PALM OIL

INDUSTRY
CMT 573
CHEMICAL
TECHNOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
-Oil palm belongs to the family ‘Arecaceae’
- Three species namely :
Introduction
• Cultivated mainly in Malaysia, Nigeria,
Ivory Coast, Papua New Guinea
• 1917 – the first commercial planting took
place in Tennamaram Estate, Selangor
• Potential to yield 4 – 6 tons oil/ha.year ,
whereas other oilseed crops like coconut
gives 1.5 tons/ha., soybean, sunflower etc
give only 400 – 600 kg/ha.year.
 Oleochemical

Oleochemical
Palm Oil Mill industries

Oil Palm Palm Oil

Plantations refineries
• 90% of palm oil produced in M’sia is used
in the food sector for edible products with
an export income of RM 20 billion per
year.
• Downstream activities :
• Example : August 1999 , a Proton-PORIM
collaboration was signed to incorporated into
Proton cars selective car components made
using palm oil derivatives.
 The Oil Palm
The oil palm is an erect monoecious plant
Harvest commences 24 – 30 months after
planting
Each palm can produce between 8 – 15 fresh
fruit bunches (FFB) per year.
Each FFB contains 1000 – 1300 fruitlets
Each fruitlets consists of a
fibrous mesocarp layer,
the endocarp (shell) which
contain the kernel.
The Oil Palm
The individual fruit, ranging from 6-20 gm,
are made up of an outer skin (exocarp), a
pulp (mesocarp) containing the palm oil in a
fibrous matrix, a central nut consisting a
shell (endocarp), and the kernel.

Endocarp Kernel

Exocarp
Mesocarp
The Oil Palm
Based on the difference in fruit structure,
3 oil palm varieties have been identified.
• Dura – having thick shell (2-8 mm) with low to
medium mesocarp content (35-55%). This is not
commercially grown.
• Piscifera – characterized by a shell-less fruit &
pea like kernel inside.
• Tenera – hybrid obtained from crosssing Dura
(female) and Piscifera (male). Thin shell (0.5-
4mm) & medium to high mesocarp content (60-
95%). Widely cultivated type all over the world.
The Oil Palm
First harvest starts after 24 – 30 months
after planting, continues at an interval 7-10
days throughout the palm’s economic life
which vary from 25 – 30 years.
When a few ripe fruits are loose/fall off, the
bunch is ready for harvesting.
Over ripe fruits give reduced quantity and
quality of oil.
 Characteristics of palm oil
Palm oil is a vegetable oils, is cholesterol
free.
Semi solid at room temp.
Melting point between 33°C - 39°C
CPO is deep orange red color (high natural
carotenes)
CPO rich source of carotenoids & vit E
(which confers naturally stability against
oxidative deterioration)
Fractionation separates oil into liquid &
solid fractions.
Palm oil can be fractioned into liquid (olein)
& solid (stearin) components
 Palm Olein
Liquid fraction obtained by fractionation cpo
Physical characteristics – fully liquid in
warm climate & has a narrow range of
glycerides.
Widely use as a cooking oil, blending
partner (blended with groundnut oil), frying
oil
Popular - Good resistance to oxidation &
formation of breakdown products at frying
temperature & longer shelf-life of finished
products.
Palm Stearin
More solid fraction obtained by fractionation
of palm oil after crystallization at controlled
temperatures (thus co-product of palm
olein).
Useful source of fully natural hard fat
component for products such as shortening,
pastry, bakery margerines.
There are other fractions eg. Various grade
of double fractionated palm olein
(superolein) & palm mid fractions.
Palm Kernel Oil
Obtained from the kernel.

The oil composition is very different from

that of the palm oil.

Physical properties :
◦ In temp. climates, PKO is a sharp melting fat.
◦ Very suitable for confectionery & similar uses.
Palm Kernel Olein
Liquid component of palm kernel oil
obtained from fractionation.

