Economic feasibility analysis of soybean oil production by hexane extraction.

Hexane extraction is the most common method used in the industry to produce soybean oil due to its high oil recovery and lower production cost. With the demands of soybean oil increasing either in food or industrial applications, expansion plans are considered by many companies to increase production capacity. Techno-economic analysis is performed to evaluate the economic feasibility of soybean oil production by hexane extraction based on historical scenarios from 1980 to 2015. Capital investment, operating costs, revenues, and profits are main parameters to consider when estimating profits, gross margin, return on investment (ROI), and payback time and are the indices used to evaluate the profitability of the process. As the plant capacity increases in scale to over 34.64 million kg of annual soybean oil production, the break-even is met and the producing stream is able to earn profits. Additionally, sensitivity analysis is also applied to examine which factor affects profit the most. In the hexane extraction process, material costs, especially for soybean prices, have the most significant effect on profit. However, soybean meal is the main driving force for soybean oil production due to its significant amount of productivity and revenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]