AN INTRODUCTION TO PALM OIL PROCESSINGProcess The fruit of the oil palm grows in clusters, called fresh fruit bunches in which form it is harvested from the tree by cutting of the bunch stem. The bunch falls to the ground and is taken to the roadside for transport. Loose fruit falling from the bunch or detached by harvesting is collected with the bunches and must be transferred to the factory and processing commenced as quickly as possible. Typically the fruit is accurately weighed upon receipt at the factory then transferred via ramps and hoppers into perforated cages for sterilisation. Sterilisation, which is usually done by steam injection in large horizontal pressure vessels, halts degradation of the fruit and loosens the fruit in. the bunches. This facilitates stripping of the fruit as well as the other operations which follow. The condensate from the sterilisers which is contaminated with oil and vegetable matter is treated to remove oil and the remainder taken off for treatment as effluent. ‘Sele: tal ye aba mle tepag eben pes Sterilisation stops FFA increase After sterilisation the fruit is fed to rotating strippers to detach it from the bunch stalk. The fruit falls through the slats of the strippers to a conveyor and to the digesters. The empty bunches, which contain nutrients, are removed for disposal, formerly by incineration to produce potash. Increasingly nowadays it is being returned to the field as mulch. The purpose of digestion is to release oils from the pericarp cells, raise the temperature of the fruit mass to facilitate subsequent pressing, and drain away free oil to reduce the volume of material to be pressed. The pericarp cells are the main oil- containing tissue in oil palm fruit. The digester is heated by steam and provided with rotating knives or beater arms which serve to stir and pulp the fruit into a mash. The wet mash is then drawn off for pressing to extract crude oil. Oil is extracted from the digested mash by squeezing it through hydraulically controlled screw presses. The liquid released, together with that from the digesters, is the crude oil product. It consists of a mixture of oil, water and cell debris. The mixture is diluted to improve its properties for separation and then passed through vibrating screens to remove solid particles, The crude oil is then heated prior to clarification.Clarification takes place in large static clarification tanks in which gravity separates out the lighter oil which rises to the top of the tank from the heavier water, sludge and dirt which fall to the bottom. The oil is taken from the top of the tank and passed through centrifuges to remove final traces of solids and water and then to vacuum driers to reduce the final moisture content to a controlled minimum. Oil, now termed Crude Palm Oil is stored in tanks prior to shipping, The water and sludge phase is further centrifuged to extract the remaining oil which is returned to the tank for purification, The rest of the liquid, termed “sludge’, is removed to effluent ponds for treatment. After weament the outflow was formerly returned to water courses. Increasingly this is now being recycled to areas of the plantation by irrigation. The residue from the presses is sent to the depericarping system to-separate the fibre from the whole and broken nuts. The fibre is used to fuel the boilers which provide steam and electricity for the process. Services : cane bent The nuts are cracked and the kernels removed for sale; the waste shell is used for boiler fuel.Anangsa das 300178 ¥ BOVUOLS | UaANGOVA | UaIstINd he so | = syOKO3u L090 Pee eee 4 wnua ‘ONIANC =~) SNOTOAQONCAH | S017 8 1 SOLT | TH Td | O1SLAN >) onisriodg LAN | aioe on tae ; | t MOLVHSNSONI ousnos | t 7 wna YOLWaVd3S NIHSTIOd LAN "LAN sual S$83ud / NOLLSS9IO ONIHSSMHL MASITIALS 4 NOILd3034 2YOLOVI OL, 2i rm & i 3 8Bump ont Bump Bumps ‘ne + time ay =FFA Buma Steriliser Steam 2.5 bars— door 7 | v t cages holding +31 FFB each Sterilisation: total cycle about 90 minutes - depending on bunch ripeness Sterilisation stops FFA increaseMonrail crane Threshing a \ tipped into hopper to field as mulch —Fruit conveyor from thresher <— Digester hot water perforated cylindrical cage tegulating cone ] Air colum | to clarification station cake break conveyor Nuts To kemel station <— 1Clarification Station — "mlas!_ voaun qi Y § sludge centrifuge [decanter] heavy effluent {_ sludge to ponds benen Reena ——)Mill Services (steam, water & power) high pressure steam a 2 to sterilisers | : backpressure steam joo Ae 8 su tuey | _gitubeseneror wi and Boiler §,/4 services diesel generator back-up feedwater __ 2 water = treatment process water & services 7Buluesjo juejd 10) asnay TWWALNO /NOILVOTHH! i ! qos "07 oebepuod Jeaowes Ss 9 }e4 MO|4 ajeJapoyycobras 08 POY OR geceneenrenanmemonmnconaecnmeate, ong-o0s= 008 1g} woy ynduy 402001 uoejnai931 [yoeauonuaias AnoY 21-2800) (waysis fienooe Wo sem ajyeSuapuos sajoa2 ‘oaog RQ yuey yuey aysned Bupjus uonjau03 uonuaysi smoy gp< / Guipaas BY punpeq | Hddz2Hnq ‘| - sue) AsaA0ga/ [10 2,88 = engi =Hd 2.08 > g-SHd VUSUTLBIAL, USN TI 4asq134S abpnys uaneoyuels [Wut op y2@q 10Deep. PALM OIL FACTORY PROCESS - HANDBOOK PART 1 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PALM. OIL MILLING PROCESS INSTITIUT PENYELIDIKAN MINYAK KELAPA SAWIT MALAYSIA (Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia) KEMENTERIAN PERUSAHAAN UTAMA, MALAYSIA Poni (Ministry of Primary Industries, Malaysia)2: STERILISATION 24° INTRODUCTION When fruit bunches are cut from an oil palm and stored for several days much of the fruit loosens ‘naturally (probably due to enzyme action) and may be shaken or knocked out of the bunches. If such fruit were simply pounded ina mortar and pressed cold, oil having a very high. FFA would be obtained. This would happen because the fat splitting enzymes present i the pericarp would remain active and would hydrolyse much of the oil when the fruit was pulped in the mortar. The yield of oil obtained on pressing would, moreover, be very smal Tt would be possible to largely avoid such a rise in FFA during the pulping process «if the fruit were first heated gently over a fire or in warm water to a temperature of no more than 60°C. Such trearment would be sufficient to inactivate the lipolytic (Le. fat-spitting) enzymes but would not much increase the oil yield on pressing. n order to obtain a high oil yield from naturally stripped fruit the latter must be “cooked” before being digerted and pressed and this can be done in boiling water, in steam at atmospheric pressure or in steam at above atmospheric pressure. The advantage of the latter is that its tem- perature is more than that of steam at atmospheric pressure and consequently (just as in a domestic pressure cooker) the process takes less time. ‘The pressure vessel used for cooking palm fruit with steam is known as a steriliser and the process is known as sterilisation, In a large factory itis, normal to process fresh fruit bunches rather than naturally stripped fruit. This is done to reduce the amount of fruit bruising that would otherwise occur before the lipases (Le. lipolytic enzymes) are inactivated and thus to minimise FFA set up, It also enables stripping to be mechanised. One of the purposes of sterilisation in a factory processing bunches is to cook thé latter sufficiently to permit complete mechanical stripping. The objects of sterili- sation in such a factory can be summarised as below. 2.2 OBJECTS OF STERILISATION OF BUNCH FRUIT (@) Prevesition of any further rise in FFATaue to enzyme action by inactivation of these lipolytic enzymes. This is easily achieved during steilising as the fruit need only be heated to a comparatively low temperature, (b) Facilitation of mechanical:stripping. Té/Aoosen fruit still attached to the bunches sufficient heat must penetrate to the points of attachment of the fruits to the stalk to bring about hydrolysis at these points. Exposure of a bunch to dry heat does not loosen any fruit but moist heat in the form of steam is very effective, ©) Preparation of the fruit pericarp for subsequent processing. During sterlising heat must be allowed to penetrate into the pericarp and must bring it to a high enough ‘temperature for a long enough period of time for certain physico-chemical changes to take place. During this “cooking” process the colloids of the pericarp and stalk W‘Palm Oil Factory Process Handbook are modified in such a way that when the fruit is later pressed good de-olling of the fruit solids occurs. This applies both to the “press fibre” solids and also to the solids in the crude oi! which are de-oiled in the clarification sections. The exact nature of the changes occurring during the “cooking” is not known, There is certainly a loss of water from within the pericarp, some protein present will be coagulated, some mucilaginous material will be hydrolysed or coagulated and this will facilitate the breaking of the oil cells during digestion and reduce thé amount of emulsifiers present in later processing stages. (@) Preconditioning the nuts to minimise kernel biéakage during both pressing and nut. cracking. If adequate sterilisation is given heat penetration will be sufficient to cause many of the kemels to become detached from the shell, This process of loosening the kernels is continued in the nut silos and must be complete before the nuts are cracked if “split nuts” are to be avoided. During pressing of digested fruit, particularly if the proportion of nuts to pericarp is high, the nuts may be subjected to considerable mechanical pressure. If the fruit is hot the nut shell may be sufficiently elastic not to crack. It will deform tem- porarily and if the kernel has not shrunk somewhat during sterling the kernel will sometimes break. The result will be a nut, which to outward appearances is un- damaged but which contains a cracked kernel, and this will contribute to the broken kernels in the final product. ‘Therefore to minimise nut breakage during pressing the digested fruit should be ata ‘high temperature when pressed (about 100°C). This, héwever, is not sufficient to minimise Kernel breakage. For this adequate heat penetration during sterilising to shrink the kernel is essential. It will be realised from the above that good stripping should not be the only criterion of adequate sterilisation of bunches. Sterilisation should be prolonged to allow the heat to penetrate all the fruit for sufficient time to bring about the changes described above, Inadequate sterlisation affects adversely the whole of the subsequent miling processes. 2.3 STERILISER DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS 2.3.1 Vertical Sterilisers Sterilisers for bunch fruit are either of “vertical” or “horizontal” design. ‘The former are generally only used in small factories as their capacity is necessarily small (about 6 tons bunches maximum). Filling and emptying is a slow and laborious process though it can be speeded up if the design is such that the bunches are contained in a perforated basket which can be lowered into the steriiser and lifted out after sterilisation is complete. For this, Purpose, however, special lifting, traversing and tipping arrangements are required. 2.3.2 Horizontal Sterlisers Horizontal sterilisers are commonly used in modem factories. These are provided with a‘Sterfsation ‘pair of internal rails and the bunch fruit is contained in open topped perforated steel cages ‘mounted on whecled chassis which are pushed into the steritiser on the rails. ‘The cages normally hold 1.5 tons or (especially in the case of larger factories) 2.5 tons ‘of bunches each and the length of the sterliser or sterilsers will depend on the throughput re- quired. Usually wo or more sterilisers are installed in preference to one very long one as this facilitates both siting and operation and also safeguards the position if a vessel has to be taken cout of service. Steriliers holding from five 1.5 tonne cages up to eight 2.5 tonne cages are known, ‘to be in use and operating satisfactorily. Horizontal sterilisers may be provided with a single hinged door at one end or alternatively with 2 door at each end. The latter arrangement is usually to be preferred at large capacity factories as it simplifies the movernent of cages by allowing these to enter the sterilser by one ddoor and leave by the other. ‘The piping and valve arrangements for a horizontal steriliser are relatively simple there ‘being one steam inlet valve, one steam exhaust valve, one condensate valve and one by-pass valve. ‘The first three of these valves are sometimes air operated, this being particularly useful ina large factory where there are several long sterilizers. By grouping the pneumatic controls only one operator is required to control the process. 23.3 Steam Supply Arrangements ‘The maximum sterlising pressure is usually about 40 psi. gauge and the steam supply may be taken either: (@) Direct from the boiler high pressure main via a reducing valve (preferably with a steam accumulator installed to prevent the boiler pressure from dropping during the initial part of the sterilising cycle when steamn demand is heavy). (&) From the exhaust of the steam alternator set provided this is designed to operate ata sufficiently high exhaust pressure. ‘The steam usually entéts the sterliser through a single pipe at the top of the vessel and a spreader plate is fitted nihning practically the whole length of the steriliser. The purpose of this is to prevent the steam from over-cooking the bunches immediately below the inlet pipe and ‘eausing undue erosion locally due to high speed condensate droplets. 11 also spreads the steam so that the conditions along the whole length of the steriliser are more or less even and this helps the air removal (see later). 2.3.4 Steam Exhaust Arrangements Although some steam goes out with the condensate most of it is passed to atmosphere through a steam exhaust valve at the top of the sterliser. This steam either exhausts direct to atmosphere through a baffle type silencer or alternatively it passes downwards through a pipe which joins the condensate pipe beyond the condensate valve and so passes with the condensate toa point well away from the factory area. ‘This second method of steam disposal is to be preferred as the silencing is much more effective and the only steam escaping close to the steriliser is a small quantity via a venting 19‘aim Ott Factory Process Handbook chimney. It does have the effect, however, of appreciably extending the time taken to exhaust the steam though this may not be very important in practice as it does not make much difference to the through-put and the claim sometimes made that a very rapid steam exhaust assists good stripping is not borne out in practice, 23.5 Condensate Removal Arrangements ‘There are usually several condensate outlet points at the bottom of a horizontal steriliser all connected by short pipes to the main condensate pipe in which is situated the condensate valve. There is a by pass pipe of relatively small diameter around the condensate valve and in the by-pass pipe is a valve or preferably two valves in series. ‘The by-pass valvés are kept open for most of the sterilising cycle and the purpose of this is to allow any condensate formed to draiti away and also to permit a small flow (or “bleed”) of steam (or rather a mixture of steam and ait) to take place. The latter is very important because, as will be explained later, complete removal of air from the steriiser is necessary for satisfactory sterilisation and this continuous bleed helps achieve this. If the condensate is allowed to accumulate in the bottom of the steriliser no escape of steam and air is possible but even more important is the fact that the presence of the relatively cool condensate will result in less expansion of the steriliser occurring along the bottom than elsewhere, Such uneven expansion has been known to lead to mechanical damage to a sterliser {in the form of strained joints and must be avoided. A simple device enabling the build up of condensate to be detected is described later. The reason for fitting two valves in series in the by-pass pipe is to enable one valve to be preset partly open whilst the other is always either fully open or fully closed. The way in which the pre-set valve is set inthe first instance is considered later. 2.4 OPERATING CONDITIONS FOR SATISFACTORY STERILISATION 24.1 Factors affecting length of sterilisation ‘As explained earlier the bunches must be allowed time to heat through thoroughly and become “cooked”. With satisfactory sterilising the temperature reached in the centre of the stalk 7 will be found to be at least 100°C afl the time required to reach 100°C will depend on the ‘weight of the individual bunches. It would be about 25 10 30 minutes for small bunches (3 to 6 kg) and about 50 minutes for bunches of 17 kg under iprmal operating conditions. Another important factor determining the length of sterilising is the ‘Pressure within the vessel during the cooking period since the temperature of steam is related to its pressure and very ‘pproximately each 10°C rise in temperature will reduce the cooking time by a factor of 2. 7 If some air remains within the steriliser the mixture of ‘steam and air will have a lower temperature than steam alone would have at that pressure and the time required for cooking wil be extended, For example, if a mixture of three parts of steam and one part of air exerted an absolute Pressure of 4 kg/em? ina sterliser the partial pressure of the steam would be 3i* 4=3 kplem®een’ Steritsation ‘This is illustrated by the following figures which apply to steam unmixed with air: Absolute pressure in Gauge pressure in ‘Temperature in feglom? kgfem™ °c 10 0.0 100.0 20 10 119.6 25 1s 126.8 3.0 2.0 1329 35 25 138.2 40 3.0 1429 45 33 1472 and the temperature of the mixture would only be 132.9°C instead of 142.9°C which is the tem- perature of pure steam at 4 kg/cm? absolute pressure. Although the length of the sterilising period could be reduced by increasing the operating pressure to above 3 kg/em* gluge this is not normally done as the bleachability of the oil would be adversely affocted. T Relatively coinplete air removal from the sterlser not only gives a higher temperature at a given pressure but also improves the thermal conductivity since air isa very poor conductor. ‘This alo helps the heat from the steam to past to the bunches more quickly and so reduces the time needed for sterilising. Even if a long sterling cycle is permissible steps should still be taken to remove ait as fully as possible since failure to do so will tend to lead to oxidation of the oil ‘with consequent loss of bleachability 2.42. Air Removal from Sterilisers Ina horizontal steriliser there is necessarily a considerable volume of sir left in the vessel ‘after is has been loaded and the door shut. This can be minimised (and the task of air removal thereby made easier) by ensuring that the steriliser is always used with the maximum mumber ff cages it will hold and that these are all quite full. A “loading geuge” near the bunch ramps ‘can be useful in this respect. Air is considerably denser than steam and this can be demonstrated in an empty steriliser by admitting steam slowly at the top of the vessel and leaving the door open. The steam will ‘occupy the top part of the sterilizer and the interface between steam and air will remain distinct and slowly move downwards as the air is displayed ‘This occurs because the density of steam at 100°C is 0.598 kg per cubic metre whereas that of air saturated with water vapour at 50%C is 2s much as 1.043 kg. per cubie metre, This principle of downward displacement of air is made use of during the initial phase of sterilising (Known as.the “venting period”). During this time steam is admitted through the steam inlet valve with the steam exhaust valve closed and the condensate valve (and by-pass valve) open. Much of the steam condenses on the cold bunches and cages etc. during the first ‘minutes but some passes out through the condensate pipe together with condensate. {t will have a 7Palm Ott Factory Process Handbook forced out some air before it but much of the air that will be displaced will be mixed with the escaping steam. This is because in a full sterliser, turbulence will prevent a clean-cut stratification Of air and steam and in many installations the mixing of air and steam is made more likely by. the fact that the admission of steam during the venting period cannot be made slow because of the use of airoperated valves. It is difficult to recommend the precise duration of the venting period. This will depend fon the size of the steriliser and whether steam can be admitted slowly or not. Ifitcah be admitted slowly, air removal during the venting period is likely to be more thorough with less wastage of steam though the time needed will be longer. It may be possible to distinguish between the escape of air alone and of a mixture of air and steam by allowing a small proportion of this gas to pass out to atmosphere via a narrow vertical copper sampling tube (ith the free end bent over to point downwards) fitted with a valve and installed inthe conderisate by-pass pipe. By holding {thermometer in the issuing gas and observing the temperature an indication will be given as to whether air alone (low temperature) or a mixture of air and steam (higher temperature) or steam alone (100°C) is passing, It is unlikely that the venting period can be continued until pure steam is escaping as this would most likely take too long and waste too much steam though if the latter considerations were not important it would be an ideal way to start the sterlsing In practice, a venting period of at Least. two full minutes is desirable and if the extra steam ‘ean be spared an extension inay not be as wasteful as it appears. By remioving as much air as possible at an early stage the subsequent heating of the fruit will be more rapid and so time will be saved in the end. ‘At the end of the venting period the condensate valve is closed (leaving the by-pass valve ‘open) and the pressure in the sterilizer then starts to build up. It should be mentioned that at some factories it is customary to vent with the steam exhaust valve also open. This is illogical -) if downward displacement of the ait is being relied on for its removal. On the other hand, at a factory with air operated valves there is so much turbulence caused by the high velocity of the catering steam that probably some air is removed through the steam exhaust valve. In addition, during the fist minute or so itis probable that the heavy flow of condensate restricts alr removal through the condensate pipe, The danger is that when the amount of steam escaping through the steam exhaust valve builds up there isa tendency to bring the venting period to an end whereas perhaps what should be done is to close. the steam exhaust valve and continue the venting somme- ‘what through the condensate valve. During the time that the pressure within the sterilisr