CHAP 1.

3 : PALM OIL
Oil

Palm and Palm Oil

Palm Oil Extraction and Refining Processes
Selected Oleochemicals Processing

OIL PALM AND PALM OIL

- Oil palm is the tree and the tree bears the fruit from which
the palm oil is obtained.
- The principle oil palm of commerce is Elaise Guineensis
which 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 8
inches in height.

OIL PALM AND PALM OIL

-

Suitable area for growth: plenty of rainfall but

good drainage system.
Harvest the tree after 3 years of planting.

The fruit can be harvesting after 2 months of

ripening.

The mature bunch contains a few hundred to a

few thousand fruit depending on the genetic and
environmental factors and palm age. (young poor
palms: 5 kg fruit, 15 year old healthy tree: 40 kg
fruit, individual fruit: 8-10 g / fruit).

OIL PALM AND PALM OIL

- 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)
- Bunch production is continuously and partially
unsynchronised between palms.

OIL PALM AND PALM OIL

Oil starts to accumulate in the bunch from relatively

early its development and build up rapidly from 130
days after ripening. The quantity maximises and
eventually starts to decline 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 which commences about 140 days after
ripening.

Once the fruit are harvested, they need to be

transported to the mill for extraction of oil.

OIL PALM AND PALM OIL

Seed (Kernel)

Pericarp (Fruit-wall)

Exocarp (skin)
Testa
Endosperm
(oil bearing tissue)

Mesocarp
(oil bearing tissue)
Fibre

Embryo
Endocarp (shell)

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
2. Loading ramp
3. Sterilization
4. Threshing
5. Digestion
6. Oil extraction
7. Clarification & purification of CPO
8. Nut & kernel station

EXTRACTION OF CRUDE PALM OIL

1.

Bunch reception
- Bunch are transported to the mills by road truck or lorries, or
cages running on specially built railway system.
- Upon reception at the mill, grading the fruit to ensure a high
standard of harvesting. About 10% of the fruit are selected on
random basis for the purpose and 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
trash
are also noted.
- Appropriate action will be taken by mill and estate
management based on the grading.
- Fruit will carried by trucks to the loading ramp.

EXTRACTION OF CRUDE PALM OIL

2. Loading Ramp
- The fresh fruit bunch (FFB) is loaded directly into the
ramp hopper with minimum handling.
- Fruit from the hopper are loaded into the fruit cages
waiting underneath. Each cage hold about 2 tons of fruit
and these are pushed in a train of three by a locomotive or
skid loader to the sterilizer yard.
- Purpose: to ensure that old fruits are first taken out for
processing, to avoid accumulation of old fruit which
otherwise will rot over a short period and thus creating
high FFA (free fatty acid) problem (should not exceed 5%).
- Loose fruits on the ramp top, ramp bottom and around
the marshalling yard should be removed to avoid being
crashed and prevent unnecessary problems arising.

Fruits are loaded into the fruit cage

EXTRACTION OF CRUDE PALM OIL

3. Sterilization
- The fruit arriving inside the cages are then charged into the sterilizer
to 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 by
inactivation of the lipolytic enzymes.
(b) Facilitation of mechanical stripping. To loosen fruit still
attached to the bunch stalk, sufficient heat must penetrate to the
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 minimized kernel breakage
during both pressing and nut cracking.
(e) Coagulations of the protein material and hydrolysis of the
mucilaginous material present in the palm fruit.

EXTRACTION OF CRUDE PALM OIL

- The operation is manual except the actual cooking, hence any delay
in closing or opening the door or inadequate steam pressure will
disturb the sterilizing cycle.
- Inefficient sterilization will give to several problems is subsequent
process:
(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 broken
kernels, difficult to separate them later.
(d) clarification of the extracted oil poor oil recovery

Fruit to be cooked under saturated steam in sterilizer

EXTRACTION OF CRUDE PALM OIL

4. Threshing
- Threshing or stripping is done to separate the sterilized fruits from the
sterilized bunch stalks.
- The sterilized fruit together with the fruit cage is lifted by a hoisting crane
and then poured on to the threshing machine.
- The threshing machine consists of 2 parts,
(a) Thresher hopper or feeder designed so that the sterilized
bunches can slide freely down the hopper and large enough to
accommodate 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.
-The clearance between 2 bars is sufficient for the released fruit to
drop through. The sterilized bunches are fed in continuously at one
end stalks passout continuously at the other end.

