EMD/EPD 452 Final Year Project PROJECT PROPOSAL Semester I, 2014-15

Project Title: NUT CRACKING EFFICIENCY IN RIPPLE MILL

Project Proposal

Name of Student ABDUL RAZAK BIN AB HALIM

Matric. No. 111509

Contact No. (HP) 0139926324

Email Address razakhalim92@gmail.com

Program MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

Name of Supervisor PROF MADYA DR ROSLAN AHMAD

Mill Supervisor MR SHAHRIZAN SULAIMAN

(Engineer)

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EMD/EPD 452 Final Year Project PROJECT PROPOSAL Semester I, 2014-15

Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Project Background

Palm oil is extracted from fresh fruit bunches (FFB) by mechanical process, where a mill
commonly handles 60 to 100mt per hour of FFB. The modern palm oil mill of today is based
predominantly on concepts developed in the early 50s (Mongana Report). An average size
FFB weighs about 20-30kg and contains 1500-2000 fruits (Figure1). The FFBs are harvested
according to harvesting cycles, and delivered to the mills on the same day. The quality of
crude palm oil is dependent on the care taken after harvesting, particularly on the handling of
the FFBs.

A palm oil mill produces crude palm oil and kernels, as primary products and biomass as
secondary product. The capacity of mills varies between 60- 100 tons FFB/h. A typical mill
has many operation units. This comprises of sterilization, stripping, digestion and pressing,
clarification, purification, drying and storage. For the kernel line, thereare steps such as nut/fibre
separation, nut conditioning and cracking, cracked mixture separation, and kernel drying,
storage. The dried kernels are often sold to palm kernel crushers for extraction of crude palm
kernel oil. In some integrated plants, kernel crushing facilities exist side by side at the same
complex.

Figure 1 : Flow Process in Ripple Mill

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EMD/EPD 452 Final Year Project PROJECT PROPOSAL Semester I, 2014-15

The ripple mill machine is placed in kernel plant station. This machine is useful to breaking palm
nut that regardless of the shell. The process starting with the nuts enter the top of the mill and are
impact several times between stationary plates and the turning rotor as in figure 1 above. The
rotor imparts the velocity and the impact forces crack the nut of palm. Besides , other functions
of the Ripple Mill are used for the pre-grinding of coal, plastics and chemicals prior to micro-
fine grinding, coarse animal feed grinding and other shelling or hulling applications.

1.2 Problem Statement

Palm oil mill have two aim to establish which are crude oil and kernel. Our focus in this
project is to produce kernel. But we have big problems in this station which some problem to
solve and upgrade. The problems are short period life time rods of rotor, do not have optimum
speed data to run machine suitable with throughput , do not have fixed spacing between rotor and
ripple plate suitable with speed of rotor as figure 2 below.

Figure 2 : spacing between rotor and

ripple plate

All the problems are will affect to the efficiency of kernel produce, with refer statement from a
journal,the performance of a ripple mill in cracking wet oil palm kernels was assessed in a mill

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EMD/EPD 452 Final Year Project PROJECT PROPOSAL Semester I, 2014-15

processing 20 t fresh fruit bunches/h. The ripple mill was able to handle 4.15 t kernels/h, which
compared favorably with conventional crackers. Cracking efficiency averaged 92.60%, which
was better than conventional dry-nut cracking, but this efficiency dropped to 88.96-90.54% as
the ripple surface were out; its estimated life time was 430 h and resurfacing took only a few
hours welding work.

First problem, short period life time of rods. Bending and fracture are occurs on this rod at the
short period. So that , the cost for maintenance is high every year. This is a biggest problems
should to solved in order to achieve advantage every year in this factory. This problem is
discussed in area type of suitable materials to use it. As usual the material used is mild steel and
harden mild steel. Since used the mild steel the result was bending occur on the rod when run the
ripple mill in certain time as figure 3 below. But when replaced with harden material the result
was fractured (as figure 4 below) when run the ripple mill in a period of time.

Secondly, the problem is does not have optimum speed data as references when running
the ripple mill machine. It can be related with throughput to supply into the ripple mill. Thirdly,
the spacing between rotor and ripple plate were problems. There is does not have data to refer
when running the machine with certain throughputs. It effect to the speed of rotor to rotate at
optimum speed so that will effect to the efficiency nut cracking (ENC) to produce efficiency
kernel recovery (EKR) and dust recovery.

