Comparison of some drying techniques to obtain the fixed oil from pomegranate seeds

Pomegranate seeds are a valuable waste product gained after fresh juice production. In this thesis wet pomegranate seeds were dried by using hot air, vacuum and microwave drying. At first, a screw press was used to get oil from dried seeds. Then, the remaining oil in the press cake was extracted by soxhlet method. The shortest drying times were 80 °C and 0,2 atm at vacuum drying and then 80 °C at hot air drying and 720 W at microwave drying. The oil yields were ranged from 18% to 28%.