Palm Oil Pressing Plant

• Harvesting

The fresh fruits arrive as bunch or loose fruits and they are normally emptied into wooden boxes .They are  weighted in the wooden boxes to check the quantities of the fruits. In large palm oil mill there can be weighted from a weighing bridge in the truck. In most cases they come in large quantities.The quality that you get is solely dependant on the fruits that come in from the field and you can do nothing to improve its quality but to  prevent any deterioration. The quality can only be compromised through handling, environment, genetic, transport, age of the tree, and harvesting technique.

• Threshing

The fruits consist in a spikelet that grows in a stem; the fruits can be manually removed from the stem using an axe and you can also separate the fruits from the stem using your hand. In industral automatic palm oil pressing plant, the fruits are separated with rotating drum that is equipped with rotary beaters bars detach, they help to separate the fruit quickly and make the process more efficient. However, in small scale palm oil pressing unit, the fruits are separated using a different method because they cannot afford the high end mechanism. The whole branch with the fruits is cooked in high pressure water and the fruits will  eventually separate from the branch and they will be left with clean fruits.

• Sterilization

This typically means using high temperatures or wet heat treatment to loosen the fruit. This type of cooking uses pressurized steam and the purpose serves the following; to destroy oil splitting enzymes and help to arrest hydrolysis, it also helps to solidify the proteins in which the oil bearing are dispersed.

This process of  solidifying the protein makes the cell walls of the fruit to come together and allow oil to come out freely.  When they are also cooked the pulp of the fruit is weakened and makes the fruit soft, this will allow you to detach the fiber material and its content during the digestion process. The high heat in this case is able to  make the cells in the fruit weak and allows oil to be released easily. The moisture that is initiated in the process acts as chemical that is used to break gums and resin.The gum and resin cause oil to foam in the process of frying. The resin and gums can also be removed through water and they can be further removed in the process of oil clarification and refining plant.  When you exert pressure steam on the fruit, it makes the moisture in the nut to expand and when the pressure is released the kernels become weak and make the work of breaking the nuts easier.

• Digesting

This is the process of releasing palm oil from the fruit and it is done through rupture and breaking down the oil bearing cells. The digester that is normally used consists of steam heated cylindrical vessel fitted with  shafts that are used in rotating to make removal of palm oil from the fruit efficient. The process involves pounding or digesting the fruit at high temperatures to reduce viscosity and destroy the fruit outer cover.

• Palm Oil Pressing

There two most distinct methods that are used to extract oil from the digested material. One method adopts mechanical pressing process by use of screw press. It is normally called the dry method and the other method is called the wet process. It uses hot water to leach out oil. You can use hydraulic pressing and screw pressing to get oil from the material but they all serve the same purpose of manufacturing oil. However, the screw oil pressing plant is the most used for palm oil extraction because it is believed that you get more oil this way.

• Crude Palm Oil Clarification

The main point of sending the oil through this process is to remove any impurities in the oil. The crude palm oil normally contains materials like cell debris, fibrous, water and non oily solids. These impurities can lower the quality of your oil. The only way that you can know that it has the impurities; the oil is normally very thick. Hot water in this case is added to make your oil thin; the water will cause the impurities to skin at the bottom of oil. The lighter ones will flow through the watery top, when heat is applied to your oil. Then the oil is passed  through a screen to remove any fiber, afterwards the screened mixture is boiled for more than two hours and  then it is left to settle by the force of gravity. The lighter oil will separate from water and rise to the top. You can decant oil into another tank but it still has traces of water, so it is heated again and carefully the dirty and  water are skimmed off. The process can continue until pure oil is achieved.

• Oil Storage

The dried oil is stored in large tanks waiting to be dispatched in large scale industries. Oil is stored at 50 degrees Celsius and under heated water or low pressure to avoid oxidation. It is also to prevent solidification  and any case of fractionation.  Kernel recovery  The solid parts that leave the screw pressing process can be separated using your hands and put into good  use. The fiber can be used as biomass and used to heat boilers. The nuts in this stage are taken back to palm kernel oil extraction plant.