Last but not least, in this report the kernel produced will consider with performance of
ripple mill. Performance of ripple mill will consider the quality of rotor or more specific is
material of rod used , speed of rotor , throughput and spacing between rotor and ripple plate will
evaluated.

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EMD/EPD 452 Final Year Project PROJECT PROPOSAL Semester I, 2014-15

1.3 Objectives
The research will be conducted based on several parametric study, experiments and design to
accomplish the objectives of this project as to increase the efficincy the nut cracing in Ripple
Mill:
 To determine the suitable material rod for use at the rotor of Ripple Mill in order to
increase the time period the rod of rotor to damages
 To determine data of optimum speed of ripple mill suitable with throughput
 To determine the data spacing between rotor and ripple plate correspond with
throughput

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EMD/EPD 452 Final Year Project PROJECT PROPOSAL Semester I, 2014-15

1.4 Literature Review:

The full flow process (refer figure 2) is starting with sterilization, stripping,digestion and
pressing, clarification, purification, drying and storage. For the kernel line, there are steps such
as nut/fibre separation, nut conditioning and cracking, cracked mixture separation, and kernel
drying, storage. The dried kernels are often sold to palm kernel crushers for extraction of crude
palm kernel oil. In some integrated plants, kernel crushing facilities exist side by side at the same
complex.

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EMD/EPD 452 Final Year Project PROJECT PROPOSAL Semester I, 2014-15

Sterilisation
This first step in the process is crucial to the final oil quality as well as the strippability of
fruits. Sterilization inactivates the lipases in the fruits, and prevents build-up of free fatty
acids (FFA). In addition, steam sterilization of the FFBs facilitates fruits being stripped from
the bunches. It also softens the fruit mesocarp for digestion and release of oil, and
conditioning of nuts to minimize kernel breakage. Air is removed from the sterilizer by
sweeping in steam in single-peak, double-peak or triple-peak cycles. In general, bunches are
cooked using steam at 40psig. in horizontal cylindrical autoclaves for 60-90 minutes. The
length of the sterilizer is dependent on the number of cages required for operation of the mill.
Each cage can hold 2.5 to 10tons of FFB. Steam consumption varies from 140 kg/ton FFB for
a single-peak cycle to 224 kg/ton FFB for a triple – peak cycle (Sivasothy et al.1986).
Inadequate sterilzation affects the subsequent milling processing stages adversely.
In recent years, new technology on sterilization saw the introduction of continuous sterilizers.
Sivasothy’s (2006) continuous sterilizer showed improved fruit strippability, even with usage
of low pressure steam or atmospheric steam. The new system consists of conveyor belt taking
crushed FFBs into the continuous sterilizer, where the fruits are sterilized and subsequently
discharged. This reduces much of the machinery associated with conventional sterilizers. In
addition, there are cost savings in terms of manpower requirements, and maintenance.
Vertical sterilizers are also available, which are much cleaner and easier to operate than
conventional sterilizers.
Another type of sterilizer technology, the Tilting sterilizer (Loh, 2010) also eliminates much
of the machinery associated with conventional sterilizers. The technology is the latest design
that offers improved milling efficiency, and reduced labour and maintenance cost.

Stripping
Stripping or threshing involves separating the sterilized fruits from the bunch stalks. Sterilized
FFBs are fed into a drum stripper and the drum is rotated, causing the fruits to be detached
from the bunch. The bunch stalks are removed as they do not contain any oil. It is important
to ensure that oil loss in the bunch stalk is kept to a minimum. The stalks are often disposed
by incineration, giving ash as potash fertilizer, and fuel for boilers. Others are transported to
the plantations for use as fertilisers in mulching near the palms. The total oil loss absorbed on

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EMD/EPD 452 Final Year Project PROJECT PROPOSAL Semester I, 2014-15

the stalks depends on the sterilizing conditions and partly on the way the stripper is operated.
Prolonged sterilization will increase oil loss in stalks. Irregular feeding of the stripper may
also result in increase of oil loss in stalks. Stalks which have fruits still attached on them are
called hard bunches, and have to be recycled back to sterilizers for further cooking. Hard
bunches are detected by visible inspection.

