Waris Selesa Palm Oil Mill, Sabah, Malaysia

History: Starting to Patented the Machine

The Germans were keen on introducing European methods of improvement. At the Agu plantation in Togoland, for example, the process employed there extracted the best palm oil obtainable, containing only 5 to 6 per cent, of fatty acid. And only as late as July 4th, 1914, Direktor Hupfield, of Togoland, told the Third International Congress of Tropical Agriculture that increase in exportation might be attained by (1) an extension of the districts capable of exporting by improvements in the means of transport ; (2) a more intensive utilisation of the existing palms through better methods of cultivation ; (3) a better utilisation of the crops obtained through improved methods of prepara-tion ; (4) an increase in the existing number of palms by increased activity of the present producers or the introduction of fresh producers ; and (5) methods of preparing the crop by machinery which have been elaborated within the last decade.

Both British and French are now taking up the matter more seriously, and several British firms, notably Lever Bros, and the Co-operative Wholesale Society, have taken up large concessions under European management.

Several important organised efforts have now been made to supplant the wasteful native method for recovering the yellow oil from the pericarp, by establishing modern plants within the area in which the oil palm flourishes. These modern plants offer one of the most favourable opportunities for the investment of capital, as the native labourer will soon find that the collection of fruit for these establishments is easier and more profitable than attempting to extract the oil himself. At the same time, users of palm oil in Europe will be furnished with a product which, on account of the large proportion of glycerine it contains and better average condition, will be of greater value than the variable and uncertain product that is now shipped by the West African native.

The cost of extraction by the native methods is from £10 to £12 a ton. Half that estimate should cover the cost by machinery under European management.

The problem of the mechanical extraction of palm oil has been approached from two standpoints- (1) the construction of small, cheap, portable machines capable of being worked by hand and of being transported from place to place as required ; (2) the erection of central factories dealing with large quantities of palm fruit by means of heavy, power-driven machines.

At least two hand-operated machines, very similar in principle, have been patented for the preparation of palm oil, in both of which the palm fruits are placed in a cylinder with hot water and submitted to the action of beaters, the oil and water being afterwards run off through a grid or sieve. The " Gwira " machine patented by Eglen (English Pat. 3357/1909) has been experimented with on the Gold Coast. The other machine, in which the palm fruit is beaten in hot water for extraction of the oil, is that of Phillips, a native of Lagos ; an early model of this machine was patented in 1907 (English Pat. 9733), and an improved form in 1912 (English Pat. 18370). It consists of a smooth cylinder mounted inside a cylindrical casing and around a shaft bearing beaters. The outer cylinder carries a water tank with a valve to control the flow of water, while the inner cylinder carries on the lower side a sliding sieve to separate the oil and water from the nuts and fibrous waste ; this arrangement of the sieve allows its removal so that the exhausted material can be discharged through a space in the inner cylinder. This machine was exhibited at the International Rubber and Tropical Products Exhibition held in London in 1914, and according to the advertisements issued at that time, it cost £5. Although little is known with regard to the efficiency of oil extraction by this machine, it should prove useful in econo-mising time and labour in the preparation of palm oil on a small scale by natives.

The first power-driven machinery for cracking palm nuts is believed to have been introduced into West Africa in 1877 by Mr. C. A. Moore, of Liverpool, and was devised by Messrs. Mather & Piatt, Ltd., of Salford. Hand machines were introduced about 15 or 20 years later.

In 1901 a prize offered by the Kolonial Wirtschaft-lichen Kommittee of the German Kolonialgesellschaft (Verhand. Kol. Wirt. Kom., 1909, No. 1, p. 54) was awarded for a complete set of small machines constructed by the firm of F. Haake in Berlin and designed to extract palm oil from the fruit and also to crack the nuts and liberate the kernels. Plant made by this firm was exhibited in 1909 in Berlin, and afterwards erected at Mamfe on the Cross River (Cameroons). Similar plant was also erected at Victoria in the Cameroons, and at about the same time a French firm erected a plant of French make at Cotonou in Dahomey. These early factories were all on a small scale, working about 5 tons of palm fruit per day.

