PBS Oil Industries Limited is the first to set up a physical refinery in Chhattisgarh. This feat is yet another feather in our cap as it goes on to show how much inclined we are to put forth high standards of quality. We push ourselves to offer an elevated experience to our consumers and physical refining of oil plays a critical role in it. Physical refining as against the practice of chemical refining is a much healthier process and does not deteriorate the oil quality and makes sure that the goodness of the oil remains intact. Unlike the chemical refining process where caustic soda gets mixed to remove the traces of impurity, physical refining involves no chemicals to remove acids from crude oil. Since the crude oil is not exposed to any harsh chemicals, physical refining of oil is a much healthier option and all our oils get treated through this process.

Any edible oil is not the same in its crude state. Oils like soybean and rice bran have comparatively more impurities than groundnut. There are various treatment processes namely physical and chemical refining which are followed to ensure that impurities are taken care of. Through the physical refining process, free fatty acids (FFA) are removed during distillation. This process requires the help of a lot of equipment and machinery due to which almost all kinds of oil from seeds such as sunflower seeds, linseeds, groundnut & sesame seeds, and mustard seeds are refined.

To be precise, physical refining means the removal of gum from oil through the process of degumming. The refining is predominantly carried out through pre-treatment and deodorization. Pre-treatment involves removal of minor constituents or heavy metals prior to deodorizing. The latter is a steam distillation process in which good quality of steam is injected into the oil under a considerably high pressure to remove FFA and odiferous components to obtain odorless oil. Thus, the use of pressure and temperature results in the eradication of these elements. With no use of chemicals in this process, the physically refined oils are free from acids and alkali. On the other hand, under the chemical refining process, extremely impure oils are treated with NaOH, phosphoric acids, etc. to remove the non-edible substances.

Rice Bran Oil, in particular, helps reduce the cholesterol levels as it contains an adequate amount of Oryzanol. To keep this antioxidant intact, this oil is refined under the physical process as under the chemical procedure it gets destroyed by the alkali. With steps like degumming, de-waxing, pre & post bleaching, and deodorization involved under the physical refining method one can be rest assured that the oil gets refined to an unadulterated form.