Digestion and Pressing

After stripping, the fruits are moved into a digester where, the fruits are reheated to loosen the
pericarp. The steam heated vessels have rotating shafts to which are attached stirring arms.
The fruits are rotated about, causing the loosening of the pericarps from the nuts. The digester
is kept full and as the digested fruit is drawn out, freshly stripped fruits are brought in. The
fruits are passed into a screw press, where the mixture of oil, water, press cake or fibre and
nuts are discharged. Improvements in press designs have allowed fruits to undergo single or
multiple pressing. Second stage pressing on the press cake fibres enables more oil to be
extracted.

Clarification
A mixture of oil, water, solids from the bunch fibres is delivered from the press to a
clarification tank. In the conventional process, separation of the oil from the rest of the liquor
is achieved by setting tanks based on gravity. The mixture containing the crude oil is diluted
with hot water to reduce its viscosity.A vibrating screen helps remove some of the solids. The
oil mixture is heated to 85-90◦C and allowed to separate in the clarification tank. A settling
time of 1-3 h. is acceptable. Oil from the top is skimmed off and purified in the centrifuge
prior to drying in vacuum dryer. The final crude palm oil is then cooled and stored. The lower
layer from the clarification tank is sent to the centrifugal separator where the remaining oil is
recovered. The oil is dried in vacuum dryers, cooled and sent to storage tanks.

Decanters
Decanters are also used in some mills as an alternative to separating the suspended solids
from crude palm oil in a clarification tank. Various design of decanters are available. Their
usage is however, hampered by higher maintenance costs from the wear and tear. An

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EMD/EPD 452 Final Year Project PROJECT PROPOSAL Semester I, 2014-15

advantage to the use is the reduction in palm oil mill effluent. Sulong and Tan (1996) had
proposed a membrane filter press for oil and solids recovery. The cake is discharged as solid
waste for fertilizer production or animal feed, while the oil is recovered.

Oil Losses during Processing

Oil losses in mills vary from mill to mill, and much attention is given to the control of oil loss.
The main oil loss are from sterilizer condensate, empty bunches, fruit loss in unstrapped
bunches, press cake fibre, nuts and sludge. Over-ripe bunches will lose more oil during
sterilization. To minimize this, shorter sterilizer cycles are used, or better control of bunch
ripeness and quality will help ensure less wastage. A typical oil loss in sterilizer is estimated
to be 0.1% to FFB. Oils recovered from sterilizer condensate should be used as technical oils,
as they often contain higher iron content and would reduce oil stability if mixed with the
crude production oil.

Kernel Production
The press cake from the digester is fed to a vertical column (depericarper) where air is
channeled to lift the fibre, thus separating the fibre from the nuts. The nuts are passed to a
polishing drum at the bottom of the depericarper, where pieces of stalks are removed. A
nutcracker cracks the nuts after the conditioning and drying process. A ripple mill is also used
instead of nut cracker. The mixture of cracked nuts and shells are separated via a winnowing
system, followed by a hydrocyclone or a clay bath. A hydrocyclone uses centrifugal force to
separate the kernel from the shell using water. The clay bath principle works on the specific
gravity of kernel of 1.07 and the shell of 1.17. The kernels will float while the shells sink in a
clay bath mixture of SG 1.12. The kernels are then dried in hot air silos to moisture content of
less than 7%. About 0.4mt of kernels are produced with every mt of CPO.

Biomass
The amount of solid palm oil waste available from a mill can be substantial. This consists of
empty fruit bunches (EFB), palm kernel shell, mesocarp fibres, and possibly solids from
decanters. In most cases, this biomass especially, the EFB, palm kernel shell and mesocarp
fibres are used as fuel in the mill, generating enough electricity for running the mill. Besides

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EMD/EPD 452 Final Year Project PROJECT PROPOSAL Semester I, 2014-15

usage as fuel, the biomass together with fronds and trunks can be left in the fields as
fertilizers. EFBs can also be combined with polyurethane ester (PU) to prepare medium
density fibreboard, giving higher impact strength and better water resistance (Khairiah, 2006).