Subsequent power machinery falls into two classes-(1) those in which the whole fruit is pressed without removal of the nuts, and (2) those in which the fruit pulp is removed from the nuts and pressed alone.

Noteworthy among the former are (a) the machines devised by Poisson and constructed by Louis Labarre, of Marseilles ; (b) the mill devised by Hupfeld and constructed by Messrs. Humboldt, of Cologne ; (c) the machine patented by Hawkins.
The most prominent of the second class was, before the war, that of Haake, of Berlin. Other machines have been patented by Buchanan and Tyrell, and by Dyer and Innes-Ward.
Complete plant for the preparation of palm oil in which the pulp is removed from the nuts and then pressed is made by A. F. Craig & Co., Ltd., Paisley, Scotland ; A. Olier et Cie., Argenteuil, France ; and Louis Labarre, Marseilles. The plant constructed by the first-mentioned firm is known as the Caledonia dry plant, and differs in method of working from most of the existing processes in not steaming or boiling the fruit or pulp with water before expression of oil. It is claimed for this process that neither the fruit nor the oil comes in contact with water, so that even if fatty acid and glycerine occur in over-ripe fruit no glycerine is lost. The process of depericarping is effected by a machine patented by H. G. Fairfax (English Pat. 18050/1914).

The oil, after being boiled, yields a pleasant and yellow-coloured fat, which is sometimes eaten and relished by Europeans residing in West Africa. Most of it, however, is exported to Europe and used for various purposes by the soap-maker and the chandler, not to speak of war purposes. Some oil is harder than others, notably that from thin pericarps; the softer oil is of two qualities, (a) Lagos and (b) ordinary soft oil, both of these oils fetching from £3 to £4 per ton more than the harder quality.
Soap-makers and other users of palm oil are now demanding a contract for their requirements, based on purity and on the first grade of oil containing not more than 18 per cent of free fatty acids. Many of the inferior grades will thus become unmarketable, except at a seriously depreciated price.
The softer the oil and the more glycerine therein (which varies in inverse proportion with the acidity) the greater its value.

The chemical and physical constants of the palm oil of commerce are: -

Specific gravity at -	• • •	0.9209 to 0.9245
		24° to 42.5° C.
Saponification value,	■ • •	196.3 to 205.5
Iodine value,		53 to 57.4
Reichert-Meissl value,	•	0.86 to 1.87
		94.2 to 97
Solidifying point of fatty acids varies from 35.8° to 464° C, usually
44.5° to 45.0° C.

The kernels or seeds contained in the nuts or "stones" of the oil palm are obtained by cracking the nuts by hand or by the aid of a nut-cracking machine, after the orange coloured palm oil has been extracted from the outer pulpy portion of the fruit. In Sierra Leone, this is, principally, the work of thousands of small farmers in the Colony and Hinterland, who, with wives and families, work at this industry during the season. Their produce is collected by agents and sub-agents representing the large trading firms.

The kernels are exported, and the expression of the kernel oil carried out in Europe. Palm kernel oil is white in colour and of rather softer consistence than palm oil. The kernel, when it reaches the mills, is treated either by the crushing or chemical extraction processes to obtain this oil. The oil forms about 50 per cent, of its contents, and has a very high commercial value, being sold at about £40 per ton in peace time, and at a much higher figure during war. Formerly employed solely in the manufacture of soap, candles, etc., palm kernel oil has latterly been more and more in demand among the makers of edible products, such as " nut-butter," chocolate fats, etc. Before the great World War, most of our supplies of this oil were imported from the Continent. Now that the question of the people's food supplies has become one of vital moment to the country, the production of large quantities of wholesome nut-butter, sold at almost one-third the price of ordinary butter, and manufactured entirely within our own borders from produce supplied by British Colonies, may be regarded as a factor of no small importance in furthering the national policy by facilitating domestic economy.
Before the war the Germans imported kernels from Liverpool, and then sent the oil back to that port and undersold the Liverpool crushers.