is building up, condensate will be passing out via the by-pass round the condensate valve. The by-pass valve will be partly open and by trial its setting will have been adjusted to allow all the condensate together with a small quantity of steam mixed with air to escape throughout this period. The by-pass valve should not be so wide open that an excessive quantity of steam is lost needlessly but it must be accepted that some steam will be lost as without this the air that is sracually released from within the bunches as they heat up will not be removed. If the by-pass valve is set so that by the time the “cooking” period at constant pressure is reached the steam passing through the by-pass is practically free from air. This will mean that the “cooking” will proceed efficiently and it may even be possible to close the by-pass valve altogether at this stage,‘Sterltsation ‘One way in which the steam passing through the by-pass at any moment can be examined for aic content is to sample it through a small vertical pipe fitted with a valve. Such apipe, having the open end bent over in a curve to discharge downwards, isa simple and useful device whicl, ‘enables one to make sure that the by pass pipe is not blocked or that the condensate level is not fo high that no steam can escape and for this reason itis advisable to leave the valve on this “tell- tale” pipe open while sterilising is in progress. During the beginning of the venting period when air passes out practically unmixed with steam itis possible to ascertain this by simply watching, the telltale sampling pipe. No drips of condensate will form and the issuing gis will be only slightly warm. After a time, however, when steam is mixed with the air it is impossible to judge the proportion of steam by simple observation, but this can be determined quite easly in one cof two ways. ‘The first method is more suited to experimental work and in this case the sampling pipe is continued downwards and is then turned upwards with its open end submerged in a basin of ‘water. A glass jar full of water with the open mouth downwards is supported in the basin in uch a way that it is immediately above the open end of the pipe. Then when the valve in the sampling pipe is cautiously opened steam will emerge and be condensed whilst any air mixed ‘with this steam will pass upwards as bubbles and be collected in the glass jar. By making the air “visible” in this way a useful qualitative idea is obtained of the amount of air in the steam/ ‘ir mixture at any moment and the sampling can be stopped and started at intervals theough- ‘out the sterlising for this purpose. It is even possible to measure the proportion of steam quanti- tatively if required by weighing the amount of condensate formed in a given time and measuring, the volume of air collected during this period. ‘The second method is very suitable for routine factory use and the principle is to compare the temperature of the steam/air mixture with that of pure steam at the same pressure, The greater the proportion of air in the mixture the greater this temperature difference will be. For this purpose all that is required is a thermometer located so 2s to measure the temparature of the steam] air mixture in the by-pass before the by-pass valve and a pressure gauge installed in the same position. Then from steam tables the temperature of saturated steam at the pressure indi tated can be determined and compared with the measured temperature of the steam/air mixture. Usually, a8 a matter of convenience in order to avoid constant reference to steam tables, the pressure gauge is provided with an additional scale marked in degrees so thatthe saturated steam temperature corresponding to any pressure can be read off at once and compared directly with the thermometer reading. By using this device to fallow the progress of air removal a suitable setting for the by- pass valve may be determined. Once this ties been done the valve islocked and left at ths setting and instead of turning it off when the steam pasting is judged to contain no more air another walve also in the by-pass pipe and which has been fully open until that time is closed completely. By using two valve in series inthis way the second one ned only be opened fully and the required regulation of the steam flow is given by the pre-set first valve, 243. Single Peak Sterilising So far the preliminary venting and build up of pressure within the steiiser hes been described, although alt will have been removed continuously during these steps it will not be ampletely satisfactory to close the by-pass when the presture reaches the normal masimiim) sooe of 40 pai. gauge and the “holding” or “cooking” period is commenced. This is becavse aalm Oil Factory Process Handbook it is only during this period that the temperature within the bunches begins to rise considerably and when this happens mote air is liberated into the steam and should be removed by continuing the steam “bleed”. If the pressure build up is made to be slow, by using an orifice plate to reduce the flow when the air operated steam inlet valve is opened, or if the steam is supplied at a relatively slow rate from the turbine exhaust, the need to continue “bleeding” during the holding period will be reduced somewhat since the bunches will have heated up more by the time the build up of Pressure is complete and so less air will be liberated subsequently. Jn practice when more than one steriliser is in use it is usually not possible to continue to admit steam after the beginning of the holding period because the steam is required for one of the other sterilisers. In such a case there will be a gradual small dropping off of pressure during the holding period due to condensation and this presture reduction would become so great if the by-pass valve were left open that itis necessary to close it ‘This ts pethaps one of the main limitations of single peak storilising viz the fact that air is liberated from the bunches during the holding period which usually cannot be removed from the vessel with the result that cooking is less efficient than it would otherwise be and takes longer. Instead of the time from the start of venting to the end of the exhaust after the holding period being about 60 minutes it must be extended to about 90 minutes to achieve the same result, Apart from the longer time requirement there is of course the possibility of increased oxidation. of the oil to consider. Jn some installations an auxiliary steam supply has been arranged which allows the sterliser to be “topped up” during the holding period when the main steam supply is no longer available. This enables “bleeding” to continue through the by-pass valve and because of the better de. aeration obtained this permits the time under steam to be reduced somewhat. Single peak sterilsing is the simplest system to operate, requires least steam, and because the time taken to teach the start of the holding period is necessarily less than with multiple peak sterilisation a single peak sterilising cycle can be operated with a shorter cycle time and consequently higher total throughput rate than with multiple peak sterlising. There is some doubt, however, whether the results obtained under these circumstances are as good as with triple sterilisation particularly if no auxiliary steam supply is available. The effect of method of operation on throughput is discussed in @ later paragraph and it will be seen that under some conditions the single peak ‘ycle has an appreciable advantage in this respect. 244° Multiple Peak Sterilising ‘The most usual form of this is triple peak sterilisation. The proceduse is exactly as for single peak sterilising until the presture within the vessel reaches about 30 psi. The steam inlet valve is then closed and the condensate valve and then the steam exhaust valve opened and the Pressure allowed to drop to atmospheric pressure. ‘The exhaust valve is'closed and the steam inlet valve opened. After about 2 minutes venting the condensate valve is closed and the pressure allowed to build up to 35 psi. ‘The steam inlet valve is again closed and the condensate and exhaust valves opened to permit the pressure to again drop to atmospheric pressure. ogSterlsatton ‘Once more the exhaust valve is closed and the steam inlet valve opened: ‘After about 2 rinutes venting the condensate Valve is closed andthe pressure is allowed 0 ‘build up to 40 psi. [At this point the steam inlet valve is closed and the bunches allowed to “cook” in the steser tor approximately 30 minutes (Known asthe holding period) It m0 be found essential sey the by-pass valve during this peviod, During tis time several ‘pounds drop in sterliser presse can be expected as a result of condensation and i may be possible to counteract this By admitting steam occasionally during the holding perlod fot » few minutes at a time when ore not actually required for the next steriliser (eg. during the preliminary two exhausts from this steriiser). ‘At the end of the holding period the condensate and exhaust valves af opened and when the pressuce has dropped to atmospheric the doors are opened and the load withdrawn. For preliminary venting to be most effective steam admission should be slow so that the secm doen not rx with the air but diplaces it by forming an upper [ayes ‘of steam which fradually increases in depth. In practic, this slow admission i Rot Wa) possible because with aipperated valves the valve can e only fully on ot fully off and in ‘addition a very clear-cut ‘epartion between steam and aic layers cannot be expected i 6 Joaded sterilser. By using an Sratice plate in the steam line the flow rate can be reduced and this ‘sometimes helpful though seinen a compromise since the tre required to reach the start of the ‘holding period cannot be extended unduly otherwise sterilising capacity is lost. the undesirable effect of fairly rapid steam admission during the preliminary Nome phase of sterilisation is not too serious when a multiple peat sterilising cycle is in use, as muck Pithe ait removal occurs during the steam exhaust periods prior te the holding period, The latter cane far removal depends for its effectiveness on good mixing of the seam with the re Mraiing ai which is largely present within the mass of bunches, For this fea & short holding Feriod (3 minutes) is sometimes given at exch of the two preliminary Presse peaks before ex- rarcting, This gives more time for diffusion between the air and the steam ands ‘although it may raratways be necessary to do this, it is one way of improving the effesniens of triple vot terion and may be particularly useful ifthe rate of build up of pressures rather fast. UUnully with triptestrlising the fist two peak pressures ar 30 pal and OS pi. respec- sively andthe third peak pressure 40 gsi. This is to avid taking t00 much Ome for the air removal process and thereby reducing the time available for the main “cooking” (holding) period at full Fressure and it does not appear to reduce the effectiveness of al removal. 1 the rate of build up Er pressure is rapid and itis more convenient to give three peaks at 40 FS. (eg. when a steam ‘coumulator is installed) this may be done. itis not posible to specify the exact timing of atypical triple steiing cycle ice. this wal depend on the size of striser and the steam supply arrangements but the following results ‘wece obtained at one particular factory: 2. minutes preliminary venting (condensate valve open) 6 —-*— toraise pressure to 30 psi. 1 minute to exhaust 2 minutes venting‘im Oit Factory Process Handbook 5” toraise pressure to 35 psi. 2%" toexhaust 2 venting 2%" —torraise pressure to 40 pai.’ 34” holding at 40 psi. (approx.) + 3) toexhaust 5" toempty (approx.) S$" torefilt (approx.) Total 70 minutes If there is need to economise in steam (e.g. in the event of boiler troubles or shortage of fuel) some saving may be made by adopting double peak sterilisation in place of triple peak sterilisation. If this is done the preliminary peak is usually made 40 psi. and a short preliminary holding period given. Otherwise, the holding period would start so early that the bunches would not have had time to warm up much before it started and the steam supply was cut off. By pro- longing the first peak (if necessary by fitting an orifice plate in the steam inlet pipe) the amount of air retained in the mast of bunches and gradually liberated) during the helding period can be Feduced and the loss of pressuce (and thus temperature) during the course of the holding period ‘willbe less substantial. Although double peak sterlising is more efficient than single peak steriising in the sense that more air is removed by the start of the holding period it is somewhat of a compromise. With triple peak sterilising, experimental work has shown that the steam/air mixture inthe steiiser towards the end of the second exhaust is virtually all steam and cooking is consequently fast during the holding period leading to the possibility of this being relatively short. Using single peak sterilising a considerably longer holding period is needed because more air is left in the sterliser at the beginning of this period. ‘With double peak sterilising the holding period required to give comparable ste «an be expected to be between that needed for triple and that needed for single peak sterilising. ing Although double peak stetilising is sometimes adopted to save steam or fuel its use in place of triple sterlising will increase the sterlising capacity of a factory where 3 of more sterilsers are in use at once. This will be explained in the next section but depends on the fact that the total cycle time is proportional to the length of time that steam has to be admitted to each vessel jn turn 30 by reducing this the throughput will be raised. This holds good even if (as will be advisable) the holding time is raised (within limits). 2.5 FACTORS AFFECTING THE THROUGHPUT OF THE STERILISATION SECTION 25.1 One Steriliser in Use When only one sterliser is in use at a time there will be no waiting time and the through- ‘put may be calculated very simply. However, many sterlisers are in use and whatever the type of eycle the time between first admitting steam and completing refilling the steriiser may be conveniently divided into ‘two parts viz the time that the sieam supply is reserved for a particular sterliser (and so cannot be used to start sterilisation in another vessel) and the remainder of this time. 26Steritsation “The First period may be denoted by the symbol Si minutes and runs from the start of the preliminary venting to the beginning of the holding period (or later if steam should continue to be admitted during the first part of the holding period). It includes the few minutes occupied by preliminary exhausts in the case of multiple peak cycles during which steam is not actually being admitted. ‘The second period may be denoted by $2 minutes and consists of the holding period (excluding the first part during which steam may continue to be admitted if this should apply), the final blowdown, the time tak8n to empty the sterliser and the time taken to refill it. ‘A third period must also be considered and this is the time that may have to be waited at the end of S2 before steam is available for commencing the next cycle. This period may be denoted by WI minutes. ‘Then the complete cycle time = $1 + S2+W1 minutes. If the load of bunches in one steriliser is L tons and N sterilisers are in use the total throughout will be ONL Beg tone bunches per hour. When only one steriliser is in use there will be no waiting time for steam and the eycle time is just (S| + $2) minutes and the throughput Bae) wns bunchese 2.5.2 Two Sterilisers in Use Af Si = S2 there will be no waiting because No, 2 sterilisers wi finish drawing steam just as No. I sterilser has been refilied and so No. 1 steriliser can be steamed immediately. ‘The cycle time is (S1 + S2) minutes (because WI = 0) and the total throughput rate is 60x 2L, Grass tonsbunches/. If S1 is more than S2 the commencement of the steaming period of each cycle of No. 1 steriliser (other than the first) will be delayed by a time W1 equal to (S1—S2) minutes because No. 2 steriliser will continue to draw steam for (S1-S2) minutes after No. 1 sterliser is ready to be steamed. ‘The cycle time (S1 + S2 + WI) minutes will thus be SI + ‘$2 + (SI — S2) = 2S] minutes and the total throughput rate is 60. NL _ OxIL _ OL Gis) * “asi * “sy (ons bunches! Note that the eycle time and throughput in this case depend only on the “steam on” time, SI. PaPela Oil Factory Process Handbook HEI is tess than S2 steam will be available whenever either steriliser is ready for steaming $0 there will be no delay awaiting steam, The cycle time will be (Sl + S2) minutes and the throughput 60x21 Gisssy (Os bunches per hour. With S1 less than S2 there will in fact be a period between each successive sterilisation when steam has been cut off from one steriliser but the other steriliser is not ready to start steaming. This time is $2-S1 J minutes, 253° Several Sterilisers in Use For the general case where N st isers are in use: @ The cycle times always given by SI +S2+W1. i) The waiting time for steam W1 is equal to S1(N-1) — $2 minutes. (ii) When the waiting time for steam is nil (Le. WI=0) the cycle time is given by (SI + 2)and the total throughput will be GONE tons bunches per hour (81482) Hai 1 (This will be the case when SI(N-1)— $2=0 i.e, St = —1- (oress)) 82. (N-1) v) From (i) and (li) the eyele time when there is a waiting time for steam may also be expressed more simply as SI + $2 + (S1(N-1) ~ S2) minutes = NSI minutes. ‘The usefulness of these expressions which enable the total throughput of any number of sterilsers to be calculated for any conditions of operation can be understood best by examples and in the following Table a range of conditions is considered, The examples taken show that for any given number of steriisrs in use the total through Put obtained will vary considerably according to the conditions of operation. It will depend, naturally, on the total length of time allowed for $1 + S2 but it will also be considerably affected by the amount of time wasted waiting for steam ie. WL, the value of which is given by the ex- Pression S1(N—1) — S2 minutes, By ensuring a suitable relationship between $1 and $2 the waiting time can be minimised and sometimes eliminated though the latter becomes increasingly difficult as the number of sterlisers in use increases, It will be seen that with three sterilisers in use the cycle with SI = 30, S2 = 50 gives a total throughput of 2.0L and it is interesting to note that, using the same cycle, exactly the same total throughput would be obtained if four or even five sterilisers were available for use at a time instead of only three,Stertisation ‘Number of si s2 Wi Cycle Time Steriisers in use Minutes Minutes Minutes in Minutes 1 50 30 - 80 1 60 30 - 90 1 30 50 - 80 1 30 70 - 100 1 30 90 - 120 2 50 30 20 100 2 60 30 30 120 2 30 50 - 80 2 30 70 - 100 2 30 90 a 120 3 50 30 70 150 3 60 30 90 180 3 30 50 10 90 3 30 70 - 100 3 30 90 - 120 4 50 30 120 200 4 60 30 150 240 4 30 50. 40 120 4 30 70 20 120 4 30 90 = 120 5 50 30 170 250 5 60 30 210 300 5 30 50 70 150 5 30 70 50 150 5 30. 90 30 150 Total thr’put in tons bunches/br. 075L. 0671. 0.5L 06 os 12 10 1s 12 10 12 10 2.0 18) 15 12 10 20 20 20 12 19 20 20 20 L L reeoe pees coer ereec ‘This is because the considerable increase in waiting time for steam which lengthens the cycle time exactly counter-balances the advantage of having more sterilsers in use, ‘The only way in which a marked increase in total throughput would be obtained under such operating conditions as a result of an increase in the number of vessels in use would be by altering the steari supply arrangements in such a way that steam could be applied to more than ‘This is often not possible in practice as it not only implies the fitting of non-return valves in the steam supply to each vessel but also the existence of a sufficiently substantial rate of steam production and adequate steam storage capacity able to withstand the steam demands of two sterilisers simultaneously for at least part of the time,SECTION 3: STRIPPING 3.1 OIL-LOSSES ‘The object of stripping (or threshing as it is sometimes called) is to separate the sterilised fruits (together with associated calyx leaves) from the sterilised bunch stalks. In the fresh fruit bunch the calyx leaves and the stalk contain no palm oil but during. sterilising and stripping a small amount of oil becomes absorbed by them. ‘The quantity of oll absorbed by the calyx leaves is unimportant because these are later pressed with the fruit. They could in fact be quite easily separated from the fruit before pressing by screening if this were desired but their presence fas been found to help improve press fibre de-oiling. Apart from this they usually absorb so much oil that to reject them without pressing ‘would lose more oil than necessary. ‘The bunch stalks, on the other hand, cannot be pressed and it is important, therefore, that the amount of oil transferred to them should be Kept to a minimum and also that they should contain no significant quantity of residual fruit. ‘The stalks are often disposed of by incineration and they give an ash which can be used. as.a potash fertiliser. Any oil or fruit that is on the stalks is lost by burning. For any particular type of mechanical stripper the total loss of oil absorbed on stalk will depend partly on the sterlising conditions and partly on the way the stripper is operated. Unduly prolonged sterilsing will increase the oil loss on stalk and so also will a lengthy delay between sterilising and stripping as this gives extra time for oil to be absorbed. Absorption would bbe particularly great if the bunches were under heavy pressure such as would occur if they were piled up high before being fed to the stripper. Inregular feeding of the stripper can cause an increase in both the oil absorbed by the stalks and also in the amount of fruit leaving with them, This extra loss occurs during the periods of overloading when bunches may take a longer time than usual to pass through the stripper and when some fruit may not be dislodged or, if dislodged, may not be able to escape due to blocking of the spaces between the bars. 3.2 HARD BUNCHES ‘Another reason for fruit remaining in the stalk is inadequate sterilisation. The sterilising conditions are chosen te suit the majority of the bunches but there are always some bunches ‘which are under-ripe or abnormal in some other way so that they require a longer than average sterlising time before they will strip completely. Stalks which have fruits still firmly attached ‘even after they have passed through the stripper are called “hard bunches” and these are normally separated from the fully threshed stalks before the latter are disposed of and are then re-sterilised and recthreshed. It is clear that only a small percentage of hard bunches can be tolerated otherwise their detection and recycling becomes unreliable and very laborious. The need for good stripping is even more important at some modern factories with such a high throughput that it is quite anPalm Ol Factory Process Handbook 3.3 MECHANICAL FEEDING ‘The maintenance of a regular feed of bunches to the stripper is Failtated in a modern factory by the use of a bunch feeder. This is usually in the form of a very strongly bult variable speed scraper conveyor on to which the cage of sterilised bunches is emptied by tipping it while it is stil suspended from the hoist. ‘This is a great improvement on reliance on men equipped with forks to feed the bunches to the stripper from a pile on the floor of the stripping platform. It not only saves labout but also avoids the uneveness of hand feeding, ‘When hand feeding, i 1s usual to feed the loose fruit down a separate chute which by- passes the stripper so a8 to minimise the transfer of oil from loose fruit to the stalks. With me- chanical feeding this is not posible but a coarse screen is sometimes fitted inthe inlet chute re the stripper to separate the loose fruit and prevent this from entering the stripper, jhe speed of the bunch feeder is adjusted to ensure that the fruit Kettles always remain {ull and that there is a small surplus of stripped fruit. It is posible for this speed regulation to be made automatically by coupling a fruit ketle level sensing instrument electrically to the buach feeder. 