Red palm oil extraction process

Palm oil mill plant

The red palm oil extraction process is different with other oilseeds.The red palm oil has special extraction process which includes harvesting,sterilization,threshing,digesting & pressing and clarification.This article is aimed to give a brief description of how palm oil is extracted. How to make red palm oil from palm fruit?

Red palm oil extraciton process flow chart :

Small scale palm oil extraction process flow chart

Below you may find steps,how red palm oil is extracted from palm fruit.

Harvesting: The oil palm tree produces fresh fruit bunches all year round, but there are periods of high and low productivity. The majority of the oil is formed in the last two weeks of this process and a correct judgment of the ripeness is essential to assure a good production. The bunch is removed from the plant by hand with the aid of harvesting tools (sacho and scythe).

Palm fruit production process

Small scale red palm oil extraction machine photos:

Small scale palm oil extraction machine

The main steps of red palm oil extraction process:

Red palm oil extraction steps one-Sterilizer

Sterilization is the key step in red palm oil extraction process.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.

Red palm oil extraction steps one-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 palm fruit threshing machine is widely used in red palm oil extraction process which can instead of artificial.

Red palm oil extraction steps one-Digesting

Digestion is good for the red palm oil extraction process.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 oil cells, in order to make oil extraction easier. This process takes 30 minutes at 90 – 100 ºC.

Red palm oil extraction steps one-Pressing

Pressing is used in extracting palm oil from palm fruit. 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.

Red palm oil extraction steps one-Clarification

Clarification, Purification, and Packaging: This step also important in red palm oil extraction process consists of separation of oil from impurities (water and fine solids) made in settling tanks and three phase decanters. Recovered oil is then purified in plate centrifuges and dried under vacuum. Finally, the Extra Virgin Palm Oil is filtered to remove any remaining particulate matter and packaged in drums.

Oil Extraction Losses: Empty bunches and solids from clarification are used as organic fertilizers on certified organic plantation. Fibers still have around 7% oil and shells are used in the boilers as fuel. As a result, all extraction mills are able to generate their own electricity by steam turbines.

Red palm oil extraction steps one-crude red palm oil

After the above steps,  the final product is red palm oil as the following:

Red palm oil

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Generally,red palm oil extraction process is almost the same.But in order to meet customers' needs, we can customize palm oil extraction machine for our customers based on their production and budget.