Palm kernel oil, palm oil, and coconut oil are three of the few highly saturated vegetable fats; these oils give the name to the 16-carbon saturated fatty acid palmitic acid that they contain.

Palm kernel oil, which is semi-solid at room temperature, is more saturated than palm oil and comparable to coconut oil. It is commonly used in commercial cooking because of its relatively low cost, and because it remains stable at high cooking temperatures and can be stored longer than other vegetable oils.

Process Flow of Palm Kernel Oil Pretreatment Plant

Introduction of Palm Kernel Oil Processing Plant

The traditional palm kernel oil extraction method is to fry palm kernels in old oil or simply heat the dried nuts. The fried kernels are then pounded or ground to a paste in a motorised grinder. The paste is mixed with a small quantity of water and heated to release the palm kernel oil. The released oil is periodically skimmed from the top.

Today, there are stations in villages that will accept well-dried kernels for direct extraction of the oil in mechanised, motorised expellers.

There are several ways to extract oil from palm kernels.

Mechanical extraction processes are suitable for both small- and large- capacity operations. The three basic steps in palm kernel oil processing plant, there are kernel pretreatment, palm kernel pressing, and oil purification.

Mechanical Extraction

In the palm kernel oil processing plant, first of all, palm kernels should be well pretreated in order to extract the oil from the kernels efficiently. The feed kernels must first be cleaned of foreign materials that may cause damage to the oil presses, magnetic separators commonly are installed to remove metal debris, while vibrating screens are used to sieve sand, stones or other undesirable materials. A swinging hammer grinder, breaker rolls or a combination of both then breaks the kernels into small fragments. The kernel fragments subsequently are subjected to flaking in a roller mill. The kernel flakes are then conveyed to a stack cooker for steam conditioning, the flakes that leave the bottom nip are from 0.25 to 0.4 mm thick. In the palm kernel oil processing plant, the meals are normally cooked to a moisture content of 3 percent at 104-110°C.

The properly cooked meal is then fed to the oil press machine. The volume axially displaced by the worm diminishes from the feeding end to the discharge end, thus compressing the meal as it passes through the barrel.The expelled oil drains through the perforation of the lining bars of the barrel, while the de-oiled cake is discharged through an annular orifice.

Last but not least, the expelled oil invariably contains a certain quantity of ‘fines and foots’ that need to be removed. The oil from the presses is drained to a reservoir. It is then either pumped to a decanter or revolving coarse screen to remove a large part of the solid impurities. The oil is then pumped to a filter press to remove the remaining solids and fines in order to produce clear oil prior to storage. The cakes discharged from the presses are conveyed for bagging or bulk storage.

Solvent Extraction

Solvent extraction method is recommended for much bigger capacity oil mils, for small capacity oil extraction mills, the former method will be better. Solvent extraction processes can be divided into three main unit operations: kernel pre-treatment, oil extraction, and solvent recovery from the oil and meal.

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