34 TYPES OF STRIPPER There are two main types of stripper used viz (1) the beater arm stripper; and (2) the rotary drum stripper ‘The former is normally used in factories having a comparatively low throughput and the latter in larger factories. A drum stripper is sometimes followed by a beater arm stripper, the purpose of which is to remove any remaining fruit ftom the stalks. When used in thie way the beater arm stripper is known as a secondary stripper. 3.4.1 The beater arm stripper In this machine the bunches pass along.2 cradle made up of a large number of curved bars, Esch bar'is separated from its neighbours by a fixed distance and the whole is made rigid by spacers and tie bars. Parallel to and beneath this horizontal cage is @ rotating shaft carrying pairs of beater aims, these prirs being spaced by the same distance as separate the curved bars. By adjusting the height of the cage the tips of the beater arms are made to project somewhat between the curved bars. Each pair of beater arms is set at an angle to the adjacent pair so that when the shaft rotates not all the beater arm tips project at once but they do so in sequence. 32.Swipping ‘The effect of this is to ensure that any bunch of sterilised fruit placed on the cradle is subjected to one beating action for each revolution of the shaft by each beater arm along the section of eradle which it occupies at any instant. This action knocks out the fruit together with calyx leaves and these fall between the curved bars of the cradle into a screw conveyor which carries them away. At the same time the bunches are tuned over constantly by the beating action and this helps the stripping by exposing fresh areas to the beaters. By feeding the bunches in at one end of the cradle a movement towards the other end in induced by the helical pattern in which the tips of the beater arms are arranged. The speed of movement may be adjusted to some extend by altering the pitch of this helical line and by varying the amount at which the beater arm tips project. The passage of bunches along the cradle can seldom be made completely automatic in practice as some large bunches may only move very slowly and thus create a blockage which requires an operator to cleat. By the time the bunches reach the end of the cage and have been discharged from the stripper they should be fully stripped, ie. they should be bare stalks containing no fru 3.4.2 “The Drum Stripper In principle the rotary drum stripper is quite simple. The machine consists of a long horizontal cylindrical dum which is rotated. The sterilised bunches are fed in continuously at one end and stalks pass out continuously at the other end. ‘The ‘eyclindrical surface of the drum is made up of tee-bars running parallel to the axis of the cylinder and spaced far enough apart to permit the escape of fruit and yet close enough to prevent stalks from passing out between them, Drum strippers are often built with a central shaft carrying spiders to which the cylindrical cage is attached and with the shaft itself supported at beatings. This is reasonably satisfactory for short drum strippers but for longer machines a shaftless form of construction is preferable and in this case rollers are used to support the drum — the cage being provided with two cast steel tyres which turn on the rollers, ‘The rate of rotation of the drum is such as to ensure that bunches of normal size are lifted by the centrifugal action, assisted by lifting bars fitted to the inside of 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 fru ‘The latter passes out between the tee-bars and falls into a screw conveyor which removes it. ‘The partly threshed bunch is lifted up und falls down again and this is repeated a number of times so leading to the removal of all the fruits as the stalk gradually works its way towards ‘the end of the cage and finally drops out. ‘The shaftless type stripper is often built as a large high capacity unit having a long drum and with this design several rows of “teeth” are fitted at the outlet end of the drum. The purpose Of these spikes which are made from steel plate and are iregularly spaced fs to ensure that any fruits which have escaped removal up to that point are dislodged in much the same way as fruit {s removed by the arms of a beater stripper. This device is quite effective and obviates the need for the drum stripper to be followed by a beater arm stripper. 33,‘Palo Oll Factory Process Handbook ‘The effect of inadequate digestion is to increase the oil loss in press fibre and this is one ‘way in which it may be detected. Frequently, however, the results of poor digestion are noticeable if the press cake is examined when pieces of undigested pericarp will be found in the fibre and some of these pieces may even be still attached to nuts, 43.2. Stirring Arms ‘The arms must be long enough to prevent the building up of a layer of dried material con the wall of the digester. This would reduce the rate of heat transfer in the case of a steam jacketed kettle. Sufficient arms must be provided but after a certain point increasing the number brings ro benefit and in fact overdigestion, leading to loss of a fibrous texture in the digested fruit, Ist be avoided as this will increase the oil loss. The exact number of arms to be used must depend on the results of local tials but @ normal number might be eight moving arms (Le. 4 pairs) and four fixed arms. The latter are. in the form of flat bars arranged croswise between the pairs of moving arms the function of which is to prevent the contents of the Kettle from rotating. ‘The moving arms are set at an angle and this gives individual fruits an up and down motion ‘as an arm sweeps by and calises them to rub against each other. The extent of this vertical move- rent is considerably reduced if the arms are allowed to become badly worn and the thorough tess of the digestion is lessened. To prevent unduly rapid wear the stirring arms are made of manganese silicon steel but, even $0, periodic inspection is necessary and worn arms should be ‘built up with hard facing electrodes or replaced by new anms, ‘The normal speed of rotation of kettle arms is approximately '26 rpm. 43.3. Heating Sufficient heat must be supplied in the form of steam to raise the temperature of the digested fruit to close on 100°C at the bottom outlet and where serew presses are used it is useful to have a recording thermometer to measure the fruit temperature as it passes continuously down the outlet chute. This high temperature is desirable not only to reduce the oil loss in press fibre but also to minimise nut breakage in the sorew press by increasing the elasticity of the nuts, Some digesters are fitted with a steam jacket operating at about.3 kg/em* pressure but in modern factories direct steam injection into the fruit in the kettle is usual. This is a fess expensive form of Kettle construction but the main reason for its adoption is that, by avoiding the poss. bility of local ovethéating of the fruit in the vicinity of a steam jacket, the production of oll of good bleachability is facilitated. Heating by live steam injection is more efficient in terms of Steam consumption and it i also quicker. The latter point is of importance in screw press factories ‘where, because of the high capacity of the press, the time that the fruit spends n passing through the Kettle may be only 30 minutes or less during which time the temperature must be raised to almost 100°C. 434 Draining It is clear that as digestion proceeds and oll is berated the friction within the mass of fruit will be reduced somewhat by the pressence of the oll and this may lower the efficiency of digestion. 36Digestion This effect may be overcome by providing perforations close to the bottom of the digester, the purpose of which is 10 allow oll to drain away as it is formed. The use of perforated bottom digesters may be of value under some circumstances in improving the digestion and in increasing the press throughput somewhat (because some of the oil by-passes the press). The combined crude oil from press and digestion, however, contains more non-ily solids and, in particular, more cell debris than crude oil from a press fed with digested fruit from a closed bottom kettle and the oil lost in clarifying the oil will be appreciably more even though the oil loss in press fibre may be slightly less. A further arguinent against using perforated bottom Kettle: with screw presses is that the extra loss of non oily solids in the crude oil will result in a rather lower percentage fibre ‘in the press cake and this may in certein circumstances lead to extra breakage of nuts in the Press and possibly a somewhat higher oil loss in press fibre. ‘The use of a digester with direct steam injection leads to the formation of a considerable amount of condensate in the digester and this might be expected to impair digestion if no drainage {s provided by reducing friction. In practice no difficulty is experienced due to this in factories ‘equipped with screw presses and it is possible that the digesting action of the screws, as the fruit passes through the press, complete the action of the kettles. 43.5 Dimensions The size of the digester must be chosen to give an adequate digestion time and when using 4 hydraulic press approximately 60 minutes digestion may be needed whereas if a screw press is used something like half this will be sufficient. For use with a hydraulic press a standard kettle of diameter 3° 9” (1143 mm) and height 8 9” (2667 mm) is used, The total volume of such a kettle is 97 cubic feet but when allowance is made for the presence of the shaft and stirring arms the volume of fruit that it will contain is about 89 cubic feet (2520 litres). ‘The bulk density of digested fruit is approximately 66 Ibs per cubic Foot (1060 kg per cubic metre) and a full standard kettle will thus hold about 5874 Ibs (2664 kg) of digested fruit, "Assuming 70% digested fruit to bunch this means that the full Kettle will hold the digested fruit from about 3.75 tons of bunches. The throughput of a hydraulic press is about 2.75 tons bunches per hour and thus a standard kettle could give a digestion time as long as 375. x 60 = 82 minutes. In practice the 2.75 digester cannot be operated completely full and moreover contains some undigested fruit having 4 rather higher bulk density and so the digestion time is likely to be pechaps 60 to 70 minutes. The type of kettle installed for use with a Speichim press having a nominal capacity of 12 tons bunches per hour is usually similar in size to the standard kettle described above except that its height is extended by 3 feet. This “deep” kettle will thus have a diameter of 3° 9 (1143 mm) and a height of 11° 9" (3581 mm). The total volume is 130 cubic feet but after deducting the volume occupied by the shaft and stirring arms the space available for fruit is approximately 114 cubie feet (3225 litres). 37Palm Ott Factory Process Handbook ‘Thus, assuming the same figure as previously for the bulk density of the digested fruit, such a kettle would hold when completely full about 7524 Ibs. (3412 kg) of digested fruit equi- valent to 4.82 tons of bunches. If the screw press throughput were 12 tons bunches per hour a deep Kettle of this type ‘would thus give a maximum digestion time of about 482. x 60 = 24 minutes. In practice the 12 digestion time would be rather fess than this, say about 20 minutes, partly because the digester could not be operated full to the very top and also because the average bulk density of the con- tents will bea little fess than the figure assumed which applies to fully digested fruit. Although the Speichim GBI press is rated at 12 tons bunches per hour, under certaist operating conditions the throughput can rise to as much as 18 tons bunches per hour. Under such circumstances the digestion time will be reduced to as little as 16 minutes and some un- digested fruit can be expected in the press cake, together with 4 rise in the oil loss in press fibre. ‘The digester recommended by the makers for use with a Weeker press operating at 9 tons bunches per hour has a height of 2500 mm and a diameter of 1200 mm. The total volume is 2800 litres (approximately 100 cubic feet) and after deducting the volume occupied by the. shaft and stirring atms the space available for fruit is approximately 2520 litres (90 cubic feet) ie. the effective volume of the kettle is 10 cubic feet per ton of bunches. This gives a calculated digesting, time of 25 minutes assuming the kettle is kept quite full but, as before, a more realistic figure is probably about 20 minutes i.e. similar to that which applies when a “deep” Kettle is used in conjunction with a Speichim press operating at 12 tons bunches per hour. 38SECTION 5: OIL EXTRACTION 5.1. INTRODUCTION ‘The most usual method of extracting crude oil from digested palm fruit is by pressing. ‘The type of press used may be a batch type hydraulic press or a screw type press and these are considered in tum below. Relatively low speed, large diameter basket type centrifugals have also been used in the Fast and some sill remain in use today. Their efficiency is not as high as that of presses and they are obsolescent for this reason. Pressing and centrifuging are “dry” processes but an alternative approach is to use the ‘Swet” process, In this method water is added to the digester to wash away the oil, leaving only the nuts and a litle fibre in the digester. This was the process developed for the eaily factories such as Leverville in the Congo where stripped fruit from natural palmeries was purchased and Processed. It had the advantage of avoiding practicaly all nut breakage and of simplicity but the call debris, which passed into the crude oil and had to be separated from it by centrifuging, retained 4 considerable amount of oil so leading to a relatively poor efficiency. Unless some way of over- coming this disadvantage can be developed, therefore, the wet process is unlikely to be used in new factories 52 THE INFLUENCE OF FRUIT COMPOSITION ON THE RESULTS 5.2.1 General Considerations In dry processes of oi extraction pressure is exerted on the digested fruit by mechanical meant or centrifugaly and the degree of deciling and the amount of nut breakage occurring depends very much on the type of palm fruit being processed. ‘The proportion by volume of pericarp to nut in the fruit will be an important factor in determining the corresponding proportion by volume of fibre to nuts in the cake when this is Under pressure in the press or centrifugal. JF it happens that there isa very high percentage of nuts in the digested fruit then many ofthese muts will tart to touch each other as the pressure builds up and erude oil escapes fom the press or centrifugal. The effect of this isto subject the nuts to great pressure but this pressure {s not transmitted very’effectively to the: fibre because the latter is largely present in and incom. Pltely fling the spaces between nuts which are touching each other and which by s0 doing are Shielding the fibre from the applied pressure. As the applied pressure is further increased some of the nuts which are touching each other will break and the broken pieces will begin to fill the spaces between the nuts. tis clear therefore that if the applied presse is increased sufficiently, enough nuts will eventually break to permit the fibre to be de-oiled reasonably well. At this stage the nuts will no longer be quite touching each other on average as sufficient nut debris will have been formed to fill the spaces between them and to keep them slightly apart. A further increase of pressure at this point will therefore lead to relatively litle extra nut breakage, In practice, if the feutt to be processed does have a very high mut content it must be accep- ted that 45 well as the high nut breakage the de-oiling ofthe press fibre willbe less thorough than for fruit having a more suitable nut content. 3908 Extraction ww) ©) Nut by ePericarp by Ratio Pericarp to ‘Type of Nut ‘weight weight Nuts D 65.7 343 os T 565 435 0.8 It is seen from the Table in (j) above that in digested fruit the ratio of pericarp to nuts exceeds 0.5 for D fruit and exceeds 0.8 for T fruit i. whatever the type of fruit there is always sufficient pericarp present immediately before pressing to separate all the nuts, This has been shown to be true for stripped fruit and in the case of bunch fruit the separation is rather more due to the presence of calyx leaves and. dirt, By carrying the calculation a little further it may be shown that in the cake obtained from stripped D fruit (whether by press or centrifugal) the nuts are in contact, at the end of the extraction procedure wliereas with T fruit they are not. The results are given in the Table below for both D and T fruit and in each case the processing of 100 kg of fruit is considered. Two separate methods of processing have been examined vic contrfuging (when 60% by weight of the pericarp is removed as crude oil) and screw pressing (when the corresponding figure is approximately 75%). The densities of the compressed fibre are assumed to be 1.01 and 1.04 kg/dm? re- spectively. ‘Type of Extraction Centrifugal Screw Press ‘Type of Fruit DT DT Pericarp in digested fruit (kg) 40-80 40 80 ‘Nuts in digested fruit (kg) 60 8620 60 20 Fibre in cake (kg) 16 32 10 20 Free space between nuts when touching (dm?) 3417347 ‘Weight of fibre needed to occupy this free space (kg) 34. 173417 Excess fibre (ke) Liss Deficiency in fibre (kg) 18 - 24 - ‘The interesting conclusions summarised in the Table above must be slightly modified to take into account the presence of calyx leaves and dirt in fruit from mechanically stripped bunches. In the case of D bunch fruit possibly not all the nuts will be touching each other at the end of centrifuging but a very large number will be. For T bunch fruit the average space between the nuts will be rather more than the Table suggests. This does not necessarily mean that no nuts at all will be broken since their distribution in the cake may not be entirely uniform. With T bunches, how- ever, even using a screw press, mut breakage due to nuts touching when the cake is under pressure will be very low indeed. Jt can be shown that when using a screw press “equilibrium” would be obtained with hand stripped fruit having 78% pericarp i.e. for such fruit the nuts in the cake would on average just avoid touching each other under pressure. The spaces between nuts would be full, no nut breakage would occur and optimum fibre de-oiling would al‘ilm Ott Factory Process Handbook be obtained. The same would happen if the fruit contained only about 70% pericarp ‘but was pressed mixed with calyx leaves and dirt Le. a8 normally occurs due to mechanical stripping. Such bunches would correspond to a crop midway between that from T x T and D x P palms i.e. they would contain about aes = 80% tenera and 20% dura bunches. In practice, some,nut breakage occurs with such. fruit as the distribution Of nuts in the cake will not be completely uniform. It is possible to use the screw press successfully with’ bunches, the fruit of which contains only 65% pericarp, provided that these are mechanically stripped e.g. with bunches from T x T palms (67% tenera and 33% dura). In this case, however, there will be slight deficiency of fibre and some nut breakage can be expected and fibre de-ciling will be somewhat poorer. It is quite inadvisable, however, to process bunches from D x T palms (i.e. approx. mately 50% tenera and 50% dura) in a screw press, as the % pericarp for such fruit is only about 60% and nut breakage would be a considerable problem apart from the higher oil Loss that would occur in the press fibre due to the spaces between the nuts being incompletely filled. 33° DRY PROCESSES 53.1 Batch Type Hydraulic Presses 5.3.1.1 Stork Hydraulic Press In the hydraulic press manufactured by Stork digested fruit is pressed in a steel cage toa Pressure of about 70 kg/cm? (1000 psi.) by means of a hydraulic ram which moves upwards from below as the hydraulic fluid is pumped into the cylinder. The diameter of the ram is 250 mm whereas the diameter of the press cage is 540 mma, hence, in order to produce the required 70 kg/cm? pressure on the fruit, the hydraulic pressure must be 70 x, en = 350 kg/cm? (or $000 psi.) It is this latter pressure which is indicated by the Pressure gauge. ‘The cage, which has 2 thickness of 40 mm, has a large number of holes drilled in it through which the crude oil escapes. These perforations are-of 2 mm. diameter for one quarter of the thickness of the cage and 4 mm, diameter for the outer three quarters of the cage thickness, ‘They are drilled in lines with a spacing of 12.5 mm between any two adjacent holes, ‘The height of the cage is 1346 mm and its effective content 300 litres. Before pressing the cage is filled with digested fruit but in order to ensure that the press cake formed is divided into conveniently sized portions that may be handled without difficulty some $ to 7 circular steel (or aluminium alloy) dividing plates are usually positioned in the fruit mass before pressing, ‘This is done by lowering the ram and filling the press cage in stages, inserting one plate before adding each portion of fruit.