Faculty of Science and Engineering

Department of Chemical Engineering

CHEN3006 Palm Oil and Oleochemical Process

Assignment
Semester 1 2018

Name: Kevin William Joseph

Student ID: 18871540 / 700014111
Submission Due Date: 12th April 2018
Lecturer: Dr.Wendy

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Contents
Task 1: Process Flow Diagram ................................................................................................................ 1
Task 2: Downstream processes to Achieve Waste Reduction in Palm Oil Mill ................................ 3
Task 3: Palm Kernel................................................................................................................................... 4
Task 4: Hazards ......................................................................................................................................... 5

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Task 1: Process Flow Diagram

Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB)

Steam Sterilization Condensate

Threshing Empty Fruit Bunch

(EFB)

Digestion

Vibrating Crude Palm Pressing Press Cake

Screening Oil

Nut and Fiber

Clarification Fiber
Separation -
- Separation Depericarper
Tank
- Vacuum Dryer
Destoner

Desanding
Nut Cracking (
Ripple Mill)
Decanter

Air Separation Dry Shell

Separator

Palm Oil
Water
Separation Wet Shell
(Hydrocyclone)

Kernel Drying
Silo

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Kernel
 One of the key processes in crude oil processing mill is sterilization. Fresh fruit bunches
(FFB) are placed in either horizontal, vertical or continuous sterilizer units where steam
produced by a boiler is pass through the units. The main objective of sterilizing the palm fruits is
to allow the individual fruits from the FFB to loosen from the bunch for the threshing process
and to prevent formation of free fatty acids (FFA) which are caused by the enzymes in the palm
fruit which is unwanted in palm oil (Subramaniam,2010). The steam is pass through the
sterilizing unit for approximately 80 to 90 minutes which is then transferred to the threshing unit.

In the threshing unit, the sterilized palm fruit is continuously rotated in a mesh rotating drum
until all the sterilized fruits are stripped from the bunch stalks (Lam and Keat, 2011). The
digestion unit then mashes the sterilized fruit with steam at approximately 80-90°C and with
mechanical rotating arms inside the digester, it loosens the mesocarp and it is then channeled
to a mechanical press machine to extract the crude palm oil (Lam and Keat, 2011). During the
pressing process, screw presses squeeze most of the crude palm oil (CPO). However, the CPO
contains a mixture of oil, water and fruit solids so it then passed through a vibrating screen to
separate out the fiber and dirt from the crude oil. The CPO is then sent to a continuous settling
tank (CS tank) to separate the sludge in the oil where it will settle at the bottom and taken for
further processing and wet CPO which is removed from the top. The wet and clean CPO is sent
to a pure oil tank and then sent to a vacuum dryer to remove moisture from the oil. Once the
moisture is removed, the CPO is then stored in CPO storage tank. The underflow from the CS
tank is then sent to a desander which removes sand from the sludge using a centrifugal force to
ensure the decanter is not damaged. The decanter is then used to separate oil from sludge,
water and solid by using centrifugal force. The remaining CPO is then sent to a separator which
then further separate oil from the sludge, water and solid and then is sent back to CPO storage
tank.

The pressed cake which is obtained from the pressing process can be processed to obtain
palm kernel. The pressed cake is sent to a Depericarper which separates the fibers from the nut
where the fibers will be utilized as boiler fuel for steam production. The nuts are then sent to a
destoner to remove any stones that remained mixed with the nuts. The nuts are then sent the
ripple mill where the nuts will be cracked and then sent to a Light and Tidy Debris Separation
(LTDS) where air is used to separate the kernel from the shell. The remaining nuts are sent to a
hydrocyclone which uses water to separate the remaining kernels from the shell. The kernels
are the sent to a drying silo where it will be dried using hot air.

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Task 2: Downstream processes to Achieve Waste Reduction in Palm Oil Mill

Based on the flow chart constructed in Task 1, it was found that there were multiple side
products obtained which are fiber, dry shell, wet shell, empty fruit bunch (EFB) and palm oil mill
effluent (POME). One of the ways where fiber and shells can be utilized is as fuel for the boiler
which produces steam for the sterilization process. The EFB on the other hand can be used as
compost or as fuel for the boiler unit. The POME can be utilized to produce biogas using
anaerobic microbes in a 2 liters continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) (Irvan, 2017). The main
advantages of using fiber, shells and EFB as boiler fuel is that it reduces the operation cost for
the boiler as less fuel is required to be purchased for it. However, the main disadvantage is that
the fiber, shells and EFB is that cannot be a substitute for the main fuel used in the boiler as it
does not provide enough energy to continuously run the boiler (Subramaniam,2010). All though
POME can be converted into biogas, the process is very time consuming as it takes
approximately 36 days to achieve maximum production (Irvan, 2017).

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Task 3: Palm Kernel

The palm kernel is extracted from the palm fruit nut which is the seed of the fruit. With the
palm kernel, palm kernel oil can be extracted from the seed which has high content of lauric
fatty acid and makes it suitable for production of soaps in the industry. Other than the oil content
in the palm kernel, the palm kernel shell as well provides additional fuel for the boilers used to
sterilize the fresh fruit bunch. Table 1 and Table 2 shows the chemical and physical
characteristics of palm kernel oil which can be extracted from the kernel.

Table 1: Chemical Properties of Palm Kernel Oil

Table 2: Physical Properties of Palm Kernel Oil

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Task 4: Hazards

One of the main hazards in a palm oil mill is the potential fire hazard caused by fiber, shells
and empty fruit bunch (EFB). As all the material is highly flammable care should be taken to
avoid exposing them to fire sources. Another potential hazard is 1st degree burns from the boiler
or the sterilizer. As the fresh fruit bunch (FFB) will be blasted with steam in the sterilizer and
boilers producing steam, workers need to be aware that the machine is in operation as
wondering near the machinery could result in severe burns. A countermeasure to prevent an
unnecessary incident to occur is to install red flashing lights to let everyone know that the
machine is operational. Another hazard that needs to be addressed is the press machine, as the
screw presses are expose extra care needs to be taken especially when approaching this
machinery to ensure no one gets into the press screws. A precaution that can be take is to
ensure machinery is turn off before approaching for maintenance or inspection.

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References

Irvan, B. Trisakti, Y. Tomiuchi, U. Harahap, and H. Daimon. 2017. “Effect of Recycle Sludge on
Anaerobic Digestion of Palm Oil Mill Effluent in A Thermophilic Continuous Digester.” IOP
Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering 206 (1).
https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/206/1/012094.

Lam, Man Kee, and Keat Teong Lee. 2011. “Renewable and Sustainable Bioenergies
Production from Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME): Win-Win Strategies toward Better
Environmental Protection.” Biotechnology Advances 29 (1). Elsevier Inc.: 124–41.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2010.10.001.

Subramaniam, Vijaya, Choo Yuen May, Halimah Muhammad, Zulkifli Hashim, Yew Ai Tan, and
Puah Chiew Wei. 2010. “Life Cycle Assessment of the Production of Crude Palm Oil (Part
3).” Journal of Oil Palm Research 22 (DECEMBER): 895–903.