The fruit cage is lifted by a

hoisting crane and then
the sterilized fruit is
poured on to the threshing
machine.

EXTRACTION OF CRUDE PALM OIL

- The rate of rotation of the drum is set to ensure the bunches of

normal 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 fall
freely, passing approximately through the axis of the drum and
striking 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 finally
drop out.
- The drum discharge: empty bunches (normally discharge to an
incinerator yielding an ash) and sterilized fruits (proceed to
digestion)

Empty bunches normally discharge to an incinerator

Incinerator

EXTRACTION OF CRUDE PALM OIL

5. Digestion
- Process: reheat, pericarp loosened from the nuts and prepared for
pressing.
- Digestion take place in steam heated vessels provided with stirring
arms known as digester or kettles.
- Temperature 100C, the arms stir and rub the fruit, loosening the
pericarp from the nuts and breaking open as many of the oil cells
possible.
- The digester converts the stripped fruits into a homogeneous
mash. The digester is kept full as the digested fruit is drawn off
continuously at the same rate as the freshly stripper fruit is added.

Digestion take place in steam heated vessels

EXTRACTION OF CRUDE PALM OIL

6. Oil Extraction
- Palm oil is extracted by pressing in the screw press consist of
perforated cage in which runs a single or double screw.
- Press screw: tough and wear resistant steel; press cage: stainless
steel.
- 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 nut
breakage.
- Discharge from screw press: crude palm oil liquor and matte of oily
fibre and nuts.
- Fibre and nuts: carried by the steam jacketed conveyor.
- Crude oil: passed on to the vibrating screens to be separated from
the accompanying solids.

Palm oil is extracted by

pressing in the screw press

Discharge from screw press

EXTRACTION OF CRUDE PALM OIL

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 together
with impurities (vegetable matter some in form of insoluble solids
and some dissolved in the water).
- Average composition of crude palm oil, 66% oil, 24% water and
remainder is lumped as non-oily solids.
- Water can be removed by settling or centrifuging.
- Clarification for palm oil are gravity settling or direct process.

EXTRACTION OF CRUDE PALM OIL

The crude oil is diluted first with hot water to reduce its viscosity.
The diluted crude oil is screened to remove any coarse fibrous material
which is returned to digester.
The screened crude oil is heated (90-95C) and pumped to the
continuous 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% or
less

EXTRACTION OF CRUDE PALM OIL

- A small portion of the moisture content of the oil is dissolved in the oil
and 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 containing
some oil which can be recovered by centrifuging.
- The rest of the sludge, containing some oil which is difficult and
uneconomical to be recovered is discharge to the effluent treatment
plant.
- In effluent treatment process, the anaerobic digestion of palm oil mill
effluent (POME) produce methane which can be used to generate inhouse electricity.

EXTRACTION OF CRUDE PALM OIL

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 to
this, separation of nuts from the accompanying fibre is done in
depericarper station.
- Function of depericarper: nut polishing, partial drying of fibre,
transport of fibre to the boiler house, grading out of oversize foreign
material e.g. wood, stones, metal bits and stalks.
- The wet nuts are elevated to the nut bin which is maintained at 6077C. Upon drying, the dry nuts are then transported by dry nuts
elevator to the nut cracking machines. The separated shells are sent
to the yard as fuel to the boiler whereas the kernels are then sorted in
kernel silo dryer before final storage in the bulk kernel silo.

Separation of nuts from the accompanying fibre

REFINING OF CRUDE PALM OIL

- The crude palm oil obtained from the mill is dark

orange in colour, contain many form of fatty acids.
- Water, insoluble impurities, free fatty acids,
oxidation product should 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 tocopherols and tocotrienols because
of their antioxidant effect to the product.

REFINING OF CRUDE PALM OIL

Two

methods of refining:
- physical or chemical refining.

refined oil is the crude oil which has

been exposed to the following treatment:
Degumming, neutralization, washing and
drying (if used)
Bleaching and filtration
Deodorization and polishing

REFINING OF CRUDE PALM OIL

CHEMICAL METHOD

PHYSICAL METHOD

Crude oil storage

Crude oil storage

Gum conditioning

Gum conditioning

Neutralization

Water washing

Drying

Bleaching

Bleaching

Filtration

Filtration

Pretreated oil storage

Pretreated or neutralized
and bleached storage

Steam refining

Polishing
Cooling
Edible oil storage

Deodorization

Polishing
Cooling
Edible oil storage

REFINING OF CRUDE PALM OIL

(a)Degumming, Neutralization, Washing and Drying

Impurities such as phosphatides, protein fragments,
gummy and mucilaginous substances are soluble in
the oil only in hydrous form. They can be
precipitated by centrifuge if they are simply
hydrated. Hydration is accomplished during the
production of palm oil by admission of steam and
water prior to the oil being purified in sludge
separators and clarifiers.