(it Extraction ‘When the press cage is full of fruit a heavy top plate is moved into place to close the top of the cage and the hydraulic pressure is gradually built up. The maximum pressure is main- tained for several minutes before it is released, and then the top plate is withdrawn and the sections of cake expelled by raising the ram. ‘The makers suggest that 6 or 7 complete pressing cycles be completed per hour and rate the press at about 3 tons of bunches per hour. If 6 pressings per hour is earried out, the cycle tifne is 10 minutes and of this time about 4 minutes are required to discharge the eake from the previous pressing and refill the cage with sterilised fruit, This leaves 6 minutes, half of which is required to build up the hydraulic pressure to 350 kg/em?:and the other 3 minutes or so of which is available for pressing at full pressure. If several presses are in operation it is advisable to stagger their operating cycles so that the cake from each press is discharged in turn. This is because the simultaneous discharge of cake from more than one press at a time would tend to overload the next stage of the process, If a somewhat higher throughput than 3 tons bunches per hour per press is needed it is possible to “prepress” end this procedure wil raise the pressing rate to about 3.2 tons bunches per hour if 7 pressings per hour are carried out. In this procedure some digested fruit is placed fn the press cage and this is pressed gently to reduce its volume. The press is then opened up and the cage filled in the usual way and the pressing completed. The total cycle time will be 2-557 minutes and this is dvided up approximately as follows: Loading 15° minutes Prepressing 0.5 minutes Reloading 0.5 minutes Building up pressure and pressing 4.07 minutes, Discharging 2.0 minutes 5.3.1.2 Factors affecting operating results Under suitable operating conditions the press fibre will etain about 9% to 10% oil to non- ily solids, For the reasons mentioned in 5.2 the degree of de-oiling will depend on the fruit composition and in the case of hand stripped fruit the optimum result wil be obtained when the nut content is roughly mid way between that of dura and tenera fruit ie. for hand stripped fruit having on average ‘about 60% pericarp such as might be produced from D x T plantings. With dura fruit the % ofl to N.O.S, might be nearer 14% due to an excess of nuts in the cake and ‘with tenera fruit it might be sbout 13%. These figures are approximate. only but give some idea of the importance of fruit composition. The results obtained in practice in factories using mechanical stripping will be modified somewhat by the presence of calyx leaves and dirt in the digested fruit e.g. if optimum results were obtained with hand stripped fruit having 60% pericarp similar results would be expected with fruit having only about 55% pericarp if this were mechani cally stripped fruit. The effect of varying certain of the operating conditions when using hydraulic presses is discussed below: 43EEE EEE:;«CSS9N--“ ‘Palm Olt Factory Process Handbook: © Digestion Cod digestion is essential and the following results of an eéperiment made at Mongana, ilustrate the effect of poor digestion on the oil lss in press fibre. Digestion time ‘Number of Arms % Oil to Dry Fibre 17 minutes 8 26.4% 30 minutes 10 122% (i) Number of Separating Plates amy mn funeton of these plates i to"dvide the press cake into portions that can be the cake boy pandled: They are sald to help to distribute the pressure more uniforely throughout 5 mre but investigations at Mongana didnot reveal any noticeable diffteees the de oiling 7 however .many separating plates were used. ii) Pressure If the maximum pressure to which the fruit is subjected is raised the de-iling of the press” {bre will improve, The amount of improvement, however, becomes ins at the pressure increases and there is little advantage in exceeding the normal Pressure on the cake of 70 ke/cm?. (This effect is illustrated by the following figures taken from the ‘Mongana Report and applies to dura fruit: Approximate Pressure ‘on Cake in kg/cm? ‘% Oil to Dry Fibre % of Broken Nuts 7 35.8 10 33 224 138 50 202 25 67 169 206 83 144 199 100 139 18.4 {tis interesting to note that with this dura fruit practically all the aut breakage occurred as the pressure was raised to 50 ke/em?. At this. point sufficient nuts had broken to fill the ‘spaces between the remsining nuts and, thereafter further nut breakage was slight. (i) Time under pressure Pacering the time under maximum’ pressure beyond about 2 minutes does ot seem Serene the de-iling appreciably under normal circumstances, Only ifthe rae Pressure were sbnormally low would an extension of the pressing time help. 5.3.1.3. Stork Hand Press ‘This press has a cage diameter of 350 mm and a cage height of 400 mm. The maximum ‘cake Pressure applied is $0 kg/cm? (712 psi.) and the hydraulic Pressure required to produce this cake pressure is 70 kg/em? (1000 psi.). The cage is filled manually with 40 kg of digested fruit and slid into position under the hollow ram for pressing. The ram descends to” ress the fruit and returns under spring action when the hydraulic Pressure is released. When operated at 5 or 6 cycles per hour this ‘small press can deal with the fruit from about 0.3 tons bunches per hour,(4 Bx rection By substituting a mechanically driven hydraulic pump for the hand operated one it is Possible to operate these presses at about 18 cycles per hour and to consequently achieve a ‘throughput of about 0.9 tons bunches/hr. This can be a useful procedure in a pilot plant or tem Porary installation though oil losses in press fibre tend to be rather high due to the relatively jw pressing pressure and more particularly to the inadequate digestion and low fruit temperature usually associated with such an arrangement. 5.3.2 Semi-continuous Type Hydraulic Presses ‘The Stock Automatic press is an example of a semi-continuous hydraulic press. The press ‘ase is identical to that used in the Stork batch hydraulic press but the designed throughput is 45 tons bunches/hr. instead of 3.0 tons bunches/hr. and the press is automatic in action and requires no operator. In this press the ram descends from sbove for pressing and the digester outlet is directly Joined to the top of the press cage so that digested fruit will flow into the cage to fll it whenever its passage is not obstructed by the ram. ‘The bottom of the cage is almost closed by a cone during most of the downward stroke of the ram so that the fruit is subjected to pressure which builds up to 70 kg/cm? and is main. lained at this for a while. The cake-breaker cone then descends and the ram continues its down: ward movement thereby forcing out part of the press cake. ‘The ram quickly ascends t6 its starting position once it has reached the lowest point of its downward movement and by so doing allows more digested fruit to enter the press. At the same time the cone moves upwards to again almost close the bottom of the press eage and to break off the portion of cake that was expelled. Each cycle normally lasts about 2 minutes but the time can be reduced somewhat and the makers claim that the press throughout can be raised to about 6,5 tons bunches/hr though ‘only at the expense of a somewhat increased oil loss in fibre. The cycle is followed and repeated automaticaly and it takes 4 or 5 cycles for any particular portion of fruit to pass through the press cage and be expelled as cake. ‘The Stork Automatic press that has been in operation at N’Dian Estate has a throughput of approximately 4.5 tons bunches/hr and gives a cake with about 9.5% oil to N.OS, This is Bhen operating with a closed bottom kettle and it would seem that a throughput of 6.5 tons bunches/hr would only be possible if a perforated bottomed keltle were used with the press 43 Stork recommend. The use of such a kettle would probably also lower the % oil to NOS, Slightly (at the same throughput) since a rather greater proportion of the cell debris (which is more difficult to de-oi! than the true fibre) would pass out of the cake into the crude oil. When used With @ perforated bottom kettle the Automatic press gives a combined crude oll (ie. from both the Kettle and the press) which has a solids content approaching that of the crude oil from a Screw press and one would expect that any reduction in oil loss in press cake, due to using 2 Perforated bottom kettle, would be compensated for by an increase in the oil loss in waste water, 53.3 Screw Presses Jn new factories during recent years the tendency has been to adopt screw presses, This has only become practical with the advent of dura x pisifera plantings resvlting in a crop with a ‘Yery high proportion of tenera bunches. Although it is possible to mill the bunches from T x T. plantings in screw presses, completely satisfactory results are only obtsined with D x P plantings because nut breakage is then small and the fibre is de-oiled well. 45Palm Oll Factory Process Handbook ‘The advantages of screw presses over batch hydraulic presses include the following: (Considerably higher throughput per press/kettle unit with consequent saving in factory building costs, (i) Lower capital cost for a given pressing capacity, Gi) Less labour required. (i) Less power required for a given throughput (0) Not/fbre separation easier as cake drier and less oily. ‘The main disadvantages of screw presses are: @ Higher maintenance costs Gi) More nut breakage if the fruit milled is not practically 100% tenera, This arises fiom the fact that a greater proportion of the flbrous solids passes io ts cons She a inthe case of @ hydraulic press so leaving les inthe pres cake to “endure the nuts and prevent breakage, (Gl) The production of a much more viscous erude oll due to its higher solids content, iris ol teauires considerable dilution before setting so necestating a larorr g ‘invous setting tank and a greater sludge centrifuging capacity. Gx) The oil loss in waste water is greater than that obtained when using an hydraulic Press. Under favourable circumstances, however, the lower oll lose in the fs from a screw press will compensate for the extra loss in waste water. ITEM Presses developed for use in palm oil factories have either one seréw or iwo screws in paralel and examples of these two main types are, respectively, the SPEICHIAT ress (which is often still referred to by its former name viz the Colin press) and the Weeker ress. These presses will be considered in turn below. 5.3.3.1 SPEICHIM Presses @ — Construction ihe cage holes. The ptesure screw, which is made in two parts joined together and knows oe intermediate screw and the pressure serew proper, does not extend quite as far ar the cathe eine atteen the two isa perforated draining cylinder which surrounds the pressure sorew Gtving shaft and provides an opportunity for a small quantity of residual oll to denim in the re pte inner portion of the cake. By far the greatest part of the ol that is expelled by ar sect wil, however, pas outwards through the holes of the main cage AM interesting feating 2F Speichim presses is that the fed screw and the pressure screw are oppose handed wed setae te opposite directions at different speeds. By choosing a particular speed ratio, the tata of ho volumes generated in given time by these two screws will be determined. This ratio root by11 Extraction ‘the manufacturers to ensure a suitable degree of over-feed so that in spite of the loss of volume due to the rapid escape of oil in the early stages of pressing the digested fruit will be delivered at 4 sufficient rate to the pressure worm to keep this full. The overfeed ratio must, however, not be made too large otherwise damage to the gearbox may occur. (©) Factors affecting operating results The extent of de-oiling of the press fibre that occurs in a screw press depends on the design and mechanical condition of the press, the composition of the fruit end the way‘the press is operated. To ensure maximum deciling and minimum nut breakage the fruit should be properly digested and at temperature close of 100°C when fed to the press. The cone must be positioned ‘lose enough to the cake outlet at the end of the press cage to ensure that the cake is put under sufficient pressure without either the nut breakage becoming too serious or the press becoming overloaded. In practice with electric motor driven presses the cone is positioned, as far as is possible, to ensure that the rotor current is always up to a certain value which will not overload the motor or press and which experience shows gives suitable results. ©) Cone adjustment The way in which the cone position is changed depends on the press construction. The simplest system is to use a nut screwing on a threaded portion of the press shaft. This is used on the Model SBIH press but is not altogether satisfactory as adjustment of the cone is necessarily slow and laborious requiring the use of a sledge hammer, A considerable improvement is the use of a manually operated hydraulic system to move the cone and this allows quite rapid cone adjust- ‘ments to be niade by an operator guided by the ammeter reading. A further development enables the hydraulic pressure, which controls the cone position, to be varied automatically whenever the motor load exceeds a preset maximum value or falls below a preset minimum value. Thus” if the current rises to a certain level the hydraulic pressure is caused to drop and the cone moves ‘out a little so lowering the toad. Similarly if the current falls below a pre-set level the hydraulic, pressure is caused to rise thereby moving the cone in slightly and making the load increase. @) Effect of design on de-oiling results ‘The way in which the design of the press may effect the de-oiling is illustrated by the following typical figures for % ofl to N.O.S. which were supplied by SPEICHIM and apply to presses of various sizes of their manufactur Model of Press 4% Oil to N.O'S. in Press Fibre 2Bt 510.6% 3000 610.7% SBIH 710 6% BIH and 6000 ‘more than 8% ‘The explanation put forward by SPEICHIM, to account for the fact thatthe smaller capa- city presses of their manufacture give a somewhat better de-oiling of the fibre than the larger ones, is that the thickness of the layer of fruit in the high pressure area of the smaller presses is less. ©) Press Characteristics ‘The majority of SPEICHIM presses now in use in our factories are 6BIH or 6000 models 4alm Oi Factory Process Handbook bbut the Model SBIH was the fist to be used and the main characteristics of these presses are recorded below for references: SBIH BH ‘Speed of feed worm rpm. 7.44 (10.2) 102 Speed of pressure worm rpm, 6 6) 6 Speed ratio of worms 12417) 7 Volume ratio (overfeed ratio) 1.92 (2.65) 265 Main cage perforations Conical 2mm. to 3.5mm. Conical 2 mm. to 3.5 mm. Approx. weight of press 5 tons 11 tons Draining cylinder perforations Conical 2mm. to 3.5mm. Cylindrical 2mm, Intemal diameter of cage 421mm, 470 mm. Main shaft diameter 115 mm, 155mm, House power of electric motor 25hp 40hp Typical current during pressing 36A 454 A No. SBIH press has been operated with an overfeed ratio of 2.65 as an experiment Gee figures in brackets above) but this gave rise to gearbox failures and the normal overfced ratio of 1.92 was reverted to even though de oiling was then slightly less thorough. ‘The 6BIH press was designed as a replacement for the SBIH after a number of shaft break- ages, gearbox failures and rapid wear on gearboxes, press scews cages and shafts had been expe- rienced with the No, SBIH press. It it a heavier, more robust press with the press cage made in two patts for easier dismantling and an independent gearbox. The 6000 press is a modified version of the OBIH. The screws and press cage are identical With those of the 6BIH. The press is designed for 40 hp. input and incroporates a standard proprie- tary reduction gearbox coupled to the press proper Which has integral gearing to give output speeds of 6 and 10.2 rpm. Typical operating results obtained with SPEICHIM presses in some of the factories where they have been used are summarised below: o ‘Typical Operating Results: @ Throughput: ‘The No, SBIH press was first operated at Mongana and the throughput there averaged about 12.75 tons bunches/hour. When new a pressing rate of 14 tons bunches/hour has been recorded, but the throughput is variable and an average of 12 tons bunches/hour at most can be expected. ‘The output of the No. GBIH press is pethaps even more variable and at times very high throughputs have been obtained. Thus, when the first GBIH press at Bosondjo had processed 9524 tons of bunches in 1964 the pressing rate was still as high as 17 tons bunches/hour and after a further 13,817 tons of bunches had been milled it was 14 tons bunches/hour. Although these were at first thought to be exceptional, experience has shown that with the type of D x P fruit harvested at Bosondjo, and provided due care is taken to keep the press in good mechanical condition, a pressing rate averaging 18 tons bunches per hour can be obtained with this press.(On Retraction At Kivang and elsewhere, however, the pressing rate has been found to be less than this fon average and to vary very much from month to month for no apparent reason, Some idea may be obtained from the following figures relating to Kluang though it will be appreciated that the daily rates vary even more, ‘Average Monthly Pressing Rate ia Annual Average Year ‘Tons Bunches/Hour Pressing Rate Maximum Minimum 1967 142 83 16 1968 167 124 1S. 1969 160 na 14. 1970 168 10.9 135 (i) Press fibre de-oiling The degree of de-oiling depends to some extent on the analysis of the fruit. At Bosondjo, for example, where the bunches are at least 90% tenera and the nut content of the cake averages only about 41% the average % oil to N.O.S. in press cake is approximately 7.5% to 8%. At Lobe although the bunches are from dura x pisifere palms the nut content of the cake is appreciably more than at Bosondjo viz about $59. Because of this the % oil to N.O.S. in press fibre cannot be reduced to below about 9.5% to 10% oll to NOS otherwise nut breakege becomes excessive, At Kluang, also, tne % nuts in press cake is high, The average figure is about $4% but the fruit Is less homogeneous than at Lobe and considerable variation occurs in the cake composition. This is due to the inclusion of bunches from some Deli dura palms in the crop milled. Never- theless at Kluang it appears to be possible to de-oil the fibre down to a % oil to NOS figure of about 8.5%t0 9%, Jn general the deciling of the press fibre when using screw presses seems to be less depen- dent on good sterilisation and thorough digestion than when using hydraulic presses and, in the case of the SPEICHIM press, the opposite shanded movement of the feed and pressure worms Possibly helps to complete the process of digestion during the pressing itself. A high fruit tem- erature is, however, very important for good de-ciling, It also helps to minimise any nut break- age that occurs in the press by ensuring that the shells are as elastic as possible. (ii) Nut breakage ‘The extent of nut breakage depends on the type of fruit, the temperature of pressing and the degree of de-oiling required (i.e. the cone pressure). ‘The following typical figures were quoted in the Mongana Report and illustrate the range of variation found when pressing to 7% oil to NOS in press fibre. 49‘alm Ol Factory Process Handbook Type of Palm % Broken Nuts to Total Nuts DxP 25% TxT 12% Deli dura 2% Although the above figures give a useful idea of the difference made by the type of fruit the numerical values may be somewhat misleading when compared with routine analyses results obtained currently in factories using these presses, This is partly because the term “broken nut” it capable of various interpretations and the Mongana figures probably excluded nuts that were only partly damaged. To avoid ambiguity as far as possible, for routine purposes, the press cake is now divided into the following portions: Fibre; Whole nuts (completely undamaged); Broken nuts; Free whole kernels; Free broken kernels; Shell ad From this (and a knowledge of the average % kernels in the nuts) it is possible to calculate ° the % fee kernels to total Kernels in the fruit and this is an important quantity since in all pro- bability many of these free Kernels will be lost or at least broken up into small pieces during subsequent processing, The % broken nuts to total nuts may also be calculated, if required, as the total nuts is the sum of whole and broken nuts, the free kernels and the shel. As an indication of the extent of nut breakage met with in practice the following cesults ae elven. These are each average results for a whole year calculated as explained above from dally analyses. %Whole % Total % Broken % FreeKer- % Oilto Nutsin —-Nutsin _Nutsto nels to Total N.OS. in Factory Year Cake Cake Total Nuts Kernels. Press Fibre Tungud 1969 4i4 45.4 95 24 94 Tungud = 1970 369 413 106 43 14 Kluang 1969 46.7 53.9 133 aa 93 Kluang 1970 46.4 54.0 141 79 87 Lobe 1969 397 546 23 7A 103 Lobe 1970 424 $4.7 23.0 68 10.1 A higher nut breakage must be accepted with a screw press than when pressing the same fruit in a hydraullc press. This is partly because when using a screw press a considerable extra loss of fibrous solids (mainly cell debris rather than true fibres) occurs from the press cage 50 leaving less fibre in the cake to keep the nuts apart and prevent breakage. Ia addition if the pressure ‘crew is allowed to become unduly worm some nuts may enter the gap between the outer edge of the pressure worm flight and the press cage and become broken,08 Extraction (@) Disadvantages ‘The main disadvantages peculiar to the SPEICHIM press are the extreme variability of throughput and the heavy cost of upkeep. The fact that the pressing rate can vary between 8 and 18 tons bunches/hour (though admittedly not quite as much as this at any one factory) makes both the design and the operation of a factory more difficult than it should be. The need to replace the perforated cage and to build up or replace'the worms at intervals exists with all screw presses but the design of the SPEICHIM 6BI and 6000 presses is such that the replacement parts are very expensive, 5.3.3.2 The Wecker Screw Press @) Construction Weeker P.9 continuous double screw presses are now in use at Lobe and Yaligimba and some experience has become available of the operating results. In this design of press there are two parallel worms running side by side in a common perforated press cage having a figure of eight cross section, The position of the double cone is controlled by hydraulic pressure, this pressure being kept automatically within preset limits. (b) Typical Operating Results: @) Throughput: ‘This press is rated at about 9 tons bunches per hour when the input shaft speed is 200 pm giving a screw speed of 10 rpm. At Lobe, however, using a 25 hp motor the press has been operated with an input shaft speed of 300 rpm. and this has been found to give a pressing rate which is normally about 12 to 13 tons bunches/hour. ‘The average pressing rates at Lobe in 1969 and 1970 are recosded below for both the Weeker P.9 press and the SPEICHIM press which were operating one press at a time, side by side, on similar fruit. ‘Throughput of Wecker Pressin tons Throughput of SPECTHIM Press in Year ‘bunches/hour tons bunches/hour Minimom =— Maximum Minimum — Maximum Mean Monthly Monthly Mean Monthly Monthly ‘Average Average ‘Average Average 1969, 13.2 124 152 179 15.8 197 1970 12.9 126 135 149 ua 18.1 ‘These figures clearly shiow that the Wecker press capecity (when operating at 50% above normal speed) is usually less than that of a SPEICHIM press. During the last two months of 1970, however, immediately after a complete overhaul, the Wecker press throughput rose un- expectedly to 18.6 and 17.0 tons bunches/hour respectively showing that the condition of the press does affects its capacity, These two figures are considered to be abnormal and are not in- cluded in the averages given above. Immediately before this overhaul, before new worms were fitted, the pressing rate fell off over a short period to prectically nothing and it was found that each worm had worn from an original weight of 80 kg to only 66 kg. During this period the - press had processed 12,082 tonnes of bunches in 1006 pressing hours. shPalms Ott Factory Process Handbook i) Press bre de-oiting: During 1970 when operating with a current of SSA to 6A whenever possible, the average il to N.O.S. in press fibre for the SPEICHIM press at Lobe was 10.3%. The corresponding gure for the Wecker press was 8.6% with 32A motor current. (ii) Nut breakage: As mentioned earlier at Lobe the % free kemels to total kemnels in the SPEICHIM press cake at Lobe during 1970 was 6.8%. ‘The corresponding figure for the Wecker press was 7.9%, The slight extra breakage with the Wecker press was almost certainly due to the rather better de-oiling of the press fibre that was achieved. It was found that in certain months when the Wecker press de-olling was somewhat less thorough nut breakage fell to below the average figure for the SPEICHIM press e.g. to 6% kernels to total kernels with 9.4% oll to N.O.S. in press fibre. Again in months when the SPEICHIM press de-oiling was better than normal nut breakage rose to above the Wecker press average eg. 0 9% kernels to total kernels with 8.9% oil to N.O.S. in press fibre. There is no evidence so far, therefore, to suggest that either of these presses gives notice- ably more nut breakage than the ather when the press fibre de-lling {s made comparable by adjustment of the cone pressure, (©) Advantages There is reason to expect, in view of its rather smaller size and its mechanical simplicity, that the cost of upkeep of the Wecker press will be less than that of the SPEICHIM 6BI press. If this is so, it will together with the more predictable (though somewhat smalle) throughput of this press, give it considerable advantages over the SPEICHIM press. 