Palm Oil Refinery Plant

We can offer turnkey palm oil refinery plant solutions from plant layout design, machinery manufacturing, onsite debugging and installing. The production capacity ranges from 1 ton/d up to 400 ton/day. Send ~us an inquiry if you are interested in start palm oil refining line or factory. We are always glad to give suggestions for your business!

Depending on the level of automation, palm oil refinery plant can be divided into the following three categories:

1.Batch Refinery Plant: 1TPD，2TPD， 3TPD， 5TPD，10TPD，15TPD, 20TPD, 30TPD. (Suitable for mini and small palm oil refining factory)
2.Semi-continuous Refinery Plant: 15TPD，20TPD.30TPD (Suitable for middle-sized palm oil processing plant)
3.Continuous Refinery Plant: 30TPD ,50TPD,100TPD,200TPD,400TPD (Suitable for industrial scale palm oil mill plant)

Crude Palm Oil (CPO) is mainly further processed into edible oil for food purpose. To meet the international industry’s standards for edible oil, the crude palm oil produced by oil mills should be refined in palm oil refinery plant. Palm oil refinery process mainly includes palm oil degumming, palm oil deacidification, palm oil bleaching and palm oil deodorization.

The refining process removes water, odouriferous matter, phosphatides, free fatty acids and other impurities including dirt and traces of metals from palm oil mill. After processed in palm oil refinery plant, the final oil product is a kind of premium edible oil of consistent quality which not only satisfies customer requirements and industry’s standards in respect of Iodine Value, FFA, flavor, color, melting point, peroxide value, impurities and moisture.

Basic Steps of Edible Oil Refining Process

  • Step 1: Remove the easily hydratable phospholipids by degumming with water.
  • Step 2: Convert the remaining on-hydralable phospholipids into hydratable phospholipids.
  • Step 3: Adding a slight excess of sodium hydroxide solution to neutralize the free fatty acids. Then, wash out the hydrated phospholipids and soaps;
  • Step 4: Bleaching with natural or acid-activated clay minerals to adsorb colouring components and to decompose hydroperoxides.
  • Step 5: Remove volatile components through steam distillation process under elevated temperature (180-220°C) and low pressure (2-6 mbar).

Physical Refinery Vs. Chemical Refinery

Crude palm oil can be processed by either physical refining (distillative neutralization, steam stripping) or chemical refining (alkaline refining) to produce RBDPO and NBDPO. RBDPO refers to refined, bleached and deodourised palm oil, while NBDPO refiers to neutralised, bleached and deodourised palm oil.

  • Physical Refining of Palm Oil

Physical refining is also known as steam refining. In degumming process, it utilizes citric acid or food grade phosphoric acid to remove natural gums in the form of phosphatides. Then, in bleaching process, under vacuum, Fuller’s Earth is used to remove colouring matters and adsorb any metal ions. The deacidification and deodorization process is under high temperature and low pressure. By used of live steam, the FFA is stripped of. The steam is then recovered together with the entrained oil is as palm fatty acid distillate. The off-flavors and odours can also be removed from the crude palm oil in the steam distillation process. Before polishing, the refined oil needs to be cooled to 55°C.

Physical palm oil refining process is the most common used type in palm oil processing industry. It is featured of low production cost, high efficiency, simple production process and low effluent load.

  •    Chemical Refining of Palm Oil

In the chemical refining process, the FFA is removed by neutralisation with caustic soda (sodium hydroxide). This chemical reaction produces neutralised CPO and a soap stock. By used of a high-speed separator, the soap stock can be separated from the oil. Then, through earth bleaching, colour pigments and metal ions are removed from the neutralised oil. Then, in deodorization process, odoriferous matters such as ketones and aldehydes are removed by steam distillation under vacuum.

When refining crude oil with high carotene content, high initial FFA (up to 5%) and low phosphatides, chemical oil refinery plant is suggested, considering operating costs and refining losses.

