Dehulling effectiveness of high-oleic and linoleic sunflower oilseeds using air-jet impact dehuller: a comparative study

Abstract Sunflower seeds and kernels are very common in the preparation of protein meals. Dehulling sunflower seeds for meal preparation and direct consumption is a very important operation. High-oleic sunflower contains the most oleic fatty acids in the oil which significantly improves the oxidative stability of the meal with this sunflower compared to meals with standard linoleic sunflower seed. In this work, a air-jet impact dehuller was used to determine, optimize and compare the effectiveness of dehulling of two types of sunflower: high-oleic (HOSS) and linoleic sunflower seed (LSS). A two-factorial experimental design (32) was used to estimate the effect of seed moisture and applied air pressure on the efficiency (E criterion) and quality of dehulling (K1 and K2 criteria). Samples with a moisture content of 6, 8 and 10% were dehulled at an air pressure of 400, 600 and 800 kPa. The most efficient dehulling of HOSS, was achieved at a dehulling pressure in the range of 600-800 kPa and moisture content of 6.0%. As for the LSS sample, the highest efficiency of LSS and the highest K2 criterion were obtained at the dehulling pressure of 800 kPa, and moisture content of 7.3%.