53.4 Centrifugals Basket centrifugals have given good service in the past in factories where dura fruit pur- chased as stzipped fruit has had to be procesied. Under sich conditions hydraulic presses would have caused serious nut breakage and in addition the more complex maintenance required com- pared with centrifugals might have presented undue difficulties in the case of small isolated factories. Centrifugals were also used to process plantation bunches but because the oil loss in fibre was approximately twice what it is when using presses the latter have replaced centrifugals for new installations though some small centrifugal factories are still operating. Another reason why centrifugals are particularly avoided on modem plantations pro- ducing largely tenera bunches is that unless precautions are taken the high proportion of fibrous ‘material (and in particular of cell debris) causes the centrifugal cake to become blocked so that the oil cannot all escape readily during centrifuging. Due to this impermeability a visible layer of oil ( referred to sometimes as a “wall of oil”) builds up on the inside surface of the cake and the oll los in fibre is very high 52(fl Extraction ‘This “wall of oil” can be avoided by adding nuts to the digested fruit before centrifuging ‘but this is not easy to do satisfactorily in practice. Alternatively, by accelerating the centrifugal very slowiy by using an hydraulic coupling the “wall of oil” may be avoided when processing fenera fruit though oil losses are still higher than when centrifuging a mixture of dura and tenera fruit. A typical centrifugal has a vertical spindle and s basket of diameter 1.2 m (48 inches) perforated with 4 mm holes. Digested fruit is fed into the basket while the latter is rotating very slowly and when filling is complete the basket is accelerated up to @ maximum speed of about 1125 rpm. It is allowed to spin at this speed for some minutes and then the brake is applied and the basket brought to rest. ‘A cone which closes the bottom of the basket is then raised and the cake is loosened ‘using a fork and allowed to fall out through the hole in the bottom of the basket into a con- veyor. ‘Such a centrifugal would have a capacity of about 1.35 tons fruit/hour (2 tons bunches/ ‘hour) when operating 3 cycles per hour each cycle being approximately as fotlows: Filling 1 minute Accelerating 3.5 minutes Spinning at full speed 9.5 minutes Braking 2 minutes Emptying 4 minutes Total 20° minutes ‘Somewhat smaller basket centrifugals have also been used viz 42” and 3 models having capacities of 1 and 0.6 tons fruit/hour respectively. diameter Large numbers of the latter were used in West Africa in Pioneer Mills which were very simple mechanised factories designed to process stripped purchase dura fruit. By using centri- fagals a crude oil containing relatively litte cell debris was oblained which could be clarified ina simple manner by using setting tanks and without the need for high speed centrifuges. 54 WET PROCESSES 54.1 Batch Type Wet Process In this process a perforated bottomed kettle is used and after a preliminary dry kettling lasting 5 to 10 minutes water is added as the digestion continues, The process was applied ‘originally in the Congo to stripped dura fruit in the 1920s, The fruit which was several days ‘old was sterilised using steam at atmospheric pressure and under these conditions very clean, easly clarified oil was obtained during the dry Kettling period. The object of the subsequent addition of water was originally to wash out all the fibrous material leaving clean nuts in the kettle but it was soon found that this was impossible without prolonging the digestion unduly since although the cell debris passed out of the Kettle easily the true fibres were difficult to remove by washing. ‘A compromise was therefore adopted and the washing period limited to 15 to 20 minutes during which the amount of water used was 100% to 150% of the weight of fruit treated. In this 53elm Oit Factory Frocess Handbook way between 80% and 95% of the solids were washed out of the kettle leaving all the nuts and some fibre in the kettle, The fibre contained only 8% to 15% oil to dry matter equivalent to about 1.5% of the oil in the fruit. ‘The liquid passing out of the Kettle during the dry and wet kettling stages consisted of free oil, an emulsion of oil in water, water rich in soluble matter and finally cell debris containing much oil. This was treated in a 48” diameter “rougher” basket type centrifugal to separate the Solids from the liquids — the majority of the solid material being retained in the basket. The liquids were then fed into a second 48” diameter centrifugal operating as a “skimmer” which allowed the oil to be separated from the waste water by skimming it off by means of a pipe dipping into the oil layer formed in the centrifugal. ‘The oil foss in waste water is in practice about 5% of the total oil in the fruit and the oil loss in the solid “mud” retained in the rougher and skimmer baskets is about 39% and 1.5% respectively to total oil resulting in an efficiency of extraction from the stripped fruit of about 88.5%, By the use of high speed centrifuges the oil loss in waste water could be reduced but the “mud”, which is in fact largely cell debris, contains only “fixed” oil which experiments have shown to be very difficult indeed to release. This contains about 20% oil to dry matter and only by drying followed by solvent extraction was if found possible to de-il the material, 5.4.2. Continuous Wet Process It has been seen that in the wet process inechanical force is not applied to the fruit in ‘order to extract the oil and this makes it useful when dealing with dura fruit since there is victully ‘no nut breakage whereas with a screw press nut breakage would be intolerably high. On the other hand, ol losses are higher with the wet process than with screw presses and this is particularly so if the fruit contains a proportion of tenera bunches as more washing water is then required due to the higher percentage of pericarp and the oil loss in mud is also greater. It seems unlikely, therefore, that the wet process will ever be used in preference to screw presses with D x P bunches unless some way is discovered of increasing its efficiency by releasing the oil retained in the cell debris mud. ‘An improved wet process has been developed and tried on a pilot plant scale which would enable & crop consisting of a high proportion of dura bunches to be milled without resorting to the use of centrifugals which require considerable Iabourto operate them The efficiency obtained in trials with this process was about 89.5% including the oil loss on stalk ie. itis not extremely high but the process might be valuable under the circumstances mentioned above. In this process one perforated bottomed kettle is used to digest the fruit dry and release some of the oil. The fruit passes continuously into the top of this kettle, down it and then via 4 horizontal interconnecting worm into the bottom of a second perforated bottomed kettle, It then passes upwards through this second kettle and as it does so water is sprayed on it to wath ‘out much of the remaining oll and cell debris and some of the fibre so that only nuts with alittle 54O11 Extraction fibre pass out of the top of the second kettle. The capacity of # double Kettle unit is approxi mately 7 to 8 tons bunches/hr. “The cnude oil is clarified by screening and centrifuging in high speed centrifugals. ‘This process, known as the continuous wet process, would provide a labour saving way of processing dura bunches or a mixture containing mainly dura bunches but so far no opportunity has arisen for it to be operated on a full production scale. 58SECTION 6: CLARIFICATION 6.1 INTRODUCTION ‘The crude oil extracted from palm fruit by pressing, centrifuging or by the wet process contains varying amounts of water together with impurities consisting of vegetable matter, some ‘of which isin the form of insoluble solids and some of which is dissolved in the water. In order to give a clear stable product of acceptable appearance the water and impurities must be removed and the part of the factory where this is carried out is known as the Clarifi- cation Section. It should be mentioned that the dehydrated, clear palm oil as it leaves the Clarification Section and passes to the storage tanks still contains a very small proportion of soluble solids known as “gums”. If the pelm oil is not properly dried these “gums” will hydrate slowly over a period of time and become insoluble. This process is the cause of the deposition of “foots” that ‘ccurs occasionally in storage tanks. Fortunately this settling out of solid impurities in the storage tank itself is a rare occurrence nowadays but it was quite common before facilities were provided to dehydrate the oil, ‘The water present in the crude palm oil can largely be removed by settling or centrifuging ince most of it is free or undissolved. A small proportion of it, however, is dissolved in the oil and this can only be removed by evaporation in a dehydrator with or without the assistance of ‘vacuum. In practice not all the dissolved water is evaporated off during dehydration as to do this is not necessary and, would make the oil rather more susceptible to oxidation. The dissolved moisture content is in fact reduced from approximately 0.25% to approximately 0.08% and this is found to be sufficient not only to prevent deposition of foots but perhaps more important, to reduce the rate of hydrolysis so much that the oil is practically stable during storage as regards FFA set-up. ‘This cleaning and drying of the oil is generally seferred to as “clarification” and usually at this stage the palm oll leaves the factory on its way to the refinery. At the refinery further treatment must be given before the oil is suitable for edible use, This treatment consists of removal of FFA (e, neutralization with alkali or de-acidification by distillation), removal of colour (i. bleaching by absorbtion of the carotenes on earth or destruction by heat) and removal of odour and taste (i.e. de-odorisation by steam distillation), The above three processes are together generally referred to as “refining” though in the United States the term refining means just the removal of FFA. They require considerable ex- perience but pethaps the main reason why refining is not carried out at the plantation factory is, that for maximum quality it must be done shorily before the oil is incorporated into the margarine or other edible products. 6.2 COMPOSITION OF CRUDE PALM OIL. 6.2.1 Mesocarp Composition It has been seen that although the proportion of mesocarp to fruit varies widely according to the type of fruit the composition of the mesocarp itself is relatively constant, 7“Palm Oil Feetory Process Handbook “Am average analysis of fresh mesocarp might be: 49% OL 359% Water 16% Nonoil solids and for sterilised mesocarp the analysis might be approximately: 54% Oi 28% Water 18% Non.oil solids ‘The crude oil is extracted from the sterilised mesocarp and the considerable variations that occur in erude oll composition are mainly due to the type of extraction process used. 62.2. Crude Oil Composition and its Effect on Oil Losses ‘The Table below indicates the approximate average composition of the crude palm oll ‘obtained when employing various methods of extraction. Considerable deviations from the average figures are possible and the percentages in brackets give some idea of the extent of these deviations, ‘Type of Extraction Process Composition of Crude Oit soll Water NOS Centrifugal 80 (70 t0.90) 17 (10 to 25) 3(1to 4) Hydraulic Press 75 (65 to. 90) 20 (10 to 30) 5Gto 6) Screw Press. 66 (40 to 75) 24 (10 to 40) 10 6 to25) Wet Process 16 (10 to 25) 79 (70 to 85) SGto 7) It will be noticed that the % NOS in the crude oil is very much mote when, for example, a serew press is used than when a basket centrifugal is used. This makes the crude oll from a screw press more difficult to clarify since a greater weight of solids must be removed from a given weight of oll, - ‘The oil Loss will also be more because: (i) the weight of oll retaining solids is more for a given weight of oil; and (the proportion of cell debris to true fibre in the solids in screw press crude oil Is considerably more than it is in the solids of centrifugal crude oll and these ‘ell debris solids retain much more oil per unit weight than do fibre solids. ‘The term ‘non fatty pressing quotient’ (NFPQ) is sometimes used to give a quantitative idea of the amount of solids passing into the crude oil for a particular oil extraction plant, This Is defined as the percentage of the total solids in the digested fruit that is present in the screened. ‘crude oil. These solids must be de-oiled in the clarification section as thoroughly as possible and they are finally discarded with the waste water.Garification It isclear that the higher the; NFPQ for a particular process the higher will be the oil loss {n the clatification section (assuring a constant % oil to NOS in waste water). In practice because the solids will generally contain a higher proportion of cell debris if the NFPQ is high the oil Joss in waste water will rise rather more steeply, as the NFPQ increases, than if it were strictly proportional to the NFPQ. It is important to realise, however, that if the NFPQ fs high the proportion of solids left in the cake is correspondingly low and moreover these solids will contain a lower proportion of celt debris than if the NFPQ were low. Thus the oil loss in press fibre can be expected to be low if the NFPQ is high and this largely compensates for the higher oll loss in waste water. ‘The NFPQ will depend to'some extent on the exact design, conditions of operation and mechanical state of the extraction plant but approximate figures for screw presses and hydraulic presses (both operating with unperforated bottom kettles) might be 20% or just less and from 10 to 15% respectively. ‘The waste water from the clarification section of a screw press mill normally contains NOS. which has been de-oiled to not less than 15% to 20% oil to NOS whereas for « hydraulic press mill the average % oil to NOS in waste water is usually nearer 10% to 15% because of the lower proportion of cell debris. Under optimum conditions 2 slightly better result might be expected because laboratory centrifuging studies have shown that: (Cell debris aways retains at least 15% to 20% oil NOS. (i) Fibre always retains at least 10% oil NOS. ‘The above applies to the insoluble solids. Very approximately half of the NOS present in the waste water is, however, present in solution and this soluble NOS retains no oil. Because of the presence of the dissolved NOS it is clear that the average % oil.to NOS in waste water should, in theory, be capable of being reduced to well below the normal 15% to 20% “that is usually found to apply at a screw press mill where much of the insoluble solids are cell debris. 63 PROPERTIES OF CRUDE PALM OIL 63.1 Specific Gravity of Components Palm oil, itself, has a specific gravity less than one. Typical figures at various temperatures are approximately as follows: 0.857 at 100°C 0.876 at 70°C 0.890 at S0°C. ‘The specific gravity of fibres and cell debris is equal to or greater than unity and can be as high as 1.4, 59Palm OU Factory Process Handbook 63.2 Viscosity of Palm Oi ‘The viscosity of the crude oil depends on the extent of dilution and this will be discussed later, Palm oil itself has the following approximate viscosities at various temperatures: : 8 centipoises at 100°C : 14 centipoises at 70°C 27 centipoises at $0°C 3 6.3.3 Settling Properties — General Considerations % ‘The clarification proces involves the settling out of solid particles and the speed of setting may be calculated from Stoke's Law. ‘According to this Law which applies to particles of all sizes except colloidal ones the speed of settling is proportional to: (@) “The square of the diameter of the particle (b) The difference in density between the particle and the medium through which t 1 is settling (ie. the oil). q Jt is also inversely proportional to the viscosity of the medium and in view of the rapid increase in viscosity that occurs as the temperature falls itis cleat that to obtain as rapid rate of setting out of particles as posible the temperature should be high — though not xo very high that rapid convection currents interfere with the process. The speed of settling is doubled by raising the temperature from 50°C to 70°C and almost doubled again by raising it to 100°C. Particles of fbse may vary from a few ‘microns’ in diameter to several millimetres in length and are, in general, larger than cell debris particles and therefore settle out more readily. Cells vary from about 20 to 100 microns in length and have a breadth of about 20 microns but cell debris Particles are, of course, rather smaller than this. From the Stokes Law formula it can be calculated that particles of 20 microns diameter would settle a distance of I metre in 5 hours if the oil tem- perature were 80°C, In practice, however, convection curtents tend to reduce the rate of setting and a longer time than that calculated would be needed, As might be expected the speed of setting of the solid particles in crude oll depends Considerably on the extiaction process since this determines the amount of solids and the pe, portion of cell debris, a Some tests made to compare very approximately the relative speeds of settling of erude 21 from different types of process gave the following results, The speed of settling is expresed iB ubltzary ‘units obtained by measuring the height ofthe oi layer separating after a piven time | in relation to the total quantity of oil: Method of Extraction _Relative Speed of Settling. 4 Centrifugal as : Hydraulic Press 15 Screw Press os Wet Process 20arificetion 6.4 SETTLING OF CRUDE SCREW PRESS OIL, 6.4.1 Effect of Varying the Dilution Crude palm oil from a serew press contains a much higher proportion of solids than does crude oil produced by other extraction methods and this gives it unusual settling characteristics. ‘The percentage of solids to pure oil is high as will be seen from the analysis figures given in Section 6.2.2 viz approximately 15% whereas for centrifugal oil the corresponding figure is only about 4%. ‘The percentage of solids to water is also high vie approximately 42% whereas for centri fagal oil itis about 18%. In view of the high ratio of solids to oil and the low ratio of water to solids in the crude cil from a screw press one would expect that it would be necessary to add water in order to obtain settling behaviour comparable to that occurring with undiluted centrifugal oil. This ‘indeed, what is found in practice. Experiments have been carried out in which varying amounts of water have been added to samples of crude screw press ofl and the viscosity of the resultant mixture and also the time taken for the ofl to separate out on centrifuging measured. An interesting result of these experiments was that the addition of water up to 50% dilution (ie. up to the addition of water equal in volume to half the original volume of rude oo) increased the viscosity. The greater the amount of water added the greater the viscosity be- came up to 50% dilution. Beyond this point the viscosity fell quite steeply until 100% dilution had been made and with higher dilutions it continued to fall but less steeply. The effect of increasing dilution on the speed of settling as measured by centrifuging was just opposite to the effect on the viscosity. The speed of settling fell as the viscosity increased and then rapidly increased as the % dilution was increased from 50% to 100% For an increase in dilution beyond 100% the settling speed continued to rise but less rapidly. It was found that with undiluted crude oil laboratory centrifuging produced two layers only viz a top layer of oil and a lower homogeneous layer of solids in water. This separation, into two'layers only, occurred even when some water had been added to the crude oil and, in fact, it was only after about 50% by volume of water had been mixed with the crude oil that a separate intermediate water layer began to appear and this layer increased in depth as the crude oil was diluted further. ‘The explanation of this behaviour is that without any dilution the solids do not contain as much water as they can absorb. During the early stages of dilution (up to $0%) the added. water is progressively absorbed and as this happens the solids gradually swell so accounting for the increase in viscosity. By the time 50% dilution has been reached the solids are just “saturated” with water. It can be calculated that at this stage the % NOS to water has fallen from the originat 42% to about 14% and any further water added is not held by the solids but is free to separate out as a distinct layer. 