  • What is a palm oil refinery?
  • Palm oil refining is aim to remove phospholipids, FFA, pigment, gums, waxes, off-flavor and other impurities in the crude palm oil . The main process of palm oil refining processes are: degumming & deacidification , decolorization and deodorization. Chemical refining and physical refining of crude plam oil.
  • What is the physical refining process of palm oil?
  • Physical refining of palm oil requires crude palm oil to pass through three main processing steps, namely, degumming, bleaching in the pretreatment step, and also deodorization, for its purification into refined bleached and deodorized palm oil.
  • How to make refined palm oil?
  • Physical and Chemical Process in Palm Oil Refining Plant
    In order to get the pure and refined oil, there are three main process in chemical palm oil refinery plant and chemical palm kernel oil refinery plant: degumming process, bleaching process and deodourising process.
  • How do you refine high quality palm oil?
  • In order to meet edible standards, crude palm oil needs to go through a series of processes. It mainly includes four steps of degumming, deacidification, decolorization and deodorization. During the entire palm oil refining process, due to different process requirements, the machine materials used are different.
  • How does an oil refinery plant work?
  • The crude is heated by a furnace and is sent to a distillation tower, where it is separated by boiling point. Then the material is converted by heating, pressure or a catalyst into finished products including fuels like gasoline and diesel, and specialty products like asphalt and solvents.
  • What is the difference between palm oil and refined palm oil?
  • You can find two main types of palm oil in shops: unrefined and refined. Unrefined palm oil keeps its natural color and nutrients. On the other hand, refined palm oil loses some nutrients due to processing. But, it has a longer shelf life.
  • What is the waste of palm oil refinery?
  • The industry generates substantial amounts of waste — including empty fruit bunches (EFBs), palm oil mill effluent (POME) and palm kernel shells (PKS). There are ongoing efforts to manage these wastes more effectively and sustainably.
  • Why is refining palm oil important?
  • The main purposes of palm oil refining process is to purify the oil and remove impurities through degumming，deacidification, decolorization and deodorization process and then obtain pure and relatively non-impurities of high-quality edible oil.
  • What are the steps in refining palm kernel oil?
  • The detailed refining steps of crude palm kernel oil generally includes four steps: degumming, deacidification, decolorization, and deodorization． (Related reding: How does the palm oil refinery plant work?) Degumming is the removal of phospholipids in crude edible oil.
  • What is the difference between physical and chemical refining of palm oil?
  • The difference between physical refining of palm oil and chemical refining of palm oil lies in the way that how to remove FFA. Chemical refining removes the FFA in the deacidification section while physical refining removes the FFA in the deodorization section.
  • What is the process of physical refinery?
  • In general, physical refining includes the following three main processing steps: Degumming to remove phosphatides. Bleaching and filtration to eliminate color pigments. Deodorization allows the elimination of free fatty acids and other volatile compounds.
  • What are the basics of a refinery?
  • How Does a Simple Refinery Operate? All refineries have three basic steps: separation, conversion and treatment. During the separation process, the liquids and vapors separate into petroleum components called factions based on their weight and boiling point in distillation units.
  • What are the products of palm oil refinery?
  • 90% of RBD palm oil and its products are used for food, and the remaining 10% is used to produce soap noodles and the production of oleochemicals. RBD palm oil is used to manufacture fried
  • What are the benefits of refined palm oil?
  • Refined palm oil is made by bleaching, deodorizing, and neutralizing crude palm oil. People use palm oil for preventing and treating vitamin A deficiency. It is also used for malaria, heart disease, cancer, and many other conditions, but there is no good scientific evidence to support these other uses.
  • What is the waste of palm oil refinery?
  • The industry generates substantial amounts of waste — including empty fruit bunches (EFBs), palm oil mill effluent (POME) and palm kernel shells (PKS). There are ongoing efforts to manage these wastes more effectively and sustainably.
  • What are the three basic steps in the refining process?
  • From powering vehicles and heating buildings, to paving roads and manufacturing petrochemicals, crude oil is used in a myriad of contexts. But before the resource can be sold as a finished product, it needs to undergo three major stages of refining: separation, conversion and treating.