Innovative and flexible single screw press for the oil extraction of Calophyllum seeds Y S I 1,2 , H H 1 , I A K 3,4 * 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia 2 Research Center on New and Renewable Energy, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia 3 Department of Agroindustrial Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Institut Pertanian Bogor University, Bogor, Indonesia 4 Department of Bioenergy and Chemurgy Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia *Corresponding author: ikaamalia@ipb.ac.id Citation: Indartono Y.S., Heriawan H., Kartika I.A. (2019): An innovative and fexible single screw press for the oil extraction of Calophyllum seeds. Res. Agr. Eng., 65. Abstract: Te oil extraction of Calophyllum seeds using a conventional single screw press leads to an inferior yield and is perceived to be less efcient as well as difcult to operate. An innovative and fexible single screw press was, therefore, designed and investigated in this study to solve these problems. Moreover, the efects of the seeds’ mois- ture content, pressing temperature and seeds’ feed rate on the oil yield and quality were identifed to determine the optimal oil extraction performance from the Calophyllum seeds. Te study found that the seeds’ moisture content, pressing temperature and seeds’ feed rate generally afected the oil yield. Te yield indeed improved as the press- ing temperature and the seeds’ feed rate increased respectively from 45 to 75°C and 1.5 to 5 kg·h –1 . Te oil yield also ameliorated as the seeds’ moisture content rose from 1.7 to 12.8%, but it was optimal when the seeds’ moisture content was 5.5%. Te best oil yield of 80.6% was, thus, obtained with the seeds’ moisture content of 5.5%, a pressing temperature of 75°C and the seeds’ feed rate of 5 kg per hour. Although the quality of the crude oil was poor with a high viscosity (≥ 94 mm 2 ·s –1 ) and high acid value (≥ 48 mg KOH/g), its density, saponifcation and iodine values were acceptable. After the oil refning process by degumming and neutralisation, its quality improved and met the Indonesian Biofuel Standards, except for its viscosity. Keywords: Biofuel; Calophyllum; mechanical extraction; degumming; neutralisation Te Calophyllum plant produces non-edible and oily seeds. Te oil content of these seeds can reach up to 75% (dry matter basis) (Amalia Kartika et al. 2018), and this is higher than that of the jatropha seeds (40–60%) (Amalia Kartika et al. 2016). In Indonesia, this plant is growing widely on the coast- al areas and can produce seeds of approximately 20 t·ha –1 ·yr –1 (Leksono et al. 2014). Further- more, its production is higher than the jatropha (5 t·ha –1 ·yr –1 ) and palm (6 t·ha –1 ·yr –1 ). Calophyl- lum oil has the potential to be used as a biofuel due to its excellent properties (Jain et al. 2018). It was also widely used as a lamp oil, in traditional medi- cine, and in cosmetics (Dweck, Meadows 2002). Calophyllum oil is frequently extracted by a sin- gle screw press (Jahirul et al. 2013; Fadhlullah et al. 2015) but the extracted oil is inferior in both quantity (less than 35% based on the dried seed mass) and quality. Because of its high viscosity and low fuidity, extraction of the calophyllum oil using a single screw press is challenging and less fexible. In addition, the frictions between the material con- 1 Research in Agricultural Engineering Original Paper https://doi.org/10.17221/85/2018-RAE