61alm Oil Fectory Process Handbook It is interesting to note that if undiluted crude oil fiom a centrifugal is centrifuged in the laboratory a distinct separate intermediate water layer is obtained even though the % NOS to water is as much as 18%, This is presumably because the nature of the solids is rather different in centrifugal crude oil. The proportion of cell debris in the solids is less and this pethaps accounts for the lower water retaining capacity of the solids, From these experiments, in which the effect of varying the percentage dilution of crude screw press oil was studied, itis clear that if any dilution is to be given to the crude oil this should be at least 50% since with dilutions of up to this level the viscosity continues to rise and a high Viscosity feads to slow settling. It can be argued, in fact, that for rapid settling the % dilution should be nearer 100% since the viscosity drops rapidly as the dilution is increased from 50% to 100%. A dilution of even more than 100% would increase the settling rate slightly but itis clearly not advisable to dilute the crude oil unduly since this would inetease the size of the plant required and also the quantity of waste water and most probably the amount of oil lost in this waste water. Because of this limitation a dilution of 100% is usually considered to be rather too high and a dilution of about 75% is normally worked to, 64.2 Experimental Study of Static Settling Pilot plant scale experiments were made some years ago using a 200 litre plexiglass tank to study the static settling of crude screw press oil under various conditions. In one such experiment undiluted crude oil was settled and it was found that after 40 minutes almost all the separable oil had separated out. This amounted to about 35% by volume below which was a layer of homogeneous sludge. The oil ayer was run off and the sludge diluted 100% and then settled for 12 hours. Very little further oil separated out during this time and it thus became quite clear that for the clarification of screw press crude oil the method of static settling of the undiluted oil was quite impractical because a recovery of not much more than half of the oil coritent could be expected. ‘The same tank was later converted into a continuous setting tank and in one experiment it was fed with crude screw press oil that had been diluted 100% at a rate of 500 kg per hour, Since the useful volume of the tank was 150 litres this rate of feed gave an average settling time of only 18 minutes, In spite of this about 60% of the total oil was separated and removed as top oil so it was clear that by diluting the crude oil 100% a more satisfactory settling result was obtainable than by-omitting dilution before settling. Nevertheless, the top oil stil contained 1.3% of water and 0.06% of dist and at times the rate of feed had to be reduced to prevent the oil layer from being contaminated by the intermediate layer of light dirt so a settling time of 18 minutes was seen to be too low. to give a really satisfactory result. The sludge contained between 11% and 13% oil and from 4% to 6.5% solids. A laiger scale trial was made in a S-ton capacity continuous setting tank using crude oil diluted 100% and with a pressing rate of about 13 tons bunches per hour. This gave a settling time of approximately double that in the small scale trial viz about 36 minutes. It was found that although cesults were satisfactory for a period of several hours the intermediate layer of light solids had risen sufficiently at the end of this time to contaminate the top oil and it was necessary to stop the feed of crude oll for an equal period. By operating in this fashion the top oil obtained contained only a trace of impurities while the sludge had a solids content of about 54% and an ol content of 10%, This sludge, on standing showed very little signs of separating 62Gariftcation out into off, water and solids and it was concluded that although treatment of diuted crude screw press oil in a continuous settling tank could be used as the basis of a practical clarification system it would be essential to use a centrifuge to treat the sludge fraction. It was also concluded that a settling time of 36 minutes would be insufficient, and so in factories using this type of clarification method for screw press crude oil, a settling time of at least one hour is now always allowed. 65 CENTRIFUGING OF CRUDE SCREW PRESS OIL OR SLUDGE ‘The method of clarification of screw press oil, considered in general terms in the previous section, involves separating the diluted crude oil in a continuous settling tank into a relatively clean and dry top oil fraction and a lower sludge fraction. Both fractions must then be centrifuged separately using appropriate types of high speed centrifuge ‘An alternative approach is to centrifuge the whole of the crude oi! using a suitable high speed centrifuge (usually 2 nozale type centrifuge) and then, if necessary, to pass the oil s0 produced through a “finishing” centrifuge to remove traces of dirt and free water Normally the crude, oil is first diluted and this is to facilitate the necessary preliminary screening and desanding operations. Water addition would in any case have to be made at the nozzle centrifuge and it is more satisfactory to dilute the crude oil at the outset. ‘The preliminary operations will be discussed first before considering the centrifuging process. 65.1 Screening of diluted crude oil Only a very small percentage of the solids present in crude screw press oll can be removed by screening but the material screened off is largely in the form of short lengths of fibre which, if not removed, would be liable to interfere with the correct working of the high speed centri- fuges by blocking the holes in the conical separating plates or the nozzles, ‘Thus, although screening may not appear to be a particularly important operation it is in fact essential as a preliminary to centrifuging, It also aids settling by helping to coalesce oil lobules and screening the diluted crude oll is, therefore, normally carried out whatever the sub- sequent clarification method used. AA single screening of the diluted screw press oil at 100°C or just below on 25 or 30 mesh/ inch cloth using a Laval type vibratory screen is sufficient to prepare it for settling and/or centri- fuging and will remove most of the fibres but leave practically all the cell debris. ‘At some factories a single 30 mesh screen is found to give satisfactory results. Elsewhere this has been found to lead to poor setiling and blocking of the sludge centrifuges and a some- what finer mesh viz 40 mesh has been adopted, The use of a single 40 mesh screen, however, is usually not completely satisfactory as flooding can occur leading to crude oil passing into the digesters and leading to a severe reduction in pressing sate. This can be overcome by screening first on 25 mesh and following this by a 40 mesh screen located immediately under the 25 mesh cloth and mounted on the same “double” vibratory screen. A.30 mesh screen has openings 0.5 mm square and it is thus quite clear that such a screen 63elm Olt Factory Process Handbook will cotain very little, if any, cell debris since ol cells are0.1 mum long at the most and cell debris particles would be even smalter, By using a sccond stage 60 mesh screen (Which has 0.25 mm square apertures) it las. been found that an appreciable amount of cell debris can be removed from the diluted crude oil even though individual cell debris particles are smaller than the aper- tures in a 60 mesh screen. This is possibly clue to the cell debris concerned becoming enmeshed with fine fibre particles or to a number of cell debris particles being clumped together. Even though it would be possible to remove a small proportion of the cell debris by using avery fine mesh sereen this is nether necessary nor desirable for the following reasons: () {a finer single screen than about 30 mesh or finer double screens than about 25 mesh followed by 40 mesh are used flooding commonly occurs. (0) Fine mesh screens are made from thin wire and, thus, have a relatively short life before they perforate. (©) If cell debris is removed by screening and fed back into the digester with the screened off fibre it will largely remain in and be disposed of with the press fibre. This might, on first cousideration, be thought to be advantageous since it is well known that, on average. the press fibze is de-oiled in the press down to 10% or less whereas the solids passing out with the Clarification Section waste water of a screw press factory are seldom de-viled much below 20%. This argument, however, is false and in fact such cell debvis if present in the press fibre, would be de-oiled rather less well than iF it tad been left in the crude oil and been washed and centrifuged before being Uiscarded with the water. This can be easily demonstrated by sieving out the “dust” from a sample of piess fibre and analysing it. This “dust” is largely cell debris and it will generally be found to have a % oil to NOS of rather more than 20%. (@) Even a screen as coarse 25 30 mesh will reinove most of the fibre particles and so Prepare the diluted crude oil for settling or centrifuging, This is perhaps surprising as the openings in such a sercen are 0.5 sm square whereas fibres vary in diameter from about 0.08 mm to 0.35 inm ie. have a smaller cross section, The fibre particles are, however, several mim long and it is because they tend to lie flat on the sereen that effective removal is obtained by screening. 1k is of interest to note that in factories using centrifugals to extract the oil from the fuit sercening is much easier to carry out. The undiluted erucle oil can easily be screened on @ 120 mesh screen without floviting occurring and 60 mesh is often used in such factories. The reason that such a fine mesh can be used is, of course, that centrifugal oil has a relatively low solids content and most of the insoluble solids present are fibre and not cell debris. If diluted crude oil ts centrifuged this is screened immediately before centrifuging. If, on the other hand, this oil is first settled and only the sludge is centrifuged the main screening is cartied out before setiling and the sludge is given a further screening just before being centri fuged. A relatively coarse mesh is used (¢. 25 mesh) as the object is simply to provent nozzle blockage of the centrifuge by particles that may have been accidentally introduced after the ‘main screening operation.Gorification 65.2, Desanding of diluted erade oil (or sindge) In the absence of fruit washing facilites it is very advisable 1 (wat dio dlitutod enwde cil or the sludge to remove any sand present before this liquid is fed to a high sped centvifuge Unless this is done, rapid and severe wear of the centrifuge bowl can be expected. If sludge is being centrifuged some of the coarser sand present in tho crade oit will haw been removed by settling out into the cone of the continuous settling tank from which it wil have been drained to waste periodically. Nevertheless even sludge will usually contain sul fine sand to justify further desanding before it is centrifuged and this will certainly bo needed if diluted crude of is being centrifuged as this will not have been subjected to selling. ‘The normal method of desanding uses a specially designed liydrewyolo the liquid is pumped. The liquid enters tangentially so causing any sand pusticuse lo he dae against the cylindrical wall of the hydrocyclone by centrifugal force and to fellow a dows spiral path and escape through the cone outlet together with a small low of liquid. Most a the éesanded liquid passes out through the top of the hydrocyclone and, after sorsesivg, is collacts in a tank which feeds the centrifuge, This tank is mounted sufficiently high in the Clusificztio Section building to enable the overflow from it to pass back into the tank fiom whiel the liquih ‘was pumped to the desander. The reason for this fecycling facility is that, ia genucal, dhe pumps rate to the desanding hydrocyclone considerably exceeds the rate of feed to the centrifuge and thus on average the liquid will pass through the desander more than once. Nurcugh A A typical desanding hydrocyclone as used in a number of factories employing serew presses is fed at 22 tons/hr and has an inlet pressure of ebout 30 psi. The cone oullet distnster is about 10 mm and such an installation is capable of reducing the sand content of the omt- soing liquid to about 0.0476 to 0.06%. The downflow containing the removed sits also contuins some oil. Before discarding this it is usually passed though a small continus settling tank to ‘enable this oil to be recovered, 65.3. Centrifuging — General Considerations Practical experience has shown that the treatment of sereened dilutes! crude sovew prs: ‘if (or sludge) in « closed bow or intermittently discharging type bow! centrifuge (such as a Titan CNS 70) is quite impractical. AA similar conclusion can in fact be arrived at by a simple ealeulation based on the ex perimentally determined fact that between 10% and 30% of the nou oily solids present in the feed are deposited in the bowl. The deposited matorial consists of the libro unl some of the larger cellular and cell debris masses. The amount of cell debris deposited depends to some extent ton the degree of dilution and excessive dilution tends to reduce the amount thst can be held suspension and so increase the quantity deposited in the bowl. ‘The non-oily solid material which remains in the waste water passes out over the gravity disc, This represents 7076 to 90% of the NOS in the feed and approximately half of itis in suspen- sion and the remainder dissolved. A Titan CNS 70 bowl will hold at most 20 tbs of wet solids but for safety not more than about 15 tbs (say 7 ke ) should be allowed to accumulate between discharges. This will be equi valent to about 1.4 kg. of NOS. 65.‘ulm Olt Factory Process Handbook ‘Suppose that only 10% of the NOS in the feed is deposited in’ the bowl then this means that not more than 14 kg. of NOS can be fed to the centrifuge between discharges, If the feed contains about 5% NOS (as would be the case with crude screw press oil diluted 100%) then bowl discharging would be needed after only 280 kg. had been fed to the Titan ive, after about 5 minutes operation assuming a feed rate of 3.5 tona/hr. ‘This is clearly not practical as it would lead to very rapid bowl wear, In addition to this the capacity of such a centrifuge would be very low when expressed in terms of tons bunches per hour and at least two machines per screw press would be needed. If fed at 3.5 tons/hr. with 100% diluted crude screw press oil containing 33% oil and 5% NOS this is equivalent to about 1.15 tons pure oil per hour or 5.8 tons bunches per hour ie. one Titan would deal with less than half the output of a norinal screw press, The above example has been considered in some detail to explain why it is that Titan centrifuges (and even. more so closed bowl centrifuges) are not used in screw press factories for sludge or crude oil centrifuging, and nozzle type machines are used instead. 6.5.4. Nozzle Type Centrifuges Several models are available commercially including: (Westfalia SKOOG 10006 which may be fed at a rate of about 10 tons per hour. ‘The bowl speed is 4500 rpm. (i) Westfalia DA 40:12.016 which has double the above capacity and is a centrifuge ‘with a builtin centrifugal pump (paring disc) to ensure that the separated oil leaves the machine without contact with air. (iii Laval PASX 410T which fias a normal capacity of 8 tons sludge per hour but can bbe fed at up to 12 tons/h. This is also a centrifuge equipped with paring dises. (i) Stork sludge centrifuge which is a simple low speed (1500 rpm) machine with no separating discs or gravity ring and a capacity of about 3.5 tons of sludge per hour, Apart from the last mentioned machine which is of rather unusual design these nozzle {ype centrifuges are similar in many respects to the closed bowl type of centrifuge which is some- ‘times used for treating “top oil”. ‘They have a high bowl speed and separation is aided by splitting the feed into a number of streams by means of conical separating plates. The oil passes inwards and the water and dirt asses outwards and part of it escapes over a gravity ring the size of which determines the position Of the interface between the aqueous and oily zones. In a closed bowl machine the relatively small fraction of the NOS in the feed that does not pass out with the waste water over the gravity disc is deposited against the wall of the bow! and in consequence after a certain period of operation the machine must be stopped, the bow! opened and the accumulated dirt removed.* Qurifcation In a nozzle bow! machine some NOS and water passes out over the gravity dise but the major proportion of each escapes continuously through special wear resistant tungsten carbide nozzles. This avoids the accumulation of deposits of solids within the bow! and enables the centri fuge to be fed continuously without interruption for as long as is required ‘An important feature of the nozzle type centrifuge is the need for there to be always present sufficient water and dirt to satisfy the full throughput of the nozzles. If this condition ‘were not met then oil would escape through the nozzles as well as water and dirt Depending on the degree of dilution of the crude oil, sufficient water may or may not be present in the feed to prevent such loss of oil. There may in fact be more than enough to satisfy the nozzles in which ease the excess will pass out over the gravity disc and the existence of such a flow acts as @re-assurance that oil will not be lost through the nozzles. Just before the feed of diluted crude oil or sludge is cut off at the end of a run it is necessary to substitute a feed of warm water otherwise the oil present in the bowl will be lost through the nozzles. This procedure also helps to keep the nozzles free from blockage and this is useful if it is proposed to centrifuge more oil shortly without first stopping the centrifuge and cleaning the bowl. ‘This procedure is satisfactory when the oil feed is to be cut off by design but some auto- matic means of compensation is needed if, due to a reduction in the feed rate or the degree of dilution or to enlargement of the nozzles as a result of wear, the position arises whereby there is the danger of insufficient water being present to satisfy the nozzies. ‘This is achieved by providing a special make-up water inlet to the centrifuge together with an automatic device to regulate the amount of make up water entering. In the Westfalia ‘machine this water pastes into the bowl close to the centre-spindle and flows outwards through 4 space between two cone shaped plates situated immediately above the stack of conical separating Plates. In this way it is able to reach and join the flow of water passing tothe gravity disc without mixing with the feed to the centrifuge so avoiding interference with the separation process. ‘The automatic control is achieved by monitoring the rate of flow of gravity disc water and increasing the rate of make up if this becomes unduly low. The gravity disc water is made to flow through a chamber in which there is a flost the height of which governs the extent to which a valve in the make up water pipe is open. If the gravity disc water flow is large the float position fs high and the valve is nearly closed but @ drop in the flow of gravity disc water results in the float level falling and the valve opens wider so increasing the flow of make up water and hence the flow of gravity disc water. There is an arrangement for presetting the equilibrium level of the float within limits so as to avoid having an excessive gravity disc water flow due to an unnecessarily large amount of make up water being drawn, After passing through this float device the gravity disc water which contains some oil and NOS (though very much less NOS than the nozzle water), is normally used as part of the crude oif dilution water in order to minimise oil losses. In the case of the Westfalia SKOOG 10006 centrifuge it is normal to use 8 nozzles each having a diameter when new of 1.4 m The nozzle size is important and affects both the capacity and the performance of the orPel Oil Factory Process Handbook Genuuruge, If nozaes of much smaller diameter were deed blockages due to small paris of | Solid material ia the feed would become frequent and the capacity of the centrifuge would be Teduced due to the fow rate through such nazzies. With nozzles of larger bore, because the fow fate inoreases in proportion to the square of the diameter, there is a sharp increase in the power ‘requirements avd this limits the amount by which ncezles may be permitted to enlarge as arent ‘of wear, Apart foun this iti found that the % oil in waste water tends to increase as the nozzles | alan aid this (actor may make it necessary to replace the nozzies even before the power re usiesnvant heres wxcersive. ‘The nozzle throughputs for a Westfalin SKGOG 10006 centrifuge with eight nozzles} of various sizes may be summarised as follows: i Diameter of Nozzle ‘Tons nozzle water per hr. 13 ma. 49 14mm. 56 1S mim, 6.25 1.6 mm. TA 1.7 mim, 80 Experience at one factory using this type of centrifuge indicates that with new nozzles passing 5.6 tons/br, (ie, 14 mm. diameter) the % oil to NOS in the waste water is about 14% fy the time the nowales ate passing 7.1 tons/br. (Le. 1.6 mem, diameter), however, the % oll to OS in waste svater fas visen to about 20% and the nozzles are replaced at this point. The capacity of a Westfalia SKOOG 10006 centrifuge is approximately 10 tons (eed) hour (possibly somewhat more) and in practice itis found that best results are obtained by feeding it with slndge or *iluted crude ofl at about this maximum rate. There are three reasons why this isso: (i) A given volume of feed will be centrifuged in a shorter time if the feed rate is high. ‘Vis cesults in less wear on the machine including the nozzles since the running hours are reduced. (i) Mf the feod rate is Kept high, sufficient (or nearly sufficient) water will be present por hour in the feed (0 satisfy the nozzle requirement of about 5.6 tons/h. and the Tnbition aC ake wp water will he minimal, On the other hand, a low rate of feed “nieauicalty vase te addition of extra make-up water which will increase the xe of nozzle walter per batch of feed processed since the constant nozzle requirement has to be met over a longer period and is partly met by make-up water. A low rate of feed to the centrifuge thus leads to a higher % waste water (Le. nozale water) to bunch and as the oil content of this waste water does not, in practice, reiluce ie proportion the result is a higher % oll loss in waste water to bunch. (a) The % oil to NOS in nozzle water is somewhat less when the feed rate is high 1 the solids are deviled more effectively. This is another way of stating the previous conclusion since what oil there is in the waste water is associated with (undissolved) NOS and is not present as fee oll. The reason for improved desing at high , UhvoWghpul is obscure but it sa well established fact, 68rificetion Aes of ald be power result ozzles ver re. ozales vzzles 14%, vil to feed! ding this high, sours ssent tthe feed the ious One effect of feeding the Westfalia nozzle centrifuge at its maximum rate in order to achieve the above benefits is to produce wasle water which is very viscous and the NOS content is often as high as 87% or 9%. It is clear from the foregoing tat the operation of the Westfalia so a to produce a waste water that is so tick that it may have (0 be diluted once it has entered the drain is quite normal and is to be desired. The oll produced by a Westfalia nozzle centrifuge will contain a proportion of water and dirt the level of which will depend on the position of the water/oil interface within the bow} When the oil is to be subsequently re-centrifuged in a finishing centrifuge to remove any remaining water and dirt it is usual to operate with the interface fairly close to the ceutre of the bowl. This is achieved by using a sufficiently sinall diameter gravity disc and by assembling the stack of conical separating plates in such a way that the inner circular holes are in use and not the outer oval holes. [f this is done and the gravity disc size hus been correctly chosen the feed enters the stack at the interface level and the outward moving water has « long path before it leaves the centrifuge by the nozzles or over the gravity disc and this ensures that it has sufficient time to be well de-iled. The inward moving oil on the contrary has a shorter path before it leaves the centrifuge and so may contain several percents of water and a trace of dirt, This is of no importance since the oil will be further centrifuged. _ If, on the other hand, it is desired to obtain a clean oil by centrifuging diluted crude cil followed by simply dehydrating the oil so produced without further centrifuging then it will be necessary £0 obtain as clean and dry an oil as possible from the nozzle centrifuge. For this purpose ‘4 somewhat larger gravity disc will noed to be used and the separating plates are arranged so that the outer oval holes are in use and the interface position corresponds to these. 