Treatment of Raw Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME)

A palm oil mill produces an average of 0.65 tonne of raw palm oil mill effluent (POME) from
every ton of FFB processed. POME is the main cause of environmental pollution due to its
high acidity, high biological demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).
Conventionally, anaerobic digestions in ponding systems or aerobic treatments are able to
bring the BOD levels to below 100 mg L-1. Open steel tank digesters are used for tapping the
biogas for power consumption. In Malaysia, certain areas have more stringent requirements
(BOD of less than 20mg L-1. Tertiary systems have been developed as new systems to provide
effluent treatment in a more sustainable manner, as well as achieving the standards required
by regulatory bodies. These include biological sequencing batch reactors, bio-filtration
systems, systems with high aeration rates, activated sludge plants with aerobic reactors, bioflow
polishing plants, as well as membrane bioreactors. More palm oil plantations are
investing into these technologies to harvest the biogas for fuel, and re-use other biomass
materials for fertilizers, bio-composite materials, etc.

1.4 Scope of Work

- Area to do this project is only in area of Ripple Mill under Kernel Plant Station in
Palm Oil Mill.. The point research focuses on the material of rotor used in ripple mill
and get data optimum speed of ripple mill

1.5 Project Requirements:

Sotware : Solid Work Design

Hardware : Ripple Mill Machine(in industry)

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EMD/EPD 452 Final Year Project PROJECT PROPOSAL Semester I, 2014-15

1.6 Type of Project:

[/] Experimental
[ ] Simulation/Programming
[/] Design
[ ] Analytical

1.7 Methodology:

- Design using Solid work

- Testing and experimental work
- To measure efficiency of Ripple Mill will consider Efficiency Nut Cracking (ENC),
Efficiency Kernel Recovery (EKR) and Dust Monitoring.

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EMD/EPD 452 Final Year Project PROJECT PROPOSAL Semester I, 2014-15

1.8 FLOW CHART

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 EMD/EPD 452 Final Year Project PROJECT PROPOSAL Semester I, 2014-15

1.9 GANTT CHART

TITLE OF ACTIVITY TIME LINE

SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAC APR MAY JUN
1. Search for references
2. Preparation of proposal
3. Proposal submission and
presentation
4. Proposal correction
5. Final submission of proposal and
presentation
6. Setup and conduct the
experiment
7. Writing thesis and viva

2.0 References:

Khairiah, B and Khairul, A.M.A. Bio composites from oil palm resources. Journal of
Oil Palm Research, April, 103-113 (2006).
Loh, T.K. Tilting sterilizer. In: Palm Oil Engineering Bulletin, No 94, pp. 29-42
(2010). MONGANA Report, Volume 1 and 2 Coopérative des Producteurs et
exportateurs de l’huile de palme du Congo Belge. (1955).
Sivasothy, K., Shafil, A.F. and Lim, N.B.H. Analysis of the steam consumption during
sterilization., Workshop on recent developments in palm oil milling technology and
pollution control, Kuala Lumpur, p. 19, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Kuala Lumpur
)(1986).
Sivasothy, K. Advances in Oil Palm Research, Vol 1, 747, Y. Basiron, B.S. Jalani, and
K.W. Chan (eds) , Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Kuala Lumpur) (2000).
Sivasothy, K. Continuous sterilization: the new paradigm for modernizing palm oil
milling. Journal of Oil Palm Research, April, 144-152 (2006).
Sulong, M. and Tan, R.C.W. Filtration system for crude palm oil clarification and
purification. In: Proc. Of the 1996 PORIM International Palm Oil Congress, Kuala
Lumpur, pp. 410-424. (B. Muhamd, A.N. Ma, M.S. Affandi, Y.M. Choo, A. Kuntom,
C.L. Chong, A.G.M. Top, K. Yaakob, S. Ahmad, J. Thambirajah, Z.A.A. Hassan and
R. Masri (eds), Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Kuala Lumpur)(1996).
Yap, A.K.C. Palm waste as alternative fuel for cement plant. Palm Oil Engineering
Bulletin No 91, 13-21 (2010).
 Link: http://www.florasawita.com/2012/04/palm-oil-milling-process.html
 BOOK-71252302-Palm-Oil-Process-The-Principle-Operational-Techniques
 http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19930761416.html;jsessionid=4F8EA57A7E591922B
949BE706160DC29?freeview=true]

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