The continuous oilseed expeller is a quick, easy, and low cost method to obtain oils, so it is used in small agriculture communities. This method is less efficient than the traditional solvent extraction, since it is affected directly by the initial conditions of the raw material, such as grain moisture temperature, and also by some machine features, such as the shaft and barrel design. In this work, the influence of the temperature and moisture content of peanut grains on the yield of gross oil was evaluated by experimental design and response surface methodology. The studied temperature range was between 8 and 10%, and the moisture content range was between 25 and 60 °C. The unrefined oil obtained was analyzed by the AOCS official method. The two studied variables were significant at 95% level, and the optimal condition values were close to the highest values of temperature and moisture content of grains. The temperature range from 50 to 65 °C and the moisture content from 10 to 10.8% correspond to the maximum oil yields.
Arachis hypogaea L.; response surface; unrefined oil yield; chemical characterization
