Sunflower oil line sizing: 20 / 50 / 100 tpd — and when refining pays.
TL;DR: Size by seed supply first: mechanical pressing turns roughly a third of seed mass into crude oil, so 20 tpd of seed intake ≈ 6–7 t of crude a day — and needs 5,000–6,000 t of seed a season secured within trucking distance. Pressing-only plants sit in the US$150k–400k equipment band and sell crude to refiners; adding the refining train (degumming, neutralising, bleaching, deodorising) moves you to US$400k–900k and into the bottled-oil business — where the margin is, and where the know-how is genuinely scarce. In Tanzania, that scarcity is exactly the opportunity.
The seed decides the line
Every failed oil mill we've assessed failed the same way: the press was fine, the seed wasn't there. Sunflower seed runs roughly 38–45% oil content, and a mechanical pressing plant recovers about a third of seed mass as crude oil — so the arithmetic is unforgiving: a 20 tpd plant running a 300-day year needs ~5,000–6,000 tonnes of seed, bought in season, stored, and financed. Before any machine is discussed, the feasibility question is: which farmers, what catchment radius, at what price, against which competing buyers? Answer that, and the line sizes itself.
Crude or refined — two different businesses
Pressing only (cleaning → dehulling → pressing → filtration) produces crude oil sold in bulk to refiners, plus seed cake — a real revenue line into the animal-feed market. Simple, robust, and the honest entry point. Pressing + refining adds the train that makes bottled consumer oil: degumming, neutralising, bleaching, deodorising. It roughly doubles the technical complexity of the plant — process control, steam, laboratory discipline — and it's where projects stall when nobody on site has run one. It is also where the consumer margin lives, which is why it's the tier Tanzania's import-substitution push actually needs.
The three tiers
| Dimension | 20 tpd seed intake | 50 tpd | 100 tpd |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crude oil output (approx., mechanical pressing) | ~6–7 t/day | ~15–17 t/day | ~30–35 t/day |
| Seed required per season | ~5,000–6,000 t | ~13,000–15,000 t | ~26,000–30,000 t |
| Typical configuration | Pressing + filtration; sell crude + cake | Pressing + first refining train; bottled regional brand | Full press + refinery; industrial seed logistics |
| Equipment capex band | US$150k–400k | US$400k–900k | US$700k–1.5M+ |
| Team (indicative) | 4–8 | 12–20 | 25–40+ |
| Best supported by | Secured local seed catchment; crude off-take agreement | Proven catchment + regional bottled distribution | Industrial procurement + national distribution |
Output and seed figures are indicative arithmetic on the pressing assumptions above — your written feasibility firms them for your seed, your extraction configuration and your market. Capex bands are equipment ex-China; apply ×1.25–1.45 landed and installed for Tanzania, and budget the season's seed purchases as working capital: the cash in the silo usually exceeds the cash in the machines.
The failure mode — the refinery nobody can run: a capable pressing operation adds a refining train, and six months later the bottled oil is cloudy, the free fatty acid numbers wander, and the plant quietly goes back to selling crude at crude margins — with refinery capital sitting idle. Refining fails on process know-how, not on hardware. It's why every CISH refining project is commissioned to specification on your crop with your team trained through the run-up — the know-how transfer is the product.
Why Tanzania, specifically
Tanzania is Africa's second-largest sunflower producer — sunflower is roughly 35% of national oilseed output — and edible oil is a named import-substitution target in the 2026/27 budget, with a cash-crop output target of +32.4% to 2.118M tonnes. Milling and processing equipment imports are growing sharply 2024 · UN Comtrade, and the refining step is precisely where local capacity is thinnest. The seed exists; the bottled-oil demand exists; the gap is the working refinery between them. See the Tanzania page for landed factors and port specifics.
Have you got the seed?
Tell us your catchment, your season, and whether you're aiming at crude or bottled. The feasibility call is free, and the answer comes back in writing.