palm oil industries

8/3/2019 Palm Oil Industries

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OIL PALM AND PALM OIL

- Oil Palm is the tree and the tree bears the fruit from whichthe palm oil is obtained.

- The principle oil palm of commerce is Elaise Guineensiswhich is a tribe of cocoainae (coconut) family.

- Oil palm is first nurtured at the nursery after pollination transfer to plantation when the young plants reaches about 8inches in height.

- Suitable area for growth: plenty of rainfall and gooddrainage system

- Harvest the tree after 3 years of planting.


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- The fruit can be harvesting after 2 months of ripening.

- The mature bunch contains a few hundred to a fewthousand fruit depending on the genetic and environmentalfactors and palm age. (young poor palms: 5 kg fruit, 15 year

old healthy tree: 40 kg fruit, individual fruit: 8-10 g / fruit).


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- The fruit is made up of exocarp (skin), mesocarp (which

contains palm oil and water in a fibrous matrix), endocarp(shell) and kernel (the seed, which contains oil and meal)


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- Bunch production is continuously and partially

unsynchronised between palms.

- Oil starts to accumulate in the bunch from relatively early itsdevelopment and build up rapidly from 130 days afterripening. The quantity maximises and eventually starts todecline due to the breakdown of oil to free fatty acid (FFA)and loss of actual bunch tissue.

- Regular harvesting is required taking only the ripes ones.

This can be recognised based on fruit detachment whichcommences about 140 days after ripening.

- Once the fruit are harvested, they need to be transported to

the mill for extraction of oil.


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- Eight processes involve in the extraction of palm oil

industries:

1) Bunch reception2) Loading ramp3) Sterilization4) Threshing5) Digestion6) Oil extraction7) Clarification and purification of CPO

8) Nut and kernel station


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EXTRACTION OF CRUDE PALM OIL

What is crude palm oil (CPO)?It is the oil obtained from the mesocarp part of palm oil fruit

Several processes involve in the extraction of the oil.1. Bunch reception

- Bunch are transported to the mills by road truck or lorries, or cagesrunning on specially built railway system.

- Upon reception at the mill, the fruit is graded to ensure a high standardof harvesting. Grade as follows:

(a) Fruit bunch < 10 loose fruitlets unripe

(b) Fruit bunch 10 loose fruitlets ripe(c) Fruit bunch with excessive loose fruits detached overripe(d) Bunch with loose fruits completely detached rotten(e) Bunch with long stalk and consignment with excessive trashare also noted.

- Appropriate action will be taken by mill and estate management basedon the grading.- Fruit will carried by trucks to the loading ramp.


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2. Loading Ramp

- The fresh fruit bunch (FFB) is loaded directly into the ramp hopperwith minimum handling.- Fruit from the hopper are loaded into the fruit cages waitingunderneath. Each cage hold about 2 tons of fruit and these arepushed in a train of three by a locomotive or skid loader to the

sterilizer yard.- Purpose of ramp operation: to ensure that old fruits are first taken outfor processing, to avoid accumulation of old fruit which otherwise willrot over a short period and thus creating high FFA problem (should notexceed 5%).

- Loose fruits on the ramp top, ramp bottom and around themarshalling yard should be removed to avoid being crashed andprevent unnecessary problems arising.


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Fruits are loaded into the fruit cage


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3. Sterilization

- The fruit arriving inside the cages are then charged into the sterilizerto be cooked under saturated steam at 40 psig.

- Quality of the cooked fruit is very important for subsequent process.

- Objective of sterilization:

(a) Prevention of any further rise in FFA due to enzyme action byinactivation of the lipolytic enzymes

(b) Facilitation of mechanical stripping. To loosen fruit stillattached to the bunch stalk, sufficient heat must penetrate tothe points of attachment of the fruits to the spikelets to bring

about hydrolysis at these points(c) Preparation of the fruit pericarp for subsequent processing.(d) Preconditioning of the nuts to minimize kernel breakage

during both processing and nut cracking(e) Coagulations of the protein material and hydrolysis of the

mucilaginous material present in the palm fruit.


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- The operation is manual except the actual cooking, hence any delay

in closing or opening the door or inadequate steam pressure willdisturb the sterilizing cycle.- Inefficient sterilization will give to several problems is subsequentprocess:

(a) stripping of the fruits fruits are not loosened enough(b) digestion and pressing pericarp is not softened enough(c) cracking higher tendency of nuts cracking and thus brokenkernels, difficult to separate them later.(d) clarification of the extracted oil poor oil recovery


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Fruit to be cooked under saturated steam in sterilizer


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4. Threshing

- Purpose: Threshing or stripping is done to separate the sterilized fruitsfrom the sterilized bunch stalks.- The sterilized fruit together with the fruit cage is lifted by a hoistingcrane and then poured on to the threshing machine.- The threshing machine consists of 2 parts,

(a) Thresher hopper or feeder designed so that the sterilizedbunches can slide freely down the hopper and large enough toaccommodate a maximum of two cages full of bunches in capacity.The hopper is simple with good control device.(b) Thresher drum a rotary cylinder made up of small section

channel bars at equal intervals.