REFINING OF CRUDE PALM OIL

Degumming

- Some of the gums in the palm oil are not hydratable

gums or phosphatides, which cannot be removed
from the oil by water degumming 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 shorter shelf-life. Therefore it should be
completely removed.
- Concentrated phosphoric acid 0.1% by weight is
sufficient to remove a significant amount of
phosphatides and about 25 ppm of soap in washed
oil.

REFINING OF CRUDE PALM OIL

Neutralization
- The losses during neutralization normally be attributed to
the following factors
(a)FFA
(b)The mucilage, colouring matter and other impurities in
the oil
(c)The saponification losses which arise through
saponification 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 of
the oil.

REFINING OF CRUDE PALM OIL

Drying
-

Oil discharged from the water washing

centrifuge contains about 0.25% moisture,
this cause a rise in FFA due to catalytic
hydrolysis.
Therefore, the oil is dried in a vacuum
dryer to reduce the moisture contain
(<0.06%) before the oil is transferred for
bleaching.

REFINING OF CRUDE PALM OIL

(b)Bleaching and Filtration
- Reason of bleaching
(a) To obtain the lightest colour possible
(b) To remove traces of soaps present from the alkaline
process, which can effect hydrogenation by making it
erratic, non-selective and difficult to control.
(c) To remove traces of nickel from hydrogenated oil.
Nickel will disturb deodorization process by changing the
flavor and colour of the final product.

REFINING OF CRUDE PALM OIL

- Carried out by contacting the oil with an adsorbent (clay
or carbon) in the 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
(plant scale).
- Quantity of bleaching agent, 0.5-2% by weight of the oil
at 80-180C. At higher temperature, the adsorption
effects are better.
- Then the oil is pumped through a filter and recycle until a
filter cake has been formed on the elements.

REFINING OF CRUDE PALM OIL

(c) Deodorization and Polishing
-

To reduce the oil to odourless and tasteless fats and oil by removing
the relatively volatile odiferous and flavoured substances (aldehydes,
ketones and FFA)
Deodorization is steam distillation under vacuum. The process does
not reduce trace metals or phosphatide levels. But if any soap is
present, high losses will be encountered due to foaming in
deodoriser.
When the oil is fully deodorized, it is cooled down to a temperature of
about 55C before being pumped through a polishing filter giving the
finished oil its final sparkle.

REFINING OF CRUDE PALM OIL

Physical Refining
-

It is a term describing the neutralizing and deodorization by steam

distillation under vacuum.
Cost of operation maybe more than chemical refining.
However, less hassle with by-products incurred, which renders the
process much preferred at present.
Best suited for high quality vegetable oil with low FFA.
To obtain good product, it is essential to have pre-bleached prior to
entering the physical unit.
Distill fatty acids with an FFA of about 95% leaving the oil better
quality.
Disadvantage: process remove much of tocopherols. Thus it required
short time storage and shipping (in which antioxidant need to be
administered).

FUTURE OF PALM OIL MARKET

- Palm oil market has grown rapidly in both

developing and developed countries. Having
competitive prices in the world market.
- It has unique properties, has a number of
technical properties which encourage its use in
various end product.
- At preset, refined palm olein (the liquid fraction of
palm oil) is the major from of product exported
from Malaysia, more than refined palm oil or
refined palm stearin. It is expected that the
percentage of palm oil imported will increase in
the future for solid fat product and cooking oil.

FUTURE OF PALM OIL MARKET

In

many application, the palm oil can be used with

other harder fraction such palm stearin to produce
product of consistency without hydrogenation.
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 by PORIM to import
country such as India, Pakistan, China and West Asia
(big consumers of palm oil).
New used of palm oil are being discovered through
R&D.
Recent study: palm oil show to be a safe nutritious oil
without any negative health effect.