03 SIPOM - Sterilization-1

SIPOM
SUSTAINABLE& INTELLIGENT PALM OIL

MILLING
Presented by Ir. Ravi Menon
MODULE 3: STERILIZATION (33 slides)
Sustainable and Intelligent Palm oil Milling (SPOM)
1.1 : Sterilization -definition
Sterilisation is the most important process operation
because it has multiple roles to play and of
these stripping the bunches is NOT
the most important function.
It has four functions to play AND all are important.
Sterilization requires only 55 deg
for a duration of say 30 minute
It inactivates the lipolytic enzymes
that promote the formation of free fatty acid.
Facilitates mechanical stripping

by loosening the fruits attached to the bunch sockets.
There must be sufficient heat to hydrolyse
the points of attachment.
Dry heat is not suitable
for this operation.
Steam is the ideal heating media for this.

Condition the pericarp by transferring
the heat deep into it for a certain duration
ranging from 70 minutes to 90 minutes
for achieving physio-chemical
changes to take place.
1.2: Sterilization -Purpose
During the pressure cooking stage

the colloids of the pericarp and stalk
are conditioned to enable the release
of oil from the cells during subsequent
process stages of digestion and
the oil extraction stage. This is not possible if the steam
is at atmospheric pressure as the temperature is not
high enough to penetrate the bunches
Pressure cooking conditions the nuts.

Kernel drying starts here.
It shrinks within the shell
and begin detachment
1. Sustainable and Intelligent Milling Administration(SIMA)
The detachment action continues

At all the steps in, pressing and nut drying
Nut silos plays a role for
conditioning the nuts and as such it is important to
have provision for nut drying for a period of 14hours at
about 60 deg C followed by nut cooling at the bottom of
the nut drying silo using cold air so that the shell of the
nuts are no more elastic
1.3: Sterilization- Thermodynamics of sterilization
Palm oil mill steriliser will contain two gases:

AIR AND STEAM
Many engineers forget this very vital fact.
When the steriliser door is shut

after a charge of FFB has gone in,
it has only one gas, the air.
At the time of steam admission into the steriliser

Part of the steriliser is occupied by the air that many
engineers overlook. We have to deal with two gases
AIR AND STEAM
Air, being a bad conductor of heat
should be expelled as much as possible and to accomplish
this, de-aeration is done using what is known as
1-peak, 2-peak, 3 peak cycles.
Air content in the steam passing through the condensate
bypass line can be measured using a simple method.
Connect a vertical pipe with a valve on the condensate
bypass line and bend it downwards all the way
and make another bend with the open end submerged in a basin of
water . Place an inverted glass jar on the open end within the basin
and admit the steam coming through the pipe.
Steam will condense and the air will be collected in the jar.
This will give an indication of the volume of
air still remaining in the jar.
CONDENSATE PIPE BYPASS AIR DISCHARGE MEASUREMENT
Thermometer
TELL TALE PIPE INVERTED JAR
AIR
CONDENSATE BYPASS
BASIN
CONDENSATE PIPE
By using this device the progress of air removal

can be monitored.
The valve opening also can be fixed
and the position locked.
This is especially useful when
sterilization cycles
are changed as the amount of air removal
Is closely linked to the sterilization efficiency.
1.4: Sterilization- one-peak sterilisation
.
SINGLE–PEAK:
Although this cycle is almost obsolete now, mills with insufficient steam
availability still rely on this system
This involves straight admission of steam until the
pressure rises to 3 bar, with the condensate
valve open for a while to release air.
After this, the condensate discharge valve is closed
but a condensate bypass is kept open
throughout the sterilization period .
1.4: Sterilization- one-peak sterilisation
MONITORING DE-AREARATION EFFECTIVENESS
All we need is a thermometer mounted on the steriliser.
The thermometer will tell us the temperature of the air and the steam mixture
in the steriliser, which is also the saturation temperature of the steam.
The steam pressure corresponding to this temperature will tell us the partial
pressure of steam that should not fall below 2 barg.
If it shows a temperature of 139 deg C
you can be sure of GOOD sterilisation
1.4: Sterilization- Two-pea sterilization
2-PEAK STERLISATION
Two-Peak Regime has steam admission at about 1 bar and blow off
through the condensate discharge pipe to a pressure of 0.5 bar followed
by pressure rise to 3 bar with 45 minutes holding time.
During de-aeration the condenser discharge valves should
be kept open and during holding time the
condensate bypass line should be open throughout
the cycle to ensure good de-aeration
1-peak and 2-peak are acceptable when the boiler capacity
is low even though heating may not be adequate.
1.4: Sterilization- Two-peakdealing with two gases
The entire focus of the engineers should be the

“air removal” as that ensures adequate cooking
of the bunches resulting in the conditioning of
the pericarp as well the nuts.
The mill engineers should manipulate the three valves:
steam inlet, main condensate discharge and condensate bypass
valve to arrive at the best cooking regime that ensures adequate
heating without lowering the DOBI value or OER.
1.4: Sterilization- Three-peak regime
THREE-PEAK REGIME
After considerable studies and trials the palm oil
industry seem to have settled with the 3-peak regime.
Whatever peak we use,
the focus should be on DE-AERATION
because the sterilizer temperature is inversely
proportional to the volume of
air still remaining in the steriliser.
1.4: Sterilization- Three-peak regime
The bunches will be releasing air continuously

during the cooking time and as such there must
be a provision for the continuous evacuation
of air throughout the pressure holding time.
This is accomplished by keeping the condensate
by pass valve open throughout the duration of the
sterilization cycle. Allow the steam to condense.
In some mills this is prevented by keeping
the steam inlet valve open.
1.4: Sterilization- Importance of Steam condensation
Do not attempt to hold the steam pressure by admitting steam.

