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Post by jamescary on Nov 30, 2008 23:35:59 GMT -5
A company in the Netherlands has developed an inexpensive (100 euros / 130 USD shipped) manual oil expeller press: www.piteba.com/eng/index_eng.htmThe claim is that it can extract ~65% of the oil from the bean. There are several videos of it in action in the Links section of the site. It appears the company will do bulk discounts. Is anyone else interested in getting one?
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Post by cheebs on Dec 1, 2008 8:59:43 GMT -5
Well, ordered one to try. Let's hope it works. I like the idea of matching cocoa butter to the specific cacao being used.
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Post by jamescary on Dec 1, 2008 13:10:46 GMT -5
Cool! Let us know how it goes.
You can do a google search for piteba oil and find some blog postings of people who have got them. They sound pretty positive. Most are using for other vegetable oils, haven't seen one using for cacao. There's also a video out there showing how the press breaks down. Seems very simple and easy to clean.
Interestingly, the claim is that cacao beans can be pressed undecorticated. What would be the purpose there? I guess if the beans were pretty moldy, nasty and there wouldn't be much use for the press cake?
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Post by jamescary on Dec 1, 2008 13:32:43 GMT -5
For anyone interested, I'm following up with the company on the group discount rate. Please let me know, so I can get a rough count.
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Post by cheebs on Dec 1, 2008 15:59:59 GMT -5
Cool! Let us know how it goes. You can do a google search for piteba oil and find some blog postings of people who have got them. They sound pretty positive. Most are using for other vegetable oils, haven't seen one using for cacao. There's also a video out there showing how the press breaks down. Seems very simple and easy to clean. Interestingly, the claim is that cacao beans can be pressed undecorticated. What would be the purpose there? I guess if the beans were pretty moldy, nasty and there wouldn't be much use for the press cake? The place where I had my cocoa butter pressed uses very similar grinder/presses to extract sesame and pumpkin seed oil. The cake still comes out with a lot of oil though, and they press it once more in the big hydraulic press. My first step will definitely be a way to motorize the Piteba. If it doesn't work for cocoa I guess I can always sell it for soft seed oil extraction.
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Post by jamescary on Dec 1, 2008 16:54:46 GMT -5
I found someone who pressed ~90g of oil from 4 cups of hemp seed. Not sure how much those original 4 cups weighed, but 1 tbsp of hemp seed is about 10g and there are 64 tbsp in 4 cups, so about 640g of original seed. That's extracting ~14% of the original weight in oil. And hemp seed contains 30-35%. So just under 50% efficient. It appears they ran the cake through only once. Maybe multiple runs would help as the Piteba says it's possible to get up around 68% efficiency on hemp.
That would be pretty cool. Hopefully it won't require significant power. Not sure if there will be significant gain in output as the press may have an upper limit on the speed and efficiency?
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Post by cheebs on Dec 1, 2008 17:37:37 GMT -5
That would be pretty cool. Hopefully it won't require significant power. Not sure if there will be significant gain in output as the press may have an upper limit on the speed and efficiency? LOL well speed or a gain in output wasn't my primary intent, but rather not having to spend 6-8 hours turning that crank! I was thinking of a geared or low speed/high torque electric motor and a larger hopper on top to feed ~15 lbs of cacao at a time.
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Post by reelchemist on Dec 1, 2008 17:41:05 GMT -5
Very good find indeed. Keep us up to date on how it goes for cocoa. I will be getting one eventually - when the Aussie dollar arises from the toilet.
I had been messing around with trying to make a butter press for cocoa liquor using a PVC tube, with one end cap with holes drilled in and the other cap with a bicycle pump valve installed. I put linen over the holes, poured the hot liquor in, clamped down the two end caps (very important!) and pumped air in with a bicycle pump. This held pressure well (cocoa liquor seals it nicely) but just couldn't get the pressure high enough, I could only get out about 20 g of butter from any volume of liquor. The cake just became too compact to squeeze any more through.
However this may be a very good way to clarify the cocoa butter you get out of the screw press. The butter I got out of my press was quite clear - I had to use two sheets of linen. One sheet let through some of the cocoa solids.
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Post by jamescary on Dec 2, 2008 13:40:58 GMT -5
Were you using a manual bicycle pump?
Good idea on the filter. I'm pretty sure there will be some solids in the butter after running it through this press.
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Post by jamescary on Dec 2, 2008 16:52:47 GMT -5
So, Piteba replied to my inquiry. They have the discount listed here: www.piteba.com/eng/prices.htmHowever, they stated the discount applies mostly to the shipping cost. This would mean we would need to have the presses all shipped to one location in the US and then re-shipped. I don't mind re-shipping. The shipping weight is around 6-7 lbs, which according to the UPS rate tables would be an additional ~$12 USD. So, it's about a $10-$25 savings depending on the group size. Piteba says they have several in stock and normally sends them out within 2-3 days of payment. I'm going to place an order next week, so if you are interested let me know before then. I could set something up through ebay/paypal or maybe someone has another idea? (P.S. I hope I'm not coming off like a salesman. I'm very interested in the prospect of getting some cocoa butter matched to a particular bean. And getting to play with a new toy )
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Post by reelchemist on Dec 3, 2008 17:47:58 GMT -5
Yeah just used a hand held bicycle pump.
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Post by jamescary on Dec 4, 2008 18:05:00 GMT -5
Not a bad way to burn off excess chocolate calories Too bad you couldn't install either of these presses in a gym... All that energy gone to waste.
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Post by cheebs on Dec 16, 2008 20:00:18 GMT -5
Just got the Piteba in the mail. Will try to cobble together a suitable base over the weekend, and give it a whirl.
Next step: geared motor.
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Post by jamescary on Dec 16, 2008 20:55:42 GMT -5
Awesome! Keep us posted on your results.
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Post by kellymon on Feb 10, 2009 19:00:48 GMT -5
I'm interested to learn how this expeller press worked out? I'm tempted to get one for various types home oil production, maybe including cacao butter...... but I would like to know how the purchases that you folks made worked out? thanks, robert
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