Palm oil mill process

Figure 1: Crude palm oil is extracted from oil palm by palm oil mill process machinery
 

Figure 2: Each station of palm oil mill plant

Palm oil is extracted from fresh fruit bunches (FFB) by a mechanical process, where a palm oil mill  plant commonly handles 60-100tph of FFB.

A typical palm oil mill has many operational units as shown in Figure 2. This comprises of sterilization, threhsing, digesting and pressing, clarification, purification, drying and storage. For the palm kernel oil production line, there are steps such as nut/fiber separation, nut conditioning and cracking, cracked mixture separation, and kernel drying and storage. The dried kernels are often sold to palm kernel crushers for extraction of crude palm kernel oil. In some integrated plants, kernel crushing facilities exist side by side in the same complex.

Production capacity:60-120TPH
Work flow of palm oil mill process:

Figure 3: Palm oil mill process workflow

Palm oil mill process flow chart ( click here to view larger diagram)
 

Figure 4: Palm fruit reception station
 

Figure 5: Horizontal type palm fruit sterilization machine
 

Figure 6: This picture is drum type palm fruit threshing machine
 

Figure 7: Palm fruit digesting and pressing machine
 

Figure 8: Crude palm oil clarification machine
 

Figure 9: Palm kernel recovery station
 

Batch type palm oil refinery plant


Semi-continuous palm oil refinery plant
 

Palm oil refining process diagram

Main Steps of palm oil refinery：
1.Degumming.
In this step gums in crude oil are removed by hydration with the help of phosphoric acid. Degumming is the first step for the whole palm oil refinery process.
2. Neutralization.
In this step free fatty acids are neutralized by using sodium hydroxide and convert them into soap. Additional impurities are also removed by adsorption on soap.Neutralization is also called deacidification, it is the important part for palm oil refinery.
3. Bleaching.
During bleaching, unwanted pigments are adsorbed physically and oil will become much clearer. Bleaching is also decolorization in palm oil refinery.
4. Deodorization.
Deodorization is used to remove unacceptable odors by steam distillation, the odoriferous compound are stripped off with the help of live injected steam into heated oil under high vacuum pressure.  Deodorization is mainly for making oil color lighter during palm oil refinery process. Which can make oil looks good.