Allow the steam pressure to descend on it own accord.
As there is no further admission of steam the steam pressur
will drop promoting steam condensation and increased release
of enthalpy of condensation as shown below:
NO STEAM PRESSURE ENTHALPY OF CONDENSATION
1 4 bar-abs 2134 kJ/ kg
2 3 bar-abs 2168 kJ/kg
3 2 bar abs 2258 kJ/kg
1.4: Sterilization- Importance of Steam condensation
Enthalpy of condensation
increases as the steam pressure drops
and more heat is released to heat the bunches.
This indicates that maintaining high steam pressure
in the sterilizer is non-scientific as heat can only be released
from the steam if it is allowed to condense as much as possible
. Be it known to you that blowing out steam to the atmosphere
is a senseless waste of energy
1.4: Sterilization- Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures
DALATON’SLAW OF PARTIAL PRESSURES

says that the effective pressure of two gases
contained in a closed vessel is equal to the SUM
of the partial pressures of the individual gases
when they individually occupy the vessel. In other words:
If the sterilizer pressure shows as 3 bar it simply
means that it is the SUM of the pressure
of the air and the steam.
1 Sustainable and Intelligent Palm oil Milling (SPOM)
.
Assume that steam occupies 3/4 space and
air occupies 1/4 space in a steriliser that shows
3 bar pressure or 4 bar-abs on the gauge.
Then the partial pressure of steam = ¾ x 4 = 3 bar-ab
This means the saturation temperature = 133.5 deg C
and not 143.6 deg C corresponding to 4 bar-ab
That of air =¼ x 4 = 1 bar-a
If steam occupies ½ the space steam pressure
will drop to 2 bar-ab with temperature = 120.2 deg C
If this is the case your sterilisation will be poor

as we need a minimum of 130 deg C
for effective sterilisation.
If your thermometer shows a reading of 120 deg C,
you will immediately know that
de-aeration had been inefficient.
This is why you should have a thermometer

on your steriliser. It will tell you the
performance of your de-aeration
If you do not wish to drill a hole on your
sterilizer for installing a thermometer ,
probably you can drill a hole on your
steriliser condensate pipe or on a branch
on the pressure gauge tap off pipe.
1.4: Sterilization- Types of sterilizers
Ongoing debate about which is the best configuration.
The first type small vertical type 6tph capacity.

Horizontal-most popular even now. Debuted around 1960.
Continuous non-pressurised, needs additional cooking: 2005
Vertical with and without water-debuted about year 2005
Horizontal type with tilting capability for loading debuted about 2007
Spherical – rotation capability for loading unloading 2008
The first type small vertical type 6tph capacity.

Manual loading /unloading was very labour intensive
especially filling and emptying, Special liftin
traversing and tipping arrangements were added on.
Later bunches were contained in a baske
that can be lowered into the sterilizer and lifted out after
sterlization
Horizontal-most popular even now. Debuted around 1960.

As production increased the small vertical units gave way to
horizontal units that still remain as the Industry’s favourite.
Can cater for any capacity. Cages running over rails became popular.
Cage capacity grew from 1.5t, 2.5t, 5t, 8t t, 10t and even15t.
Loading and unloading became easy
when overhead hoists were introduced
De-aeration was the only handicap here
which was not effectively addressed.
Debuted around 2005 the non-pressurised continuous

sterilizer 30 to 40 M long square ducting with a chain
conveyor on which the FFB was conveyed at low speed while
subjected to
injected steam heating at several points. But it needed
additional
cooking done in a separate pressure vessel.
Product of a misunderstood concept like it was designed with
the single focus i.e to have the capacity to strip the bunches.
So additions were incorporated to address

the mesocarp and nut conditioning needs by using a
batch heating stage in an autoclave.
The minimum requirement of getting 130 deg C
for sterilisation was done in a pressurised autoclave
with 3bar steam pressure thus disqualifying
itself as a continuous sterilisation system.
Ongoing debate about

which is the best configuration.
1. Vertical with and without water-debuted about year 2005

2. Now most of the vertical ones are operating without water
Ongoing debate about which is the best configuration.
1. Horizontal type with tilting capability for loading debuted about

2008
2. This is really a horizontal with hydraulic tilting features
3. Seems to be catching on as it has the following advantages
a) Can be fully filled
b) No space for air
c) No cages needed
Ongoing debate about
which is the best configuration.
1. Spherical – rotation capability for loading unloading 2008

2. Almost the same principle as the tilting one except in this case the
spherical vessel can rotate during filling and discharge.

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SIPOM

SUSTAINABLE& INTELLIGENT PALM OIL

Facilitates mechanical stripping

Steam is the ideal heating media for this.

During the pressure cooking stage

Pressure cooking conditions the nuts.

The detachment action continues

Palm oil mill steriliser will contain two gases:

When the steriliser door is shut

At the time of steam admission into the steriliser

TELL TALE PIPE INVERTED JAR

By using this device the progress of air removal

The entire focus of the engineers should be the

The bunches will be releasing air continuously

Do not attempt to hold the steam pressure by admitting steam.

DALATON’SLAW OF PARTIAL PRESSURES

If this is the case your sterilisation will be poor

This is why you should have a thermometer

The first type small vertical type 6tph capacity.

The first type small vertical type 6tph capacity.

Horizontal-most popular even now. Debuted around 1960.

Debuted around 2005 the non-pressurised continuous

So additions were incorporated to address

Ongoing debate about

1. Vertical with and without water-debuted about year 2005

1. Horizontal type with tilting capability for loading debuted about

1. Spherical – rotation capability for loading unloading 2008

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