Palm Kernel Stearin

 More solid fraction of palm kernel oil obtained
from fractionation.
 Widely used to substitute for the more
expensive cocoa butter
 Makes the best Cocoa Butter Substitute (CBS)
Palm Oil Extraction
Fresh Fruit
Bunches (FFB)

Sterilisation of FFB

Threshing &
Stripping of Fruitlets

Oil Extraction (Screw

Press)

Press Cake
Depericarping

Clarification & Nut Cracking

Purification

Palm Oil Mill

Effluent (POME) Winnowing & Drying

CRUDE PALM PALM KERNEL

OIL (CPO) (PK)
Effluent Treatment
Plant (ETP)
 Bunch Reception
FFB are transported to the mills by road
truck/lorry or cages running on specialty built
railway station.
Upon reception at the mills, the fruits are first
graded to ensure high std harvesting.
FFB with < 10 looses fruitlets = unripe
FFB with = 10 looses fruitlets = ripe
FFB with excessive looses fruitlets = over ripe
FFB with looses fruitlets completely detached =
rotten
The grading report will forwarded to mill &
estate mgt for further action. Once approval to
proceed is received, the fruits will be carried by
trucks to the loading ramp.
Loading ramp
FFB delivered is unloaded directly into ramp
hopper with minimum handling.
Fruits from the hopper are loaded into the
fruits cages waiting underneath. Each 2 ½
tones of fruits are pushed in a train by a
locomotive to the sterilizer yard.
The procedure in the ramp operation is to
ensure that old fruits taken out for
processing.
Essential to avoid accumulation of old fruits
which otherwise will rot over a short period &
thus creating high FFA problem (should not
exceed 5%).
Sterilization

The fruits arriving inside the cages are then

charged into the sterilizer to be “cooked”
under saturated steam at the gauge pressure
of 40 psig.
This process is very important in extraction
since much of the subsequent process
depends on the quality of the cooked fruits.
Sterilization

The FFB must be allowed to heat & become

cooked.

Time = depend the weight of bunches.

Problems due to Inefficient sterilization
Threshing

Threshing / stripping is done to separate the

sterilized fruits from the sterile bunch stalks.
After sterilization, the sterilized fruit in the
cages poured on the threshing machine.
Threshing machine consist of 2 parts:
◦ Thresher hopper / feeder
◦ Thresher drum – rotary cylinder
As the action of rotation repeats several
time, the fruits will drop out.
Digestion

The sterilized fruit must be reheated & the

pericarp loosened from the nut.
Carried out in steam heated vessels provided
with stirring arms (digesters/kettles).
Within temperature close to 100°C, the arm
stir & rub the nuts (breaking open as many
of the oil cells as possible)
The digester converts the stripped fruits into
a homogeneous mash.
Oil Extraction
Palm oil is extracted by pressing in the screw
press.
A screw press consist essentially of a
perforated cage runs as a single or double
screw.
The outlet end of the perforated cage is
restricted by a cone.
The pressing of the digested mesh is done
with minimum nut breakage.
The discharge from the screw consists of
CPO liquor and a matte of oily fibre and nuts.
Clarification & Purification
CPO contains varying amount of water &
impurities (soluble & insoluble vegetables
matter)
Composition of CPO : oil 66%, water 24%
and the remaining is lumped (non-oily solids)
To give clear product, water & impurities
must be removed.
This is carried out in the clarification process.
Water removed by settling/centrifuging
Used gravity settling system or direct
process
Clarification & Purification
First,the crude oil is diluted with hot water
(to reduce viscosity)
Then, the crude oil is screened (to remove
course fibrous materials)
The screened crude oil is then reheated to
90°C-95°C & then pumped to settling tank.
The retention of the crude liquor in this tank
enables the oil to rise to the surface &
overflow continuously to the RECEPTION
TANK.
The settled oil is further purified by
centrifuging (reduces dirt content to 0.01%)
Clarification & Purification
The underflow from the continuous tank
= sludge (containing some oil which can be
recovered by centrifuging)

Sludge discharged to the effluent treatment

plant (POME)

AtPOME, anaerobic digestion produces

methane which can be used as energy.
Nut & Kernel Station
The nuts need to separate the shell from the
kernel.
Before this is done, separation of the nuts
from the accompanying fibre is done in the
depericarper station.
Function of depericarper = nut polishing,
partial drying of the fibre, transport of the
fibre to the boiler house, grading the size of
foreign material.
The nuts will dry (60-77°C) before
transported to nut cracking machine.
The separated shells sent to the yard as fuel.
Refining of the crude palm oil
Objective :-
to meet industry’s standards

Refining process should retain as much

as possible the tocopherols and
tocotrienols because of their
antioxidant effect on the product.
purpose of refining process are to
removes:
Physical Refining Method

CPO Storage The initial temperature of CPO is at 40 – 60°C.

Degumming CPO react with phosphoric acid to precipitate the gums (Phosphatides).
Operating temperature 90-130°C.
Degumming CPO Degumming CPO react with bleaching earth (activated earth/Fuller earth) in order
Bleaching to removes undesirable impurities (pigments /trace metals / oxidation product)
occur in sluury tank at 100-130°C for 30 minutes.
Bleached Palm Oil
Trap filter / Niagara filter to filtrate bleaching earth particle oil
Filtration

Pretreated oil storage

Temporary storage (pump into buffer tank) before further
processing
deacidification and deodorization – removal of residue FFA, aldehydes
Steam refining and ketones. The deodorization process is a high temp., high vacuum &
steam distillation process by using deodorizer. The hot RBDPO (250-
280°C) as bottom product.

Polishing To prevent the earth traces from reaching the product tank.
Temperature 120-140°C

Cooling

Edible Oil Storage storage with temperature 50 – 80°C.

Flow Chart of Chemical
Method
Crude Oil Degumming Neutralization Water Drying
Storage Washing

Pretreated or
Deodorization neutralized and Filtration Bleaching
bleached storage

Polishing Cooling Edible Oil Storage

GENERAL PALM OIL REFINERY
 Degumming

◦ Removal of gums containing calcium and

magnesium, which is found in the oil after
refining, give the oil an inferior quality and
therefore a shorter shelf-life.

◦ concentrated phosphoric acid 0.1% by weight

is sufficient to remove a significant amount of
the phosphatides and about 25 ppm of soap in
the washed oil.
 GENERAL PALM OIL REFINERY
 Neutralisation
 The oil is neutralized by an alkali (NaOH)
 The resulting soap stock is separated from the
oil by centrifuging & washing with water.
 Any soap retained in the washed oil is removed
by adding citric or phosphoric acid to the final
wash prior to drying of the oil.
GENERAL PALM OIL REFINERY

 Drying
◦ When the oil is discharged from the water
washing centrifuge is normally contains about
0.2% moisture.

◦ Such moisture level causes a rise in the FFA

due to autocatalytic hydrolysis

◦ Therefore, the oil has to dried in a vacuum

dryer to reduce the moisture content <
0.006% before the oil is transferred for
bleaching.
 Bleaching and filtration of palm oil
◦ Bleaching is carried out by contacting with
adsorbent clay or carbon in the absence of oxygen
(otherwise the activated clay may act as a catalyst
for oxidation if oxygen is present).
◦ Process carried out under steam/ nitrogen blanket
(to ensure absolutely no oxygen is present) usually
on plant scale, under weight of the oil.
◦ The temperature range 80-180 °C.
◦ At the higher temperature, the adsorption effects
are better.
◦ Once bleaching is complete, the oil is then pumped
through a filter and recycle until a filter cake has
been formed on the elements and only then
transferred to the continuous
Deodorization and polishing
◦ The process is done to reduce the oil to odourless
& tasteless fats and oils by remove the relatively
volatile odiferous & flavoured substances
(aldehydes, ketones & FFA)
◦ Deodorization = steam distillation under vacuum.
The process does not reduce trace metals or
phosphatide levels.
◦ If any soap is present, high losses will be
encountered due to foaming in the deodorizer.
When the oil is fully deodorized, it is cooled down
to a temperature of about 55°C before being
pumped through a polishing filter giving the
finished oil its final sparkle.
Fractionation
◦ Fats & oils are mixture of triglycerides,
(b’coz different fatty acids compositions) the
melting points spanning the range below
-30°C to above, each having its own melting
point.

◦ Fractionation (thermo mechanical) is :

the process used to separate the lower
melting point triglycerides from the higher
melting point triglycerides
(i.e. based on the difference in melting
point)
 Since distillation is unsuitable for the
triglycerides mixtures because of their low
vapour pressure & relatively low stability at
higher temperatures……

the triglyceride composition of the oil is

crystallized by controlled cooling followed
by separation to yield a liquid ~ 30 – 40 %
(olein, premium product) and a solid 60 – 70%
(stearin phase).
Fractionation Plant Description
Fractionation
There are 3 methods used commercially for
fractionation of palm oil which:

a) Dry process (dry fractionation)

b) Detergent process

c) Solvent process
Schematic diagram of crystallization process.
Dry Process
The oil is crystallized & separation is
effected by filtration.
The oil is first heated to 70-75 °C so as to
melt all crystal nuclei and then passes to a
crystallizer.
Crystallization proceeds by initially cooling
to 45°C in about 45 minutes and then
further cooling to 18 – 20 °C about 4-8
hours before being pumped to the filter
Filtering on membrane press filter (or
Rotary Drum Vacuum filter) to separate
the solid/liquid fractions.
Dry Process
 Palm Oil → Homo tank (heating)

Crystallizer (Cooling) 15 rpm – 5

rpm

Normal Fast
Loading Loading
(Cooling from 60-21°C to produce cooking oil
IV=56)
Slow cooling for 4 hours to 24°C – cloud point = 10
Slow cooling for 4.5 hours to 21° -- cloud point = 8

Pump by pipeline into filter press machine (4-6 bar)

(the ↑ P, the ↑ olein produced)
Dry Process
Main features & advantages of dry fractionation
◦ Combines all operations, and monitors
from a fully automated centralized
control station.
◦ Easy to operate, requires minimum
supervision.
◦ Good flexibility. Wide range of
applications possible
◦ Feedstock can be crude, semi refined
or fully refined palm oil.
◦ Suitable for both single or double
fractionation.
Dry Process
Main features & advantages of dry
fractionation
◦ Minimum operating costs.
 Low utility consumption
 Low maintenance costs
 No oil losses
 No pollution problem

◦ Product quality
 Good crystallization repeatability, yielding
consistent product quality.
 High olein yields
 Low olein cloud point, with improved cold
stability, cloud point as low as 2°C with
iodine value of 65 can be obtained
Detergent Process

◦ The oil is also crystallized on its own but

separation is
effected by employing an aqueous detergent
solution & centrifuges.

◦ Crystallization step is similar to the previous

description but the crystal form is less
critical because of the mean of separation.

◦ A continuous supply of slurry mixed with a

detergent solution (sodium lauryl sulphate
and magnesium sulphate) is pumped to the
crystallizer.
Detergent Process
◦ The solutions displace the oil from the
surface of the stearin crystals so that on
centrifuging, the olein is discharged as the
oil phase and stearin forms part of the
aqueous phase.

◦ The aqueous is heated to 90 – 110 °C to

break away the stearin from the emulsion
and then cooled to 90°C and centrifuged to
recover the stearin. The detergent is
recycled to the plant.
Solvent process
The first step is crystallizing the oil in
solvent. The most common type of solvents
used are hexane and acetone.
The mixture of solvent and oil are in the
process with chilled water or brine.
Brine is used when a very low temperature
of crystallization step is needed.
Vacuum suction is used to separate olein
and stearin (filteration).
Lastly the two mixtures are sent to solvent
recovery plants where the solvent are
separated from oil and recycled. The yield
of olein will be in the range of 80% - 83%.