Palm fruit processing during palm oil production

Raw material handling and monitoring

Bundles of palm fruit bunches are transported by truck to the production site. To separate the fruits and dehydrate them by 10%, they are sterilized with steam at around 120°C in a sheller. The stems and leaves are mechanically separated in a threshing machine. The next step is the "digestion" process, which releases the oils by breaking down the cell walls. The resulting hot fluid contains free oils, fibers and seeds. The fluid is then sent to an aqueous clarifier to separate the oil-water mixture. Here, the oil floats on the water and the sludge sinks to the bottom of the tank. The oil drawn from the top is further cleaned in another separator to remove remaining solids. The sludge at the bottom still contains a certain amount of oil and will be processed again in another clarifier. The resulting oil is also pumped into the buffer tank.