Studies in the expression of oil from tung fruit

Abstract

1. Tests indicated that best results in yield of crude and filtered oil by an expression procedure are obtained with a tung meal containing 4.2% moisture and 20% shell. 2. The drying of tung meal using an initial air temperature of 320° F. appeared to adversely affect the yield of filtered oil from the expeller process. 3. A filtration test was developed for determining the amount of foots in a crude tung oil. 4. It was found difficult to obtain efficient oil expression from tung meals containing filter cake; in one test with this material the resulting press cake was high in oil content, while in another test the crude tung oil contained about twice as much foots material as was present in crude tung oil from tung meal containing no filter cake. 5. The expression of tung oil from a tung meal consisting of ground old tung kernels and tung shell was found difficult if not impossible. This difficulty appeared to be due, at least partly, to the fact that the meal from old kernels will not plasticize when subjected to heat and pressure. When these kernels were mixed with new kernels no difficulty was experienced in expressing the tung oil from the meal. 6. Tests indicated that hulling the moist tung fruit in the grove does not interfere with the expression of the oil if the moist dehulled tung fruits are properly dried before pressing. 7. A process was developed for producing a clear tung oil by treating the crude oil with a chemical agent to precipitate certain non-oil constituents in the crude tung oil followed by either pressure filtration or centrifugation. 8. When tung oil filter cake was mixed with an equal amount of tung press cake, over 98 percent of the oil could be solvent-extracted by petroleum solvents.