Main Palm Oil Extraction Can Be Classified Six Steps

Palm oil is composed of fatty acids, esterified with glycerol like all fat. Unlike all fat, it is high in saturated fatty acids, which are solid at room temperature. Palm oil is popular in Africa countries. Many tropical locations, such as Africa, have large-scale palm oil mills that extract oil using mechanized equipment. Palm Oil Extraction is necessary for making palm oil. The in the follow text, we introduce the Palm Oil Extraction Process in detail. In general, palm oil extraction can be classified six steps:
The main extraction steps are:
Sterilization: The bunches are cooked with live steam for 90 – 120 minutes. Sterilization objectives are: Lipase enzyme inactivation, making fruits easily release from bunches, making fruits softer, making nut/pulp separation easier, and coagulation of proteins.

Threshing: After bunches are cooked they are fed to the thresher which is a drum with holes in the side where bunches are centrifuged to separate the fruits. The bunch waste is incinerated and the ash, a rich source of potassium, is used in a compost.

Digestion: Digestion is the process of releasing the palm oil in the fruit through the breaking down of oil-bearing cells. Fruits are lifted by a cup elevator to the top of the digester vessel. This vessel contains a live steam heating system and agitator shafts. The main aim during digestion is to break oily cells, in order to make oil extraction easier. This process takes 30 minutes at 90 – 100 ºC.

Pressing: Pressing is made just after the material leaves the digestion vessels and it produces a slurry made of approximately 53% oil, 40% water and 7% solids and also a cake that consists of fiber and nuts. Method of pressing could be dry or wet. Dry method is oriented on squeezing the oil out of the mixture of oil, moisture, fibre and nuts by applying mechanical pressure on the digested mash. Wet method uses hot water to leach out the oil.

Clarification, Purification, and Packaging: This step consists of...