Crude Palm Oil Refinery Plant In Nigeria
Project Name: 5tpd palm oil refinery and fractionation plant
Production Capacity: 5 tons per day
Factory Location: Harcourt Port, Nigeria
Crude edible oil to be processed: crude palm oil
Production Process: palm oil refining process includes degumming process, deacidification process, decolorization process, deodorization process; palm oil fractionation process includes heating process, crystallization process, filtration process;
Palm oil refinery technology
The purpose of palm oil refinery is to get rid of impurities in crude palm oil, so that the finished palm oil can achieve edible oil standards.
The basic palm oil refinery process
1. Crude palm oil filtering
The purchased crude palm oil shall be filtered first to remove suspended particles and other impurities before it can go further processing steps.
2. Palm oil degumming
Colloids include phospholipids, sugar, protein mixtures, trace metals and other impurities. Degumming is the process to remove these impurities. As the quality of raw oil largely determines the quality of the final product, the colloids in raw oil is an important factor that affects the quality of finished oil. The main technological process of palm oil degumming: crude oil–heat exchanger—(add acid) mixer –intermediate tank—(add alkali) mixer—centrifuge—(add water) mixer—intermediate—centrifuge– refined oil. The process adds phosphoric acid to the crude palm oil which is heated to 90 ~ 105℃ with intense stirring and mixing for about 3 minutes, then neutralize part of phosphoric acid with dilute alkali; till all the oil is centrifugally separated, add hot water to it and place it in a static way. Then centrifuge it by extremely high gravity acceleration. Finally, the content of phospholipids in degumming oil can be below 5 * 10-6.
3. Neutralization
Neutralization deacidification is a process that has a great influence on finished palm oil quality and price. If there is problem in neutralization process, it will bring difficulties to every process after decolorization, and reduce product quality and yield.
4. Decolorization
Decolorization is one of the most important processes in palm oil refining. In addition to removing pigment from crude palm oil, it can also reduce phospholipid content, peroxide value, soap content and metal ion content, thereby improving the color, flavor and oxidation stability of oil, and providing good conditions for further refining hydrogenation and deodorization of palm oil. At present, the most commonly used method of oil decolorization is activated clay adsorption decolorization, that is, the use of clay, which has a strong selective adsorption, to remove the pigment dissolved in oil or colloidal particles dispersed in oil pigments and other impurities under certain conditions.
5. Deodorization
Deodorization is a very important step in palm oil refining. In the oil deodorization process, in addition to achieve the purpose of deodorization, more emphasis is now placed on achieving unit operation at low temperature and short time to suppress the production of trans fatty acids, reduce the loss of tocopherol, reduce polymerization and the decomposition of vitamins (A, D, E). In order to prevent oxidation, degassing and direct steam are used before degassing to improve the deodorizing effect. Heat recovery can be achieved through heat exchange between cold oil and hot oil.
6. Fractionation
Fractionation is a special treatment for palm oil, that is, when palm oil is cooled to about 45℃ and kept for a certain period of time, the high melting point components will crystallize and precipitate. After secondary filtration, the high melting point components can be “separated” into three products with different melting points. These three products are: palm stearin, melting point≥40℃; palmitic acid, melting point about 30 C; liquid palm oil, melting point≤20℃. The yields of these three products are about 20%, 30% and 50% respectively, while the quality of refined liquid palm oil can reach the standard of high-grade cooking oil.