66 CLARIFICATION SYSTEMS ‘The system of clarification used for the crude oil obtained by any extraction process may either include a gravity settling step or may be ‘direct’ and involve centrifuging of the nude oil without preliminary settling ‘These two sub-divisions will be considered in tum, 6.6.1 Systems involving settling ‘These may be further sub-divided into batch and continuous systems, 66.1.1 Batch settling systems For small centrifugal (and occasionally also hydraulic press) factories where there are 10 high speed centrifuges a simple batch settling system has often been used, To obtain an adequately clean and dry top oil and to avoid unduly high oil losses ‘4 number of tanks are required to give 2 long cnough settling period and, except on a small scale, such an arrangement becomes rather complicated and difficult to supervise. Thus for example dhe Pioncer Mill, which was bascd on a single fruit centrifugal and rated at only 0.6 tons stripped fruit per hour required 3 first stage setiling tanks, each of 1 ton capacity, which were filled in turn and provided a setiting time of about 10 honrs for the diluted nude oil, The top oil from these tanks was mixed with water and further settled for about $ hours fn two second stage setiling tanks each of 0.75 ton capacity and the sludge fiom the two settling oPalm OU Factory Process Handbook sidered to be suitable but it has been found that this temperature can sometimes be exceeded by a few degrees with advantage, provided that the increased convection is not found to out- ‘weigh the benefit of reduced viscosity. Continuous settling tanks normally operate well provided they are not over-loaded and the overflow pipe height has been suitably adjusted. Occasionally, however, instances are reported of the top oil layer gradually becoming progressively thinner thoughout the course of the day and of the oil content of the sludge increasing simultaneously. At the time the temperature neat the top of the tank becomes appreciably lower than that of the sludge in the lower part of the tank, This effect may occur in a tank which at other times behaves quite normally. ‘The corrective action taken when this abnormal behaviour occurs is to lower the level of liquid in the tank temporarily by running off water and dirt from the bottom of the tank. This stops top oil overflowing for some time and allows the top oil layer to be re-established. Alte~ natively sludge can be transferred from the bottom of the continuous settling tank to the sludge tank by an interconnecting pipe and then clean hot water is added to the continuous settling tank to make the sludge more dilute, It is probable that the cause of this trouble is insufficient dilution of the crude oll ot too low a temperature and by paying attention to these points it can usually be avoided. Both lead to a sludge that is unduly viscous so reducing the amount of convection and mixing with incoming crude oil in the upper sludge layer and consequently to gradual cooling of this ayer = this effect extending progressively downwards. Because of the relatively cool and stagnant top layers of sludge of high density the top oil layer will become gradually thinner and because of this stagnation and reduced mixing the crude oil will in effect have a reduced holding time and the sludge will contain more oil. ‘A typical continuous settling tank for a screw press factory will be designed to ensure that even with 100% dilution of the crude oil a settling time of at least 1 hour is available when pressing at the maximum planned rate. Ia practice dilution is usually about 75% which increases the setting time. The sizes of the continuous setting tanks in several factories are given below and the corresponding approximate settling times at various pressing rates are shown below for comparison: Approx. size PrestingRate C.S.Tanksize Settling time Settling time of CS. inTons as percentage or in hoursif in hoursif Tank in Bunch/ ——orpresing = (100% crude 757 crude Factory Tons ‘hr. rate oil dilution oildilution = Kuang 40 2 334 54 63 Klang 40 4 167 27 32 Kivang 40 36 Mt 18 2 Tungud 30 12 250 40 46 Tungud 30 on 125 20 23 : Tungud 30 36 3 13 15 Lobe 15 16 94 15 17 N°Dian 20 28 n 12 14With a settling time of only about 1 or 2 hours separation of the oll wil not be complete but this is unimportant if, as is normal, the sludge i subsequently centtfuged. Normally with diluted screw pres oil an oil content of up to about 159s quite acceptable in the studge but in practice under favourable conditions it may be half this or eventes, ‘The top oil wil contain perhaps 0.5% water (part of which will be dissolved) and a small (mount of dirtand subsequent centrifuging and dehydration will reduce the moisture coxtere to around 0.08% and the dirt content to s trace (ebout 0.01%). By making certain assumptions eg by assuming that the continous settling tank gives a ‘idee containing 15% oll and that the pure oll content of the erude ol is 20% to hunch ite ng iffcult to calculate the weight of sludge and of top oil produced per hour when ‘operating a screw ress. Suppose that the screw press processes 14 tons bunches per hour. Then 4.3 tons of erude oF containing 65% pure oil will be produced per hour. Assuming 80% dilution, 7.75 tors ot diluted crude oil will be fed to the continuous settling tank each hout and this will sult in lo ‘ons fop oil per hour and 5.85 tons of sludge (containing 0.9 tons pure oil) per hour, Ws te sludge pet hour from one euch press would be dealt with in about 35 minutes it fed to a Westfalia nozzle centrifuge at 10 tons per hour, (Le. one such centrifuge is capable of dealing with sludge from about 14 xe = 24 tons bunches per hour), Alternatively Stork sludge centrifuges could be used 10 process the sludge, The Stork centrifuge has a maximum capacity of about 3.5 tons sludge per hour equivalent to approximately 385 x 3.5 = B.4tons bunches per hour ie. about one third that of Westfalia SKOOG 10006 centrifuge. Although it has a relatively low capacity this centrifuge, which operates with 4 nozzles of 2mm diameter has the advantage of simplicity of construction, The top oil together with the oil produced by the sludge centsfuge, amounts to 2.8 tons Per hour and, after heating in a closed heat exchanger to a suitable temperature for centrifuging and dehydration this is passed to a top oil centrifuge. A Titan CNS7O is often used for this ong hus 4 maximum capacity of about 3.5 tons per hour and, thus, in practice one such centrifuge is required per screw press. ‘The Titan CNS8O centrifuge has a capacity of 5 tons oil per hour and this f equivalent to 4 pressing rate of about 25 tons bunches/hour. 66.2 sification Sections Any of the Westfalia or Laval nozzle centrifuges listed in 6.5.4, can be used to treat sereened diluted crude serew press oil without preliminary removal of top ofl by settling, The capacity of the centrifuge expressed in terms of tons bunches per hour will clearly be rather less when used in this way than when fed with sludge only since a greater volume ct B‘Palm Ott Factory Process Handbook Haul must be treated. Thus in the cae of the Westfalia SKOOG 10006 nozile centifuge, ies on at 7.75 tons of ditueed crude oll would need to be centrifuged per hour instead of 5.98 tons of sludge. This means that the maximum capacity of one such Westfalia mould seem to be P nt a feed rate of 3.2 tons of nuts per hour corresponds to only about 10 nuts per turn assuming rotor speed of 2250 «pin, If the stator diameter is 120 em the nuts wil thus be spaced out on average at intervals of 38 cin. along the cracking ring. 8.4 SEPARATION OF UNCRACKED NUTS: 84.1 General When nuts are fed to a cracker a certain proportion do no crack during the fist pass and these must bé separated from the kernel and shel pieces and recycled to the cracker. ‘There are two quite distinct alternative approaches to this problem. “The method that was frst utilved was to use a rotating screen having suitably sized holes which allow the kernel and shell pieces to pass but which are too small to pass the nuts, The nuts therefore pass out over the end of the sereen and can be recycled to the cracker. This simple arrangement would work perfectly if all the muts were identical but due to “differences in nut diameter and shell thickness which exist in practice even the optimum size of screen hole wil allow some small nuts to pass and will be too small to prevent some lage kernels from going with the uneracked nuts. ‘These drawbacks can be minimised by grading the nuts into several (usually three) diferent sizes before cracking and then cracking each mut fraction with its own cracker followed by 2 Cracked mixture screen having a hole size appropriate to that nut fraction. ‘The grading of the nuts in this way is carried out primariy.to give more efficient separation of the unctacked nuts but it alo helps to improve nut cracking effiiency by permitting the Sraller nuts to be eracked in a cracker having a rather higher rotor speed than that used forthe farge nuts, A dust panel having slots of about 4 mm width i usually incorporated into the nt grader and by this means any dust present that might interfere with cracking i removed, ‘A more recently developed method of nut treatment avoids the need for nut grading sereons and cracked mixture screens. This is the “simplified” system devised at the Mongane Reseach Station in which the mixed nuts are fed to a single horizontal throw cracker end the sessed mixture including any vncracked nuts is passed directly to the next stages ofthe Process sree Consist of the normal cracked mixture blower and hydrocyclone bath unit which are alse ree ih the other process. The only difference is that the hydrocyclone dimensions ae designed aad that all the uncracked nuts pass out with the shell from which they can be separated usinga single rotating screen and then recycled for cracking. ‘The fiat method will be considered in more detail below and the simplified method wil be referred to again in the Section on Separation of Kernels from Shell. 961 the tour. “the stor, tor) nat xP aing. to 0 Kernel Extraction end Drying 8.4.2 The method using nut grading and cracked mixture screens ‘As was mentioned above there would be no problems and no need for nut grading if all the nuts were larger in diameter than the diameter of the largest Kernels. In practice this is not so and in order to select grading screens having holes of sizes that will divide the nuts into a number of roughly equal streams and to select cracked mixture screens of suitable hole sizes to deal with each of the streams of nuts after cracking it is usual to construct what are known as frequency histograms separately for nuts and kernels. ‘These are simply charts on which the results of screening tests are displayed. Along the X axis are marked diameters in millimetres and corresponding to each diameter is drawn a bar the height of which represents the number (or if desired the weight) of the nuts (or the kernels) having, a diameter, less than that diameter but more than a diameter one mm. below that diameter, To carry out the screening tests a number of gauging plates are needed with oblong holes differing in width by 1 mm. ~ similar to the holes in nut grading screens. AA representative sample of nuts is taken and divided into groups according to the minimum diameter at the thickest part of the nut by means of the gauging plates. A plate which just passes no nuts at ail is found and then the number of small nuts just passing through the next larger plate is noted and the nuts put on one side. The test is repeated using in turn plates of increasing hole width until the last one passes all the remaining nuts, The nuts are kept in separate groups and arc weighed and counted and then cracked. The kernels in each group are counted and weighed and graded for size in the same way as the nuts and ail results are tabulated. When separate histograms for nuts and kernels are drawn it will usually be found that they overlap to some extent, Ifthe sample of nuts examined has been subjected to no preliminary grading this will certainly be the case. The overlapping is, of course, due to some of the larger kernels being larger than the small nuts and the degree of overlapping gives an indication of the degree to which this occurs. The greater the overlap Is the less completely can uncracked nuts bbe separated by screening from the kernels in the cracked mixture ie. the greater the Kernel loss will be. ‘The optimum cracked mixture screen size will be at some point in the region where the two frequency histogeams for nuts and kernels overlap and by considesing all screen sizes in this range in tun and using the tabulated experimental data itis possible to pick a cracked mixture screen size that gives minimum kernel loss, ‘The overlap of the frequency histograms is more for tenera nvts than for dura nuts due to the thinner shells and the nut histogram is narrower and higher. ‘The result is that the efficiency of separation of uncracked nuts from kernels by screening is rather less for tenera nuts than for dura nuts. It is possible 10 increase the efficiency of separation somewhat by grading the muts into three fractions. If this is done and nut and kernel histograms are constructed separately for each seed faction St will be found that tie umount of aveolapy ty few for excl finet ian thaw i wie for the ungraded nuts, 7i i | Palm Oil Factory Process Handbook Nevertheless, particularly with tenera nuts, the efficiency it not as high as is desirable and this, coupled with the complication and expense of selecting and maintaining screens of the opti- mum size, was the reason for the research programme which led to the development of the simpli- fied system, 8.5 SEPARATION OF KERNELS FROM SHELL difference is made use of in the brine or clay bath separator. A more recent piece of equipment is the hydrocyclone separator in which the flow of water separates the two components of differing density by centrifugal action. In this ease the shape and size of the particles also has some effect on the final result, ‘Attempts have been made to separate Kernels from shell by “ not give a complete separation under normal circumstances. nnowing” but this does 85.2. Air Separation This had been tried but has not proved to be very successful as flat Kkemnels and broken” kcemel pieces tend to pass out with the shell fraction. ‘Tests at Mongana showed that if the feed was confined to cracked mixture coming from futs of diameter below 16 mm the kernel loss was not more than about 0.5% to total kernels and the kernels only contained about 2 to 3% dirt, ‘This result, however, is not of practical importance as even in the case of D x P nuts only some 60% are of diameter less than 16 mm. 8.5.3 Claybath ‘The specific gravity of undried kernels is about 1.07 and that of shell approximately 1.15 to 1.20. Hence in a clay suspension of specific gravity 1.12 (je. 24° Twaddell) the kernels will float and the shell fraction sink. ‘The claybath separator makes use of this effect. It is filled with a clay suspension which Is circulated continuously to prevent settling out. The cracked mixture is fed into the bath and the floating kernels are skimmed off continuously by means of a rotating paddle wheel and the shell, which drops to the bottom, is removed by means of a screw conveyor and bucket elevator or a further rotating paddle wheel. ‘The claybath separator is quite efficient as long as due care is taken to maintain the density Of the clay suspension at the correct level ic. to regularly replace the clay that is being semoved on the surface of the kernels and shell all the time that the bath is in use. The clay consumption rate is said to be as much as 2 cubic metres for every ton of bunches and the clay must be of good quality and itot mixed with sand that would quickly settle out. It is often difficult to find Suitable clay in sufficient quantities for a large factory and the labour involved in digging and ‘transporting the clay aud mixing it with water to make a suspension is considerable. For this reason, and also because the clay bath is difficult to keep clean and expensive to maintain, the hydrocyclone separator has largely replaced the clay bath except for small factories.Kemet Extraction and Drying It may be mentioned ihat a solution of comrgon salt of suitable density may be substituted for the clay suspension This brine has the advantage that it does not settle out which ensures that the density remains much steadier but the bath must be topped up from time to time and salt can be expensive and difficult to obtain in quantity in remote areas so the brine bath is not ‘much used. 8.5.4 Hydrocyclone Separator 8.5.4.1 Description and Principles of Operation ‘The hydrocyclone separator has the advantage of requiring no clay but the power require- ment and the capital cost is more than fora clay bath. A hydrocyclone is a cylindrical vessel with a cone bottom having an aperture the size of which is critical, The upper part of the cylinder is closed by a horizontal plate through which passes a short length of pipe known as the overflow tube, the height of which is adjustable, The cylinder extends upwards above this plate and this section of it is also closed by a piece of plate which is clear of the top of the overflow pipe and forms a lid. ‘There is an inlet pipe which Is situated just below the lower of the two horizontal plates. and which enters the cylinder tangentially. An exit pipe is situated near the top of the cylinder. ‘The action of the hydrocyclone is somewhat similar to that on an air cyclone in that by imparting a circular motion to the fluid by means of the tangential entry heavy particles arc ‘thrown by centrifugal force to the wall of the cylinder and after tracing a helical path find theie way out through the bottom of the cyclone. The uid used in the hydrocyclone is water and the mixture of shell and kernels are placed in a bath of water to which is connected a pump so that water charged with shell and kernels can be pumped into the hydrocyclone. By choosing the dimensions of the hydrocyclone and the pumping pressure correctly the result of this is that most of the shell pieces (being denser than kernels) pass downwards and out through the cone bottom with a small proportion of the water flow. The larger part of the water together with most of the kernels after taking part in an initial downward circular movement gradually move towards the centre of the cylinder and start moving upwards and leave the hydrocyclone via the overflow tube and exit pipe. Although it is mainly the lower density of the kernels that causes them to pass into the ‘upward moving stream near the axis of the cylinder the size and shape of the particles have some effect. For this reason small uncracked nuts, though intermediate in density between shell and kernels, are often caught by the upward water flow and pass out with the kemels, ‘The latter point is important and will be referred to again later. twas mentioned that the position of the overflow tube is made adjustable and the purpose Of this is to control the purity of the upward flowing kernel stream. Ifthe ovecflow tube is set low down some shell will also pass upwards with the kernels but by operating with a high overflow tube setting the kernels may often be made sufficiently pure to bag after they have been separated from the water by means of a screen snd dried,Palm Oit Factory Process Handbook ‘When this is done the shell fraction passing downwards will certainly contain too high « proportion of kernels to permit it to be discarded without further treatment, It is therefore passed into a second bath of water and pumped by another pump to a second hydrocyclone known as the shell hydrocyclone to distinguish it from the first one which is called the kernel hydrocyclone, For convenience the two water baths are adjacent with perforated partition between them, ‘This allows the water levels to equalise but it is important to prevent the perforations becoming s0 worn that keels can pass through into the shell fraction. Out of the bottom of the shell hydrocyclone passes shell which should be sufficiently free from kernels to discard, after dewatering over a screen. In order to ensure this it may be necessary {a Tower the overflow tube somewhat as so doing makes the downflow cleaner but at the same time increases the amount of shell passing out through the overflow. This overflow should contain all the kernels that were in the feed together with some shell and itis passed back into the fist ‘water bath Cor recycling to the kernel hydrocyclone. Jt should be mentioned that adjustment of the overflow tube heights may need to be ‘made from time to time to compensate for the effects of wear of the cone outlets or of the purtip rotors. If for example the shell hydrocyclone cone outlet becomes enlarged by wear more kernels ‘may escape with the shell than normal and this can be overcome within limits by lowering the overflow tube. Again, if the kernel hydrocyclone pump rotor becomes worn more kernels may pass out with the shell than is normal and this can lead to overloading of the shell hydrocyclone. By lowering the kernel hydrocyclone overflow tube this effect may be counteracted. 