National Research Development Corporation

PLANT PARAMETERS
Capacity, FFB* / Hr.	5
No. of shifts / day	3
Working days / Yr	240
Land Reqd., m2	1000
Covered Area, m2
MANPOWER
Managerial	2
Shift Incharge	3
Skilled	30
Unskilled	12
RAW MATERIAL(Per Hr.)
Palm Oil fresh fruit bunches	5
UTILITIES
Power, KwH/ day	350
Process water, M³	150
Steam, MT/ Hr.	4
PLANT & MACHINERY
Boiler	Sterliser
Rotary drum stripper	Digestor
Hydraulic press	Centrifuge
Bucket elevator

OIL PALM a Very high potential perennial oil crop c Yields 3

-5 tonnes oil per hectare per year c Large scale estates developed in South East Asia (Malaysia & Indonesia), W. Africa, Latin America c Most economical oil crop.

PALM OIL The second largest edible oil in the world c Annual production is 12 million tonnes (1992) c Nutritious oil rich in Pro-Vitamin A and Vitamin E c Source of edible and many industrial products c Popular cooking medium in India.

OIL PALM IN INDIA 7.0 lakh hectares Irrigable land identified for oil Palm in Southern India 10,000 hectares currently under oil palm, 80,000 hectares by 1997 and 200,000 hectares by 2000 AD Technology for palm oil extraction vital to match with the oil palm plantation development.

PROCESS

Palm oil is extracted from highly perishable oil palm fruit through wet processing. Factors such as over maturity of fruits, damage to fruits while harvesting, transport, delay in processing beyond 24 hours, result in bad quality oil and economic loss. These constraints, necessitates establishment of a captive palm oil mill (POM) for a given area of oil palm plantation. The essential steps are the following:

Harvesting: The fresh fruit bunches (FFB) of right maturity are harvested and transported without damage to the POM.

Sterilization: The FFB are sterilized at 3 kg/cm2 steam pressure for 60 minutes in a horizontal sterilizer.

Stripping: Sterilized bunches are stripped in a rotary drum stripper to separate the fruits from the bunches. Digestion: The loose fruits are converted to semisolid pulp in the digester.

Pressing: The digested mash is subjected to mechanical pressing. While hydraulic press is employed in small mills (1 tonne FFB/hr.), a continuous screw press is used in larger mills (5 tonne and above).

Clarification: The oil: water mixture from the press is separated into oil and water in a clarifier.

Purification: High speed centrifuge is used to remove the final solid impurities from the oil.

Vacuum Drying: Moisture content of the oil finally removed by vacuum drying. Thus a high quality edible grade red palm oil is produced.

Nut Recovery: Palm seeds are separated from the press cake in a seed recovery unit..

PRODUCT QUALITY

Free fatty acid level - <3.0%

Moisture level - <0.20%

* FFB – Fresh Fruit Bundles

National Research Development Corporation, a Government of India Enterprise, is a premier technology transfer Corporation with four decades of experience. It has helped establish over one thousand projects in the small and medium scale sector. The supply of technologies and services to entrepreneurs extend both in the developing and developed countries like USA, Germany, Malaysia, Burma, Nepal, Senegal, Madagascar, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Lanka, Kenya, Brazil, Bangladesh and Egypt.