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1. Oil characteristics

Oil palm belongs to the palm family. The main producing areas are distributed in tropical areas within 5-10 degrees north and south of the equator, such as Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Nigeria, Ghana, Mexico, Colombia, Congo, Tanzania and other places. It is a common tropical oil crop with a high oil content. Generally, fresh fruit pulp contains 46-50% oil, palm kernel contains 50-55% oil, and after processing, it produces about 20% crude palm oil and 3%. Crude palm kernel oil (Crude palm kernel oil).

Unlike other oil processing methods, the equipment used in the palm oil extraction process is also different and needs to be customized.

2. Palm Press

Normally, if you want to get palm oil, then palm pressing equipment is indispensable. As for how much palm oil processing equipment should be processed, you need to further confirm with the palm oil production equipment manufacturer. Combining Henan Zhongxing’s long-term experience in palm oil projects in different countries, we can give you the following suggestions (for reference only):

(1) If your processing capacity is 8-10 tons/day, we suggest you buy a small palm oil press of 300-500kg/h;

(2) If your processing capacity is between 10-100 tons/day, we recommend that you purchase a small palm pressing production line of 1-5 tons/hour;

(3) If your processing capacity is greater than 100 tons/day, it is best to communicate with our engineers, and we will customize the equipment program suitable for you according to your specific needs.

The standard palm oil pressing production process is as follows:

Palm fruit receiving → sterilization → threshing → crushing → pressing → crude oil purification → palm kernel recovery

(1) Palm fruit receiving section: The harvested palm fruit bunches are transported to the palm oil processing plant. After being weighed on a floor scale, they are transported to the palm fruit receiving platform, and then poured into the palm fruit slope for storage. When it needs to be processed, the unloading door is opened, and the palm fruit will fall to the conveyor and be transported to the sterilization section.

(2) Sterilization section: The so-called sterilization is to use 300kpa steam in the sterilization equipment to steam the palm fruit bunch at high temperature for about 60 minutes. The main purpose is to destroy the lipase in the pulp, so as to prevent the free fatty acid content in the oil from increasing. In addition, the high-temperature sterilization can make the fruit soft, facilitate mechanical threshing, and also facilitate the subsequent peeling of the core and reduce the damage of the kernel.

(3) Fruit threshing section: Oil palm fruit grains account for about 60% of the whole fruit bunch. The purpose of threshing is to separate the oil palm fruit from the fruit bunch.

(4) Mashing section: The purpose of mashing and cooking is to destroy the cell structure of palm fruit and mash the palm fruit into a paste to facilitate the extraction of oil in the pressing section.

(5) Squeezing section: Paste palm fruit that has been sterilized, de-fruited and mashed is fed into a continuous screw oil press for squeezing. After being pressed, the oil palm fruit is divided into two parts: a mixture of oil, water, solid impurities and pressed cake (fiber and core).

(6) Crude oil purification section: The machine-pressed crude oil is settled, filtered, centrifuged, vacuum-dried, and then pumped into a storage tank for storage.

(7) Kernel recycling section: After the pressed cake is crushed by the cake auger, it is transported into the fiber separation air net and fiber polishing drum for fiber separation. The separated fibrous material is sent to the boiler room as fuel; the separated fruit core needs to be dried by hot air drying equipment to reduce the moisture to less than 7%, and then transported to the nuclear warehouse for temporary storage.

Through palm pressing equipment, we can obtain crude palm oil, which can be consumed directly or sent to palm oil refining workshops for further processing.

3. Palm oil refining

According to the degree of continuity, palm oil refining equipment can be divided into batch type, semi-continuous type and full continuous type. Generally speaking, if the processing capacity is small, such as 1-20 tons/day, we recommend that customers use batch or semi-continuous refining equipment, and the processing capacity is larger, 30-50 tons/day, we recommend customers to use semi-continuous refining equipment Or full continuous refining equipment; if the tonnage is larger, more than 50 tons/day, we recommend that you use full continuous refining equipment, the oil will be better, and all kinds of consumption will be less.

The palm oil refining process is as follows:

Crude palm oil → degumming → deacidification → decolorization → deodorization → refined palm oil

(1) Degumming section: The method we use in actual production is hydration degumming, which is based on the principle that phospholipids dissolve in oil when they are anhydrous and precipitate out when exposed to water to remove phospholipids in crude oil.

(2) Deacidification section: There are always required free fatty acids in vegetable oils. In order to neutralize free fatty acids, our commonly used method is alkali refining.

(3) Decolorization section: The main purpose of decolorization is to remove the pigment components and impurities in the oil, so that the color of the finished oil is clearer. In the process of palm oil decolorization, our commonly used decolorization method is: adsorption decolorization.

(4) Deodorization section: The main purpose of deodorization is to remove substances that affect the odor and taste of oil, such as trace amounts of aldehydes, ketones, hydrocarbons, low-molecular-weight lipids, glycerol and phenol oxides, clay, and residual solvent odors.

After processing by palm oil refining equipment, we can get refined palm oil. Under normal circumstances, the palm oil refining section means the end of the palm oil production process, but if your palm oil has a special purpose and you want to further process palm oil, Henan Zhongxing can provide you with palm oil separation equipment .

4. Palm oil fractionation

Palm oil fractionation technology is a new oil processing technology. Our company’s new palm oil fractionation complete sets of equipment include new crystallization tanks, membrane filters and automatic control systems. Palm oil fractionation technology can be used to obtain palm oil products with different melting points of 8, 10, 14, 18, 24, 33, 44, 55 degrees. In general, palm oil fractionation technology can Greatly enhance the added value of oil products and increase the economic benefits of enterprises.

The process flow of palm oil fractionation is as follows:

Refined palm oil → heating section → crystallization section → filtration section → palm soft fat + palm stearin

(1) Heating

Under normal circumstances, refined palm oil becomes a solid-liquid separation state at room temperature. In order to separate palm palm oil and palm stearin, we need to heat palm oil to about 70°C to destroy the entire existing crystals.

(2) Cooling and crystallization

Cooling crystallization is an important step in the palm oil fractionation process. If the crystallization is successful, the separation is easy. Therefore, we need to reasonably control the crystallization time and crystallization rate to produce stable, uniform and filterable crystals. With years of R&D and installation experience, Henan Zhongxing can provide you with detailed technical parameters according to your palm oil quality to obtain good crystallization results.

(3) Filter

The main purpose of filtration is to separate the crystals into palm oil and stearin. The commonly used equipment in the filtration section is a membrane filter, which has a high yield of soft fat (70% to 75%), and the hardness of hard fat is also relatively large.

For decades, Henan Zhongxing has been committed to the development and production of complete sets of palm oil production equipment. Our palm oil production equipment has a competitive advantage in technology and price. If you are interested in palm oil processing equipment or palm oil refining and fractionating equipment, please contact us. Our palm oil production equipment engineers can design the corresponding production plan for you according to the processing volume and specific requirements.