What is the process description of palm oil production?

Palm oil production is a complex sequence of operations designed to extract oil from the fruits of the oil palm. The palm oil production process involves several key stages, each playing a crucial role in determining the quality and quantity of the final product. Here's a detailed process description of palm oil production:

Raw material preparation of palm oil production process:

1. Harvesting:

The first step in palm oil production is the harvesting of ripe palm fruits from the palm trees. This is usually harvested by skilled workers who cut the palm fruit bunches by hand with long poles or using mechanical picking machines. Among them, the mechanized picking method not only improves the harvesting efficiency of palm fruit bunches, reduces the intensity of manual labor, but also reduces the safety risks during the picking process.

Palm fruit bunches transportation site

2. Sterilizing:

Once the bunches of palm fruits are harvested, they are transported to the palm oil production plants for sterilization. The bunches of palm fruits are put into large sterilizers and cooked at high temperatures to destroy the lipase in the pulp and prevent the free fatty acid content in the palm oil from increasing. At the same time, it also makes the bunches of palm fruits softer for subsequent palm oil production.

3. Threshing:

After sterilization, the palm fruits are then threshed to separate the palm fruits from the bunches of palm fruits. Common types of palm fruit threshing machines include simple type palm fruit threshing machine and drum type palm fruit threshing machine. If you need, Henan Glory Company can provide you with palm fruit threshing machines with different processing capacities.

Simple type and drum type palm fruit threshing machines

Palm oil pressing process of palm oil production process:

1. Digesting and Pressing:

After the above treatment, the palm fruits are digested to destroy their cell structures and improve the subsequent pressing efficiency. Then the digested palm fruits need to be pressed by a palm oil press machine to obtain crude palm oil. In this regard, according to your production scale and needs, Henan Glory Company can provide you with different types of palm oil press machines, such as single screw palm oil press machines or double screw palm oil press machines.

Palm oil digesting and pressing machines

2. Clarificating:

The crude palm oil obtained by pressing contains impurities and needs to be filtered through machines such as sand settling tanks, rotary vibrating screens and plate and frame filters to obtain clarified crude palm oil.

Palm oil refining process of palm oil production process:

1. Degumming:

The clarified palm oil then needs to go through a refining process, the first step of which is degumming. Impurities such as phospholipids in crude palm oil are removed by physical dry degumming or chemically by adding 85% or 75% food grade phosphoric acid.

2. Deacidificating:

After that, it is necessary to add a certain amount of NaOH at a certain concentration to carry out an acid-base neutralization reaction to inhibit the generation of free fatty acids, thereby increasing the storage time. After the neutralization reaction, a by-product soap stock (which can be used to produce soap) will be produced, and the deacidification can be completed after precipitation and discharge.

Palm oil refining machine

3. Decolorizating:

This process requires the addition of activated white clay as a decolorizing agent for physical adsorption, and then filtering machine is used to separate the oil and the decolorizing agent to achieve the purpose of decolorization.

4. Deodorizating:

Next, under high temperature of 220-260℃ and certain vacuum conditions, a certain amount of superheated steam is introduced to perform gas lift on the oil, and then deodorization can be achieved based on the different volatilization points of oil and odorous small molecules, further improving the quality of the oil.

5. Fractionating:

Finally, the refined palm oil obtained after refining processing can also be processed by fractionation to obtain palm olein and stearin products with different melting points according to market demand. It is then packaged into various forms, such as barrels, bags or bottles, for distribution and consumption.

Palm oil fractionating machine

In general, the palm oil production process is complex and meticulous, involving multiple steps and technical treatments to ensure the quality and stability of the final product. Modern facilities use advanced machines and adhere to strict operating procedures to maximize palm oil production, conserve resources and maintain ecological sustainability. If you have any questions about the palm oil production process or have any needs for palm oil production machines, please feel free to contact us!