Experimental Study to Support Local Sunflower Oil Chains: Production of Cold Pressed Oil in Central Italy

Abstract

Sunflower is one of the most important oilseed crops cultivated in the world for different purposes. In Italy, the production is mostly located in the central area, representing 70% of Italian production. The market demand for sunflower oil is higher than the national production. There is an increasing request for cold pressed sunflower oil for food application. The success of this activity is linked to a correct setting up and management of the production and supply chain with a valorization of products and by-products. To this aim, information is needed, and this paper is focused on the cultivation of sunflower in central Italy using suitable hybrids, as well as on the study of the cold extraction performance of the sunflower seed produced and the quality of by-products and residues. Results indicate that, on average, a range of about 1.0-1.5 t ha −1 of cold pressed oil and different amounts of by-products can be obtained. According to a proposed scenario, 30 ha cultivated with sunflower are needed to create a complete supply chain within the farm, avoiding many additional passages and maintaining all the value for the farmer. It is important to use suitable hybrids for obtaining good yield, but also the cold extraction performances are important because they also affect the quality of by-products and residues that can be valorized themselves to improve sustainability.

Herbaceous Oil Crops, a Review on Mechanical Harvesting State of the Art

“…In particular, sunflower cake could be used as feedstock for anaerobic digestion, when considering its C/N ratio over 10 [88], for biofuel production in co-pyrolysis [90] or for the production of biomaterials through extrusion process [91]. Sunflower stalks can be used for bio-ethanol and biogas production [92,93] and seed hulls are suitable for energy production in co-firing [94,95].…”

New approach for the elucidation of the phenomena involved in the operation of vegetable oil extraction presses

“…These studies are most often the result of an experimental design, which aims at measuring the influence of parameters related to the material, preparation, conditioning, and operating parameters of the presses on extraction performances. For the material, these parameters are moisture content (Evangelista and Cermak, 2007;Martínez et al, 2012), seeds variety (Olayanju et al, 2006) or seed composition (oil content [Rombaut et al, 2015], fiber content [Mridula et al, 2019]), dimensional characteristics (Fadhlullah et al, 2015) or seed maturity stage (Ibrahim et al, 2017), sometimes even, selection traits such as oil composition (Pedretti et al, 2019). Preparation concerns dimensions such as storage conditions, possible milling (Venkitasamy et al, 2014), flaking (Vadke and Sosulski, 1988), dehulling to a greater or lesser extent (Zheng et al, 2003), extrusion (Patil and Ali, 2006;Evangelista, 2009).…”

Nectar Dynamics and Pollinators Preference in Sunflower

“…The species is considered one of the most important crops for oilseed production, with a global cultivated surface of 27 Mha and an estimated seed production of 52 Mtons per year [ 2 , 3 ]. In Italy, the cultivation of sunflower is concentrated in the central part of the peninsula [ 4 ], where climatic conditions allow rainfed cultivations covering a total surface of 123,000 ha [ 5 ]. Sunflower is also considered an important species for honeybee production, being ranked among the principal plants for melliferous potential [ 6 ].…”