History: First Palm Oil Mill in Malaysia

The first palm oil mill in Malaya at Tennamarain Estate, Batang Berjuntai, Selangor.

Oil palm was first planted commercially in Malaya in 1917 by Frenchman Henri Fauconnier.

Derived from what was originally considered a decorative plant, palm oil is today the highly versatile and valued commodity at the centre of many industries. Malaysia is the world’s largest producer and exporter of palm oil, accounting for 45 per cent of world output and 51 per cent of world exports in 2005. In addition to its export in crude form, palm oil—like rubber before it—has successfully generated numerous other downstream activities, including processing, refining, research and development and end-product manufacturing.

The Purpose of Boiler Chemicals

Alkalinity, Amines, Phosphates or polymers, and Sulfites are essential to preserve the life of a low pressure boiler. Here is the purpose of each boiler component.

Alkalinity is used to increase the boiler water pH to above 10.5. This serves three purposes. pH above 10.5 will decrease your overall corrosion rates, it will keep a 3:1 ratio of total alkalinity to silica, and it allows the polymer to react with calcium. A 3:1 ratio keeps silica from plating in the boiler. A low pH will result in an over general corrosion appearance on your boiler tubes.

Amines are used to increase the condensate pH to a range of 7.8 to 8.7. When generating steam, carbonic acid forms and as a result your steam pH is low. Amines are volatile and when introduced into the steam header or boiler water, amines will increase the condensate pH. A low pH will lead to excessive condensate pipe corrosion.

Phosphates and polymers are used to react with any calcium in the water. The polymer attaches itself to the calcium. The polymer and calcium then is able to exit the boiler through the surface or bottom blowdown. Phosphate reacts with the calcium and sinks the calcium to the bottom of the boiler. When using phosphates you must perform boiler blowdown daily to release the phosphate and calcium. Failure to use a polymer or phosphate will result in calcium build up on the tubes or as some call it boiler scale. This will decrease the over boiler efficiency and will drastically increase your fuel cost.

Sulfites are used to remove any dissolved oxygen from the water. Dissolved oxygen enters the boiler in make up water or as air is sucked into the system. Dissolved oxygen is extremely corrosive to your tubes and localized pits will form, ultimately resulting in premature tube failure. Maintain a 20 to 40 ppm residual of sulfite in your boiler water.

Remember water expands 100,000 times when changing from a liquid to vapor phase. A typical home water boiler 30 gallon system has enough energy to throw a 2,000 pound car over 100 feet in the air if catastrophically failed. Every year people die from not implementing a basic water treatment program.

That is boiler water treatment made simple for less then 200 psi boilers.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3792536

Process Schematic at Palm Oil Mill Factory

Vertical Sterilizer

Machineries & Processing at Palm Oil Mill Plant

Boiler Water Treatment in Palm Oil Mills

Having several years of experience working with biomass-fired boilers in palm oil mills, I can say that boiler water treatment in palm oil mills is a challenging task if compared with industrial boilers. Unlike industrial boilers which rely heavily on condensate return and industrial water for boiler feed water makeup, the source of raw water for boiler feed water in palm oil mills comes from lake, river, or well. Relatively not much condensate can be recovered in palm oil mills due to the high amount of unrecoverable sterilizer condensate and the application of live steam in some of the process heating. In palm oil mills, low cycle of concentration is not uncommon which indicates more chemicals are wasted through blowdowns.

The raw water from natural resources is high in impurities, turbidity, dissolved gases, and mineral content. Sometimes algae, mud and oil could be present and silica is particularly a problem in water from lakes, and this scenario complicates treatment further. Lack or inadequate water treatment is dangerous as it may cause scaling and corrosion which affect the reliability, efficiency, and safe operation of the boiler.

