ChE 331 PALM OIL & OLEOCHEMICAL PROCESS

SEMESTER 1, 2010

ASSIGNMENT 1

Students Full Name

: Melissa Rosdiana Dewi (7D6B4040)

Status

: Fourth Year Student

Name of Lecturer

: Florence Wong

Due Date: 19th March 2010

EFB

Shredder Station

Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB)

Kernel Silo

Bulking Silo

PK Despatch

Bunch Treshing

Fruit Digestion

Loading Ramp

The details description on the main basic features on the Palm Oil Mill Production based on above
diagram has been investigated ( Sarawak Palm Oil Site visit, 2010) as below:

Bunch Sterilization

a. FFB Receptions
The ripe Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) coming from the plantation is received in the receptions
stage to be weighed and selected in the Mill weighbridge. The unqualified FFB which are
unripe or overripe FFB are rejected and would not proceed to the next stage. The weighed
and approved FFB will be sent to the FFB loading ramp to be unloaded and then send to
the fruit cages for the sterilization purposes.
The engineer has to be carefully noted down all the FFB going in to the mill and take note
Reception (Weighing)

that this figure is very essential in order to calculate the efficiency as well as the yield of the
Palm Oil Mill. Furthermore, by calculating precisely, the company will not losing much on
their profit.
b. Sterilization
After FFB being weighed, the FFB will now proceed to the sterilization stage. Through this
sterilization stage the weighed FFB are expose to the hot sterilizer oven. Two cages at one
time and the total amounts of 15 kg FFB are required in order to let the FFB well cooked.
The purpose of sterilization process is to ensure that there is no more growth of Free Fatty
Acid and also to kill the bacteria. Furthermore, the cooked FFB will be transferred into
stripping / threshing stage using tipper or crane.
c. Stripping / Thresing
Screw Pressing
Cooked FFB will now dispatched by using thresher machine thus two types of output will be
produced: Empty Fruit Bunch and Sterilized Fruitlets. Empty Fruit Bunch will be transferred
Kernel Station

to Empty Fruit Bunch hopper to make compost while Sterilized Fruitlets is to be processed
Clarification - Purification

into digesters ( include impeller and expeller).

Depericarper
d. Oil Extraction
The qualified sterilized
fruitlets are pressed in the press station using screw press to extract
CPO despatching
the Crude Palm Oil (CPO). In the screw press, the sterilized fruitlets are diluted with water
to let the sludge and the oil mixed well.
The crude palm oil produced from the oil extraction stage is transferred to clarification stage
and purification stage to be separated from its sludge sans any contaminants.
Vacuum Dryer

e. Kernel Recovery
The other product that might produce from the Palm Oil Mill is the Press Cake which is
contains Fibre and Nut. The fibre from the press cake are sent to the fiber cyclone and then

Centrifu

send to the boiler as the fuel to produce steam which could generate the whole plant as well
as reduce the cost of buying the fossil fuels.
Nuts are to be transferred into Nut polishing drum (kernel station). The stones that might
appear is removed in the destoner while the nuts is sent to Nuts Silo. In addition, the
collaboration work between depericarper , claybath and hydroyclone is important here to
separate the kernel and the shell without damaging the kernel outlook and quality. The
qualified kernel will be sent to Bulking Silo and ready for dispatch whereas the shells are
useful as the boiler fuel to produce steam. Bear in mind that the smoke resulted from the
shell combustion are black in color, hence it might lead to worse air pollution, thus not all
the shell are use for power generation.
f. Palm Oil Purification
In the purification stage, the diluted crude oil (DCO) will be processed. In addition, DCO
will be retained inside the crude tank oil. Inside the crude tank oil, the skimmed oil will be
automatically separated, thus the skimmed oil will be transferred into skimmed oil tank and
retain together with the output from CS tank. The left over oil inside the crude tank oil is
sent to 1st stage desander to remove all the impurities followed by CS tank to let the sludge
settle down . After that, will be proceed to the 2 nd stage desander to remove the left over
impurities. Next, the oil is proceed to decanter ( three phase separator) to separate light
phase, heavy phase and solid. Decanter solid will be used for fertilizer whereas the light and
heavy phase will be sent to separator to separate the oil and the waste. The waste will now
dump to the wastewater treatment while the oil is going to the skimmer as clean oil and send
to skimmed oil tank. From skimmed oil tank, it has to be transferred into pure tank oil which
still containes 0.6-0.7% moisture, hence the vacuum dryer is used to take out the moisture
then get the dried oil. This dried oil is retain in the storage tank and waiting to be dispatch.

g. Steam Power Generation

Boiler station is one of the major systems inside Sarawak Palm Oil mill to generate the
steam to be supplied into steam turbine and process operation. The electricity for the input
of the whole plant will be supplied also by the set of engine room consisting generator set
and steam turbine to drive the electrical power generation.
h. Effluent Control
Generally speaking, all industry could not be separated from the vital thing called Waste.
The waste is always produced no matter what type of industry. The treatment for the Palm

Oil Mill waste is using open aerobic ponds with the existence of aerator or diffusers to
supply the air (or) oxygen. Before it is going to the environment, it is important to ensure
that all the quality parameters always stays in the range (approved by the standard regional
rules and regulations ). Some of the quality parameters that needs to be take into account are
the pH, COD, BOD, TN, TSS and Phenol (all stated in mg/L units).