For culinary and cosmetic markets the oil from the press is usually filtered as it contains small pieces of shell and fine seed pulp. Filtered oil is crystal clear and does not leave a sediment layer in retail containers.
For smaller scale batch production (eg. less than 200 gallons per month) it is possible to simply allow the sediment to settle for 2 weeks or more in a tank, this allows most of the solids to fall to the bottom of the tank. The oil above the sediment can then be drawn off and pumped through a polishing filter to give crystal clear oil.
For larger scale production the oil can be continuously pumped through a special type of filter that will remove the suspended solids straight off the press, this means the oil can be filtered as soon as it is pressed there is no need to leave it for weeks to settle. Continuous filtering is achieved using a depth filter:
