Introduction

Palm oil is an edible oil, extracted from the pulp of oil palms fruit. Crude palm oil
(CPO) is naturally distinguishable with the pulp colour (red) due to having high content of
vitamin A. It is commonly combine with coconut oil to make a high saturated vegetable fat,
which is also used for cooking purposes. CPO is also commonly used for cooking purposes
and is largely used in some part of Asia, Africa and Brazil but due to high content of saturated
fats, the CPO is considered not as healthy as most of its counterparts.

In this experiment, CPO will be will be processed and refined using the physical
refining method. Physical refining of palm oil refers to high temperature and under the vacuum
conditions of the oil subjected to a steam distillation treatment of the free fatty acids. The
physical refining is proven to be an effective method due to much cheaper compared to
chemical refining. It consists of three processes or parts which are degumming, bleaching and
deodorizing.

The first part, degumming is where the CPO is mixed with soil in vacuum, and later
dried. The bleaching meanwhile, the bleaching earth will absorb the volatile substance from
CPO, turning it into much brighter in colour. Then, the deodorization is where any volatile odor
and taste are removed from the oil. The oil later, is chilled and the final product obtained is
refined bleached and deodorized palm oil (RBDPO).

There are a few advantages of this physical refining oil which are to increase production
capacity and refining rates, to minimize the cost of production, to reduce the time taken for the
process and the recovery of high purity can be directly distilled fatty acids. Other than that, the
physical refining is proven to reduce water usage and waste gas problems.