recovery side — condensers, vent absorption, and the water separation system — is not a place to economise.

Considering cake extraction?

The first thing to measure is the oil content of the cake coming off your presses, sampled over several days rather than taken once. It varies more than most plant managers expect. And the average — not the best day — is what decides the payback.

If you are running presses on sunflower and want to know whether extraction pays at your tonnage, send us the throughput and the cake analysis. We will give you the numbers, including the case where the honest answer is that it does not.

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