Fish Oil Extraction

YHCHEM offers various solutions such as distillation and refinement to achieve purification of fish oil at different purities.

Background:

Deep-sea fish oil is a type of natural health product with high nutritional value, rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, notably omega-3 fatty acids such as Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA). Modern medical research has demonstrated that EPA and DHA have crucial physiological functions such as lowering blood lipids and cholesterol, promoting the development of brain nerves and retinas, anti-epileptic and anti-arrhythmic effects, and preventing fibrosis of blood vessels. They can effectively prevent and control certain diseases, such as hypertension, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Currently, the extraction methods widely used in the industry are cold crystallization and urea inclusion, which have the disadvantages of low extraction rates and solvent residue problems.YHCHEMoffers various solutions such as distillation and refinement to achieve purification of fish oil at different purities.

Fish Oil Production Process:

In this process, crude fish oil product is used as feed material, and the molecular distillation device is customized based on the component content and feed amount. Through multi-stage molecular distillation, light-phase impurity components are removed successively. As the molecular distillation stages increase, the light phase's EPA content and the heavy phase's DHA content increase until the target concentration is reached, after which the light and heavy phase products are collected. During production adjustment, gas chromatography is used for real-time content analysis and detection of fish oil products to ensure production quality.

In this process, the crude fish oil product is used as feed material, and customization is made based on feed component content and amount. The thin film evaporation device removes light components with carbon numbers below 18, and the heavy phase enters the first stage distillation tower to continue removing low-content short carbon chain components. The first stage distillation tower separates out a heavy phase rich in EPA and DHA unsaturated fatty acids, which is then subject to real-time and accurate purity monitoring using gas chromatography. Subsequently, the heavy phase from the first stage distillation enters the second stage distillation tower, where EPA and DHA are separated based on production needs. Light and heavy phase outputs are analyzed using gas chromatography, and upon confirming that the target purity has been reached, product collection is completed in both phases. (More process routes can be precisely customized according to different materials to be treated.)

Core Process Equipment:

YHCHEMMolecular Distillation System

Includes an evaporator main body with an internal condensing structure, feed preheating storage tank, material transfer unit, vacuum unit, temperature control unit, continuous discharge device, etc. Molecular distillation is a special high vacuum distillation technology that separates liquids at temperatures much lower than their boiling points under extremely high vacuum conditions, based on the difference in the average free path of molecules in the gas phase. It is particularly suitable for the purification of heat-sensitive and easily oxidized substances like deep-sea fish oil. During production,YHCHEM's molecular distillation system can separate components based on the length and saturation of the fatty acid carbon chains in fish oil under high vacuum conditions.

Advantages:

Significantly lowers the boiling point of materials.

High evaporation efficiency.

Short heating time for materials.

Very low pressure drop.

Modular design.

Integrated control.

YHCHEMThin Film EvaporationSystem

Includes a thin film evaporator main body, feed preheating storage tank, material transfer unit, vacuum unit, temperature control unit, vapor-liquid separator, condenser, continuous discharge device, etc. Through customized design based on different crude fish oil product parameters such as feed amount, feed rate, feed temperature, and feed component content, under high vacuum conditions, theYHCHEMthin film evaporation device can efficiently complete the component pre-separation process requirements of crude fish oil products at lower temperatures.

Advantages:

Continuous and stable feed method.

High boiling point materials can achieve low-temperature evaporation under high vacuum conditions.

Short heat transfer residence time, suitable for heat-sensitive materials.

High evaporation efficiency, good separation effect.

Fast processing speed, can be connected to a distillation column to improve product purity.

Compact equipment, small footprint.

YHCHEMDistillation Tower

Yuanhuai Distillation Column includes the main body of the distillation column, temperature and pressure control units, condensation devices, reflux ratio control systems, sampling devices, etc. Yuanhuai custom designs for different materials based on their physical properties using professional software simulations, meeting higher separation requirements for target products.

Advantages:

Higher theoretical plate number than conventional distillation equipment, resulting in higher product purity;

Modular design, compatible with devices such as thin film distillation;

Operates under high vacuum conditions, achieving lower temperature distillation separation;

Capable of both batch and continuous distillation;

With Yuanhuai's control system, it achieves precise control of key parameters such as temperature, pressure, reflux ratio, and material input and output.