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The fruit cage is lifted by ahoisting crane and thenthe sterilized fruit ispoured on to the threshingmachine.


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- The rate of rotation of the drum is set to ensure the bunches ofnormal size are lifted by centrifugal action assisted by lifting bars

fitted inside the drum.- Once the bunches have reached the top of the drum, they then fallfreely, passing approximately through the axis of the drum andstriking the bottom with sufficient force to dislodge much of the fruits.- As the action repeats several times during the rotation of the drum,

while moving along to the end of the drum, the fruit finallydrop out.- The drum discharge: empty bunches (normally discharge to anincinerator yielding an ash) and sterilized fruits (proceed todigestion)

C C


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Empty bunches normally discharge to an incinerator



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Incinerator



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5. Digestion

- Process: reheat, pericarp loosened from the nuts and prepared forpressing.

- Digestion take place in steam heated vessels provided with stirringarms known as digester or kettles.

- Temperature 100C, the arms stir and rub the fruit, loosening thepericarp from the nuts and breaking open as many of the oil cellspossible.- The digester converts the stripped fruits into a homogeneousmash. The digester is kept full as the digested fruit is drawn off

continuously at the same rate as the freshly stripper fruit is added.



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Digestion take place in steam heated vessels



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6. Oil Extraction

- Palm oil is extracted by pressing in the screws press- consist ofperforated cage in which runs a single or double screw- Press screw: tough and wear resistant steel; press cage: stainlesssteel.- The outlet end of perforated cage is restricted by a cone and it is this

restriction of the discharge that creates a pressure in the cage.- The pressing of the digested mesh is done with minimum nutbreakage.- Discharge from screw press: crude palm oil liquor and matte of oilyfibre and nuts

- Fibre and nuts: carried by the steam jacketed conveyor- Crude oil: passed on to the vibrating screens to be separated fromthe accompanying solids.



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Palm oil is extracted bypressing in the screw press



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Discharge from screw press



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7. Clarification and Purification of CPO

- Purpose: to give a clear stable product of acceptable appearance.Water and impurities must be removed.- Extracted crude palm oil contains varying amount of water togetherwith impurities (vegetable matter some in form of insoluble solidsand some dissolved in the water).

- Average composition of crude palm oil, 66% oil, 24% water andremainder is lumped as non-oily solids.- Water can be removed by settling or centrifuging.- Clarification for palm oil are gravity settling or direct process.



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The crude oil is diluted first with hot water to reduce its viscosity.

The diluted crude oil is screened to remove any coarse fibrous materialwhich is returned to digester.

The screened crude oil is heated (90-95C) and pumped to thecontinuous settling tank.

Retention of the crude liquor in settling tank enables the oil to rise to the

surface and overflow continuously into a reception tank.

Settled oil purified by centrifuging reduce the dirt content to 0.01% orless



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- A small portion of the moisture content of the oil is dissolved in the oiland can only be removed by evaporation in a dehydrator with or

without the use of a vacuum.

- The underflow from the continuous settling tank is sludge containingsome oil which can be recovered by centrifuging.

- The rest of the sludge is discharge to the effluent treatment plant.

- In effluent treatment process, the anaerobic digestion of palm oil milleffluent (POME) produce methane which can be used to generate in-house electricity.



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8. Nut and Kernel Station

- Pressed fibres uses as fuel to the boiler.- Nuts are normally not processed for the oil content in the same mill.Hence, the nuts need to separate the shell from the kernel. Prior tothis, separation of nuts from the accompanying fibre is done indepericarper station.

- Function of depericarper: nut polishing, partial drying of fibre,transport of fibre to the boiler house, grading out of oversize foreignmaterial e.g wood, stones, metal bits and stalks- The wet nuts are elevated to the nut bin which is maintained at 60-77C. Upon drying, the dry nuts are then transported by dry nuts

elevator to the nut cracking machines. The separated shells are sentto the yard as fuel to the boiler whereas the kernels are then sorted inkernel silo dryer before final storage in the bulk kernel silo.



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Separation of nuts from the accompanying fibre



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REFINING OF CRUDE PALM OIL


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- The crude palm oil obtained from the mill is dark orange incolour, contain many form of fatty acids.

- Water, insoluble impurities, free fatty acids, oxidation productshould be kept a minimum level.- Thus, purification or refining process are needed to reduce

the contaminants.- The refining treatment should retain as much as possible the

tocopherolsand tocotrienolsbecause of their antioxidanteffect to the product.