In general, boiler water treatment consists of external and internal water treatment. External water treatment refers to conditioning boiler feedwater by removing impurities, hardness, oil, oxygen, dissolved and suspended solids, outside the boiler and usually accomplished by mechanical means such as continuous clarifier, pressure sand filter, water softener, and deaerator. Because it is not possible to obtain a perfect boiler feed water by external water treatment, an internal water treatment, which mainly by chemical means, shall be employed. All boiler engineers must be aware that the external treatment of boiler feedwater must be emphasized since more chemical addition in the boiler is undesirable.

In industrial boilers, the removal of turbidity and suspended matters is already done by the municipal water treatment system. This is however a different story in palm oil mills. The external treatment for boiler makeup (feedwater) consists of pH adjustment, coagulation, flocculation, sedimentation, filtration, water softening, and finally, deaeration. Soda ash is added if the pH of the water is low. Soda ash acts as pH adjustment because coagulant functions at pH ranges over 5.5 to 8.0. The coagulation chemicals are dosed into the inlet pipe leading to the bottom of a continuous water clarifier. Coagulation and flocculation are the basic steps in boiler water treatment to reduce turbidity, organic substances, and color of raw water. Coagulation neutralizing the negative charges on colloid surfaces, allowing the particles to agglomerate to form floc, which is slow settling. The most common coagulants are aluminum sulfate (alum), sodium aluminate, and polyaluminum chloride (PAC). Synthetic polymers called polyelectrolites have been developed for coagulation process. Flocculation is further agglomeration of slowly-settling coagulated particles into large rapidly-settling floc with the addition flocculant such as organic polymer (starch) or synthetic polymer such as polyacrylamide (PAM) to attach and bridge between particles to form larger agglomerates.

From the natural resources, the water is pumped by booster pumps into the continuous clarifier to allow flocs to settle down. The water rises with decreasing velocity and the resultant floc forms a sludge blanket at the upper part of the conical section. The clarifier is blowdown periodically to remove the heavy sludge, which settled at the bottom while clear water is transported to a clear water tank before passing through a pressure sand filter where solids escaped from the clarifier and fine particles are filtered and removed. Normally, the sand filter removes fine particles up to 10 μm. Sand filters normally contain sands and gravels, 100% anthracite, or combination of sand, anthracite, and gravel. Sufficient water reservoir is maintained in the overhead tank and if the level of water in the tank becomes low, the operation of boilers could be affected. In water softener, sodium zeolite ion-exchange process is used to remove hardness. The function of a softener is to remove water hardness (calcium and magnesium) using ion exchange process. Normally sodium zeolite is used and a softener would contain 30~36" of synthetic ion exchange resin. For example, calcium bicarbonate, Ca(HCO3)2 dissolves in water and split up to Ca2+ and (HCO3)-. In ion-exchange process, Ca2+ is removed by replacing sodium ion using resin ion-exchange bed which is covered with Na+ ions. Here in palm oil mills, the softeners are prone to bio and iron fouling. Soft water is then pumped into the deaerator for deaeration. The pressurized deaerator operates by allowing steam into the feed water through a pressure control valve to maintain the desired operating pressure, and hence temperature at a minimum of 105°C. The steam raises the water temperature causing the release of O2 and CO2 gases that are then vented from the system. This type can reduce the oxygen content to 0.005 ppm. The water produced is oxygen-free therefore oxygen corrosion in the boiler can be avoided.

The internal treatment involves the addition of reactant chemicals such as sulfite, sodium phosphate, chelates, polymers, and caustic, which each has different function in treating boiler water. To prevent oxygen corrosion, the chemical known as oxygen scavenger is added. The common oxygen scavengers are sulfite, hydrazine, and DEHA. Hydrazine however should be avoided because it is carcinogenic.. Phosphate prevents scaling by precipitating calcium as calcium triphosphate or hydroxylaptite, which can be removed via blowdown.

Horizontal Sterilizer (Un-Fired Pressure Vessel)

Palm Oil Mill Factory

Palm Oil Processing (producing Crude Palm Oil & Palm Kernel)