8.5.4.2 Cracked Mixture Blowing In order to prevent the build up of dust and very small pieces of shell in the water that is recycled continuously through the system it is usual to submit the dry cracked mixture to an air cleaning process before it is fed to the bath. A vertical column is used through which a stream of air is forced upwards by a fan and the cracked mixture is fed in part way up the column so that the light fraction is biown first upwards and then along ducting to a suitable point where it is separated from the air by means of a cyclone. The kernels and most of the shell drop and are diverted out of the column by a grid, In this way some 30 to 40% of the shell present in the cracked mixture can usually be removed without causing a loss exceeding 1% of the total kernels ~ these being mainly small broken pieces. By taking full advantage of the cracked mixture blower not only is the separation improved by avoidance of the accumulation of fine particles in the water but the effective capacity of the hydrocyclone unit in terms of nuts per hour is appreciably increased. It is necessary to adjust the air velocity in the separating column to a suitable value to ensure temoval of light shell without losing Kemels and this is usually found (o be in the range 1255 to 15 metces/second. The adjustment is made by alteration to the fan speed and/or resetting the air bleed valve, The column of a cracked mixture blower having a capacity of about of 2.5 tons/hour would have a cross section 250 x 400 mm. 100y j | fepaedee Kernel Extraction and Drying In some installations the fan is mounted above the column (as in a vertical aut/fibre separator) and by sucking the air upwards instead of blowing it the risk of dust escaping into the air is reduced. 8.5.43 Congopalm Design of Hydrocyclone ‘The eatlier hydrocyclone bath units were designed for “conventional” nut sections where the uncracked nuts are removed by screening from the cracked mixture before the latter is fed to the bath. Cracked mixture blowing is not essential in this case as dust screens are in use. The capacity of these units was about 2.5 tons per hour and the hydrocyclones had an internal dia- meter of 350 mm and a cone height of 210 mm. When the “simplified” type of nut treatment is used a different design of hydrocyclone is employed. This is known as the Congopalm type as it was developed at the Congopalm Mongana Research Station. The diameter is larger, viz 400 mm and the length of the cone portion is con- siderably longer viz 640 mm/660 mm which has the effect of ensuring that all the uncracked tuts pass downwards and are therefore contained in the shell fraction and, after separation, can be recycled to the cracker. The capacity of the Congopalm type hydrocyclone unit is considered to be approximately 5 tons nuts per hour (nett). This figure was arrived at by trials at Mongana in which it was found that 5.1 tons of nuts per hour could be fed from the nut silo to the cracker together with 1.0 tons of recycled nuts. The 6.1 tons per hour of cracked mixture produced was fed to a blowing column which removed 1.3 tons of blowings per hour leaving 4.8 tons per hour to be fed to the hydrocyctone bath. Although originally the hydrocyclone bath was designed as a “compact” unit itis often ‘now the practice to install one or both hydrocyctones in an elevated situation. This is particularly convenient for the kernel hydrocyclone as, by mounting this.at a level above the kernel dryer, there is no need to provide a bucket elevator for the wet kernels. The kemel hydrocyclone pump and motor must develop an adequate pressure at the inlet to the hydrocyclone itself and also to deliver the kemels to the dewatering vibratory screen situated above the kernel dryer. It is not possible to speciy exactly what the inlet pressures to the kernel and shell hydro- cyclones should be as suitable values will depend on a number of factors including the feed rate of cracked mixture, the diameters of the cone outlets and the positioning of the overflow tubes. Normally inlet pressures within the range of S to 10 psi approximately are found to exist in satisfactorily operating units. Clearly the inlet pressure cannot be allowed to drop to too low a value otherwise the centrifugal effect on which separation depends becomes too weak. 8.5.44 Shell/Uncracked Nuts Seren ‘The shellfuncracked nuts screen into which the downflow from the shell hydrocyclone is passed is normally of the rotating cylinder type and is in two sections. The first section hes narrow perforations designed to pass water only and the laiter drains back to the bath, The size of the perforations of the.second section must be chosen to suit the type of nuts being processed, the ‘object being to allow most of the shell pieces to pass through but to prevent any of the uncracked nuts from doing so, To achieve this it may be found necessary 10 allow a considerable amount ‘of the larger shell pieces to be recycled to the cracker with the uncracked nuis and this is quite acceptable, A suitable width for the slits in this second section of the screen is often found to be 8mm or'9 mm but the exact size needs to be determined by trial. 101Palm Oi Factory Process Handbvok 86 KERNEL DRYING 86.1 General The kevuels leaving the hydrocyclone are dewatered by passing over a vibratory seven, Feats susaces ave sill wet at this sage but such nvistuve wil quickly epuate Apo Fe faneteal mvistore there is s much larger quantity of internal moisture imounng to © 20% oF the weight ofthe keine, This moistute is more difficult 10 semove as it must et diffuse outwards to the surtace before it can evaporate und this process takes tine, It is the object of drying to give a product that can be stored a deterioration due to mould growth and this an be achieved ifthe moisture content of th kena is seduced to below about Bb, For safety itis best to ain fora fal soisture concent of en ow than 7% but a level eucli less than this is mot necessary and under novinal contin op the Tropics kernels dried to beluw 74 would pick up moisture froin the atmosphere and uraduaily ceuch tis level, Kernels dried tw somewhat above 7% mivisture content would, antes Gy weather conditions, tend to lose moist on storage and would in time probably gradually ty down to 7%, This, however, would not be a suisfactory procedure as mould would start ty develop during the drying. ansported without ‘hes growth of would on kernels not only spuis thet appearance but ass leads wo faily rapid rate Of hydrolysis oF the palu keene! oil ducing storage ie, a rapid development af FEAL Tees haolyas is enzyme catalysed and the enzyve that promotes the spliting is produced by the mould yrowih, ‘The enzyine is ~ rather unexpectedly — able to withstand fairly high temperatutes and if Preseut ou Kernels in the kernel dryer, will pass right through the dryer and will ein active in the product after bagging up. ‘This danger was recognised as a result of a reseurch investigation by Profesor Loncia and Miss: Jacobsberg in Brussels and Jed to the develupaient of the kernel picheater ay an ‘tem of plant that precedes the kernel dryer itself, 8.6.2 Kernel Preheater/Surtace Dryer ‘As mentioned above there is the probability that mould will develop dusing storage ifthe ketuels ave duied insufficiently and the enzyme produced will caust a apid FPA set up. Thee is abo the possibility of mould developing in the kemncl diyer itself and of the euzyite sa formad ‘remaining active and bringing about rapid FFA rise during storage, ‘This secoud possibility was not recognised until fairy ceceutly. It arises from te fact that the wet kernels become infected with mould spores in the hydrocyclone bath and conditions within che dryer during the early stayes of drying are suitable for their growth. ‘This is became ‘though the temperature of the aic entering the top part of the dryer is telatvely high the free Evaporation of surtuce moisture from the keels keeps their surface temperature dow to the “wet bulb” teuiperature which is low enough to peamit growth to stait. The growth may not be sulfcient (0 show on the dried kemwels but enough enzyme may, nevettheless, be produced to make the FFA of the bogged product unstable, To avoid the development of mould growth withia the dryer all tat is necessary is for 102I Reet Kemel Betrection and Drying the kernels to be heated to a high enough temperature to kill any mould spores and for their surface to be dried before they enter the dryer. ‘This is the function of the preheater/surface dryer unit and the heating is achieved by injecting steam into the kemels as they pass continuously through the preheater. The kernels ‘emerge hot and with a surface film of moisture and this is evaporated by passing them through f rotating drum through which an air stream is directed, this part of the unit being known as the surface dryer. The original research work showed that heating with steam for one or two minutes in the laboratory followed by draining and air blowing for a minute gave kernels which still had an FEA of below 1%after 6 months storage, On a factory scale the process must be continuous and in one design of preheater the kernels are fed into a hopper, which is maintained fairly full, and withdrawn continuously from the bottom by a screw conveyor fitted with a draining section. They then pass through a rotating drum fitted with lifting arms through which warm air is blown in order to,surfuce dry them. ‘The hopper is of sufficient size to give several minutes holding time to the kemels and open steam is blown into the mass through perforated steam pipes. It is most important to ensure that the level of kernels in the hopper does not drop unduly otherwise the heating time will be reduced. This is achieved principally by making the serew con- veyor speed variable and adjusting it as far as possible to match the feed rate to the hopper. Variations in the feed rate are taken care of by the fitting of two level sensing probes (Bindicators) just below and just above the normal working level. Thee incorporate switches which ensure that the screw conveyor is stopped when the kernel surface drops to the lower level and starts again when it reaches the upper level. Large scale storage tests made on kernels that have been passed through a preheater surface dryer of this type and then properly dried show that an FFA of below 2% can be expected after six months storage. This is not quite as low as in-the original laboratory tests but is a con- siderable improvement on the results obtained with kernels which are not preheated, the PFA of which often reaches 4 or $% on out-turn after several months storage and shipment time. ‘The final FFA does depend to some extent on the proportion of broken kernels as it isfound that, even after preheating, the FFA in such broken kernels rises roughly twice as fast as in undamaged kernels. ‘Another factor that can affect the result is the development of mould on some kernels before the nuts are cracked. This can happen when nuts are damaged in pressing s0 allowing mould infection to reach the kernels. For this reason it is important to prevent the nuts from emaining for an unduly long time in the silos since the longer this time is the morg mould will develop and.the more the FFA will rise, Frequent complete emptying and cleaning out of the nut silos is also advisable for the same reason as some nuts will inevitably become “held up" in the silos and take very much longer than planned to pass through and any damaged nuts among them ean act as sources of infection. ‘Although the mould present on any infected kernels wil be killed when they pass through the preheater and the enaymes almost certainly inactivated by the temperature reached, the pre- heating cannot, of course, reverse any hydrolysis that will have taken place up to that moment, 103Kemel Dryers 8.63.1. Batch Type Dryers In small factories a batch type dryer is sometimes used. in its simplest form this need be no more than a flat concrete platform exposed to the sun on which the Kernels are spread in a thin layer. From time to time they are raked ovee to Fane al surfaces in turn to the air and after some days the kemels will have dried sufftently, Although the process is somewhat lengthy such sundried kemels will be much supetior i appearance to normal factory dried kernels as they will not have been discoloured by heat and ‘when cut the exposed surfaces will be white or light prey and none will be brown in colour. Sometimes such a platform will have steam pipes enbedded init in order to speed up the dying and this i usually advisable otherwise in the wet sason drying wil ether be incomplete or itl beso slow that mould will start to develop before dying has been completed. ‘Whether sun alone or sun assisted by steam heating is used it is necessary to provide a roof to prevent rain from wetting the kernels. This will usually be a portable structure that ean be owed Into place when rain starts to fall but in the case of a large steam heated platform it may be more convenient to use a permanent roof and to rely mainly on the steam heating for drying, ‘A more elaborate batch dryer that has been used in small factories is the Gordon dtyer. This is in the form of a horizontal cylinder which is nearly filled with Kernels and is rotseed about its axis whilst heated air is blows along an axial pipe and through radial air tubes embedded {n the kemnels, escaping through numesous perforated slits in the plates forming the surface of the cylinder. A typical dryer of this type might have a diameter of 6 feet and be 6 feet long and rotate at 31pm. This would dry a charge of kernels in 7 hours using alr at 75°C and the batch size would be 2 tons of dried kernels, 8.6.3.2 Continuous Type Silo Dryers ‘The type of dryer used almost exclusively in modern factories is the silo dryer. This s of static design, the only moving part being the shaker grid which controls the rate of outflow of dried kernels from the bottom of the dryer. In-use the dryer is maintained almost full of kernels and wet kernels are fed in at the {oP (preferably from preheater/surface dryer unit) and dried kernels are cemoved continuously from the bottom so as to keep the level of Kernels in the dryer practically constant. Drying is achieved by blowing a current of warm sir through the kemels. In the earlier [pe of silo dryer which was cylindrical in eross section, the air was warmed by a single steam Hater unit and blown into the bottom of a long central vertical cylindvical duct. The top of the cylinder was closed but there were a number of rectangular openings round the cylinder at several different levels through which the air could pass into the mass of Kernels ~ suitable conical shields preventing Kernels entering the cylinder. There were also some corresponding openings in the eylindcical wall of the slo itself through which air could escape and a proportion of the sit passed upwards and out through the top of the dryer. This type of dryer used air at a temperature of about 70°C and, as a result, the kernels Jeft the dryer at close to this rather high temperature, Furthermore because the alr flow was not 104 auou reKernel Extroction ond Drying uniform, but tended to follow. paths of least resistance, and the movement downwards of the Kemels themselves was also not uniform, due to the conical shape of the bottom of the dryer, some kernels were drier than others on leaving. Thus, although the average moisture content of the dried kernels could be satisfactory some individual kernels could be dried down to say ‘5% moisture whilst other kernels in the same bag might have perhaps 10% moisture content, ‘The result of this was often considerable oil exudation from the over-dried kernels because the latter heated up to the air temperature when drying almost ceased whereas the under-dried kernels, tended to keep cooler due to the continuing evaporation and so did not “sweat” in this way. Nevertheless oi! would transfer from the over-dried kernels to the remainder so slowing down the drying of the latter and resulting in the whole mass of Kernets becoming oily. In.some cir- cumstances oil would drip out of the bottom of the dryer, particularly if the temperature was raised further in an attempt to improve the drying rate which was reduced by the oiliness. Some improvement wes obtained by modifications such as by closing the air outlets in the silo to force all the air upwards and so reduce channelling but this was just an expedient and recent factories have all been equipped with the rectangular type of silo dryer which gives, much more satisfactory results ‘The latter design incorporates three main improvements which are as follows: (1) By making the cross section of the dryer rectangular it is possible to support the kernels by a fixed grid immediately under which is located a second grid that may be slowly oscillated, When the lower grid is at rest no kernels past out of the dryer but when it is moved slowly from side to side it is possible for kernels to escape at a fate that is determined by the amplitude of the oscillation. This amplitude may be adjusted and the kernel throughput rate thereby matched to the rate of feed to the dryer. The downward flow will be quite uniform i. similar at all points of the grid. Thisis in contrast to the cylindrical dryer where Kernels close to the wall have a longer path with more resistance and so progress more slowly through the dryer. ‘This uniformity of flow is only maintained if the grids are not allowed 10 become blocked in places by the accumulation of fibre etc. and periodical complete emptying and cleaning of the dryer may be necded to prevent this. (2) Instead of using one steam heater only, three are incorporated. The air from the fen is split into three streams each of which is heated independently by one of the heaters. This makes it possible for each of the air streams to be at a different tem- perature and normal practice is to use a high temperature in the top part of the dryer, a medium temperature in the middle and a low temperature — possibly with- ‘out any heating at all — in the bottom section. ‘The main reason for doing this is to take advantage of the fact that during the intial stages of drying the rate of evaporation of moisture is relatively rapid which requires a high air inlet temperature to carry away the water vapour. Furthermore because the evaporation is rapid the cooling produced by it is sufficient to avoid the kernels themselves in the top section of the dryer from healing up and becoming oily. 105i Kernel Extraction and Drying uniform, but tended to follow paths of least resistance, and the movement downwards of the kkemels themselves was also not uniform, due to the conical shape of the bottom of the dryer, some kemels were drier than others on leaving. Thus, although the average moisture content of the dried Kernels could be satisfactory some individual kernels could be dried down to say 5% moisture whilst other kernels in the same bag might have perhaps 10% moisture content. ‘The result of this was often considerable oil exudation from the over-dried kernels because the latter heated up to the air temperature when drying almost ceased whereas the under dried kernels, tended to keep cooler due to the continuing evaporation and so did not “sweat” in this way. Nevertheless oil would transfer from the over-dried Kernels to the remainder so slowing down the drying of the latter and resulting in the whole mass of kernels becoming oily. In some cir- cumstances oil would drip out of the bottom of the dryer, particulary if the temperature was ‘ised further in an attempt to improve the drying rate which was reduced by the oiliness, ‘Some improvement was obtained by modifications such as by closing the air outlets in the silo to force all the air upwards and so reduce channelling but this was just an expedient, and recent factories have all been equipped with the rectangular type of silo dryer which gives much more satisfactory results. ‘The latter design incorporates three main improvements which are as follows: (Q) By making the cross section of the dryer rectangular it is possible to support the kernels by a fixed grid immediately under which is located a second grid that may be slowly oscillated. When the lower grid is at rest no kernels past out of the dryer but when it is moved slowly from side to side it is possible for kernels to escape at a rate that is determined by the amplitude of the oscillation. This amplitude may bbe adjusted and the kernel throughput rate thereby matched to the rate of feed to the dryer. The downward flow will be quite uniform ic. similar at all points of ‘the grid, This is in contrast to the cylindrical dryer where Kernels close to the wall have a longer path with more resistance and so progress more slowly through the dryer. This uniformity of flow is only maintained if the grids are not allowed to become locked in places by the accumulation of fibre etc. and periodical complete emptying and cleaning of the dryer may be needed to prevent this. (2) Instead of using one steam heater only, three are incorporated. The air from the fan is split into three streams each of which is heated independently by one of the hheaters. This makes it possible for each of the air streams to be at a different tem- perature and normal practice is to use a high temperature in the top part of the dryer, a medium temperature in the middle and a low temperature ~ possibly with- ‘out any heating at all — in the bottom section, ‘The main reason for doing this is to take advantage of the fact that during the initial stages of drying the rate of evaporation of moisture is relatively rapid which requires a high air inlet temperature to carry away the water vapour. Furthermore because the evaporation is rapid the cooling produced by it is sufficient to avoid the kernels themselves in the top section of the dryer from heating up and becoming oily. 105