- Two methods of refining: physical or chemical refining.- A refined oil is the crude oil which has been exposed to the

following treatment:

(a) Degumming, neutralization, washing and drying (ifused)

(b) Bleaching and filtration(c) Deodorization and polishing




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Crude oil storage

Gum conditioning

Crude oil storage

Deodorization

Drying

Gum conditioning

Pretreated or neutralizedand bleached storage

Filtration

Polishing

Edible oil storage

Neutralization

Bleaching

Water washing

Cooling

Steam refining

Pretreated oil storage

Filtration

Polishing

Edible oil storage

Bleaching

Cooling

CHEMICALMETHOD PHYSICAL METHOD



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(a)Degumming, Neutralization, Washing and Drying

- Impurities: phophatides, protein fragments, gummy andmucilaginous substances - soluble in the oil only in hydrousform.- can be precipitated by centrifuge

- Hydration is accomplished during the production of palm oilby admission of steam and water prior to the oil being purifiedin sludge separators and clarifiers.



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Degumming

- Some of the gums in the palm oil are not hydratable gums orphosphatides, which cannot be removed from the oil by waterdegumming in the palm oil factory.

- Gums containing Ca and Mg, which if found in the oil after

refining, give the oil an inferior quality and therefore a shortershelf-life. Therefore it should be completely removed.

- Concentrated phosphoric acid 0.1% by weight is sufficient toremove a significant amount of phosphatides and about 25ppm of soap in washed oil.



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Neutralization

- The losses during neutralization normally be attributed tothe following factors(a) FFA(b) The mucilage, coloring matter and other impurities in

the oil

(c) The saponification losses which arise throughsaponification of neutral oil

- Neutralized used NaOH- The resulting soapstock is separated from the oil by

centrifuging and washing with water.- Any soap retained in the washed oil is removed by adding

citric of phosphoric acid to the final wash prior to drying ofthe oil.



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Drying- Oil discharged from the water washing centrifuge containsabout 0.25% moisture, this cause a rise in FFA due tocatalytic hydrolysis.

- Therefore, the oil is dried in a vacuum dryer to reduce the

moisture contain (


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(b)Bleaching and Filtration- Reason of bleaching

(a) To obtain the lightest color possible(b) To remove traces of soaps present from the alkalineprocess, which can effect hydrogenation by making iterratic, non-selective and difficult to control

(c) To remove traces of nickel from hydrogenated oil.Nickel will disturb deodorization process by charging theflavor and color of the final product.



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- Carried out by contacting the oil with an adsorbent (clayor carbon) in he absence of oxygen (with the present of

oxygen, clay may act as a catalyst for oxidation)- To ensure no oxygen presence, the process is carried out

under a steam or nitrogen blanket or under vacuum (plantscale).

- Quantity of bleaching agent, 0.5-2% by weight of the oil at80-180C. At higher temperature, the adsorption effectsare better.

- Then the oil is pumped through a filter and recycle until afilter cake has been formed on the elements.



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(c)Deodorization and Polishing

- Purpose: To reduce the oil to odorless an tasteless fatsand oil by removing the relatively volatile odiferous andflavored substances (aldehydes, ketones, FFA).

- Deodorization is steam distillation under vacuum. The

process does not reduce trace metals or phosphatidelevels. But if any soap is present, high losses will beencountered due to foaming in deodoriser.

- When the oil is fully deodorized, it is cooled down to a

temperature of about 55C before being pumped througha polishing filter giving the finished oil its final sparkle.



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Physical Refining Chemical Refining

No neutralization, washing,drying and deodorization

Consists of neutralization,washing, drying anddeodorization

Cost less than physicalrefining Cost operation higher

Much by-productsproduced

Less by-products, preferablemethod

Cover all types ofvegetable oil

High quality vegetable oil withlow FFA



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Advantage: Distill fatty acids with an FFA of about 95%leaving the oil better quality.

Disadvantage: process remove much of tocopherols. Thus itrequired short time storage and shipping (in whichantioxidant need to be administered).

FUTURE OF PALM OIL MARKET


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- Price - Palm oil market has grown rapidly in bothdeveloping and developed countries. Having competitiveprices in the world market.

- Properties - It has unique properties, has a number oftechnical properties which encourage its use in variousend product.

- Products - At present, refined palm olein (the liquid fractionof palm oil) is the major form of product exported fromMalaysia, more than refined palm oil or refined palmstearin. It is expected that the percentage of palm oil

imported will increase in the future for solid fat product andcooking oil.




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Application - In many application, the palm oil canbe used with other harder fraction such as palmstearin to produce product of consistency without

hydrogenation. Export - The versatility of palm oil enables it and its

product to be used in many field and with

Technical Advisory Service that is provided free byPORIM to import country such as India, Pakistan,China and West Asia (big consumers of palm oil).

R & D - New used of palm oil are being discovered

through R&D. Recent study: palm oil show to be a safe nutritious oilwithout any negative health effect.


palm oil industries

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