It is a 10ton/day palm kernel oil mill plant including refining and fractionation machinery, and constructed 4PC 300metric tons oil storage tanks,also set up filling line and lab instrument.. The refining plant is based on semi-continuous refining process. Degumming and deacidification process is batch and deodorization process is continuous. Fractionation process adopts PLC control system.

How to Buid a Palm Kernel Oil Processing Plant?

The economic benefits and importance of the oil palm tree cannot be overemphasized in today’s vegetable oil market. Some of its byproducts include palm kernel cake, palm oil, and palm kernel oil. Today we seeks to respond to the common questions that many interested entrepreneurs have in mind concerning the production of palm kernel oil. It gives you tips about investing on palm kernel oil refining in Nigeria. Some of the most commonly asked questions include:

• Is the palm kernel oil business worthwhile?
• What factors must one consider to setup palm oil mill plant for processing palm kernel seeds?

 Is starting palm kernel oil processing business worthwhile?

The production and processing of palm kernel oil offer people involves in palm oil industry an opportunity of earning a steady income. The venture also provides employment opportunities for many people who would otherwise be without jobs. On a national level, you will be contributing to the reduction of dependence on other countries as far as increasing the demand for food in Nigeria is concerned. Of utmost importance is to learn the ropes as soon as possible. You also need to give the venture deserved attention and seriousness. Since the demand for palm kernel oil is enormous locally and internationally, the business is definitely worthwhile.

 Factors to consider when establishing palm kernel oil refinery & fractionation plant?

Before buy palm kernel oil pressing machine or refinery equipment, here are some tips for your to consider.

• Factory Location

It is imperative that you identify a good location for your palm kernel oil refining business. To make an informed decision, consider aspects such as the availability of raw materials and your audience (the target market). Your ideal location should be in proximity to the raw materials as well as the market. At times, this might not be possible, and you may have to engage trade-offs. However, you can explore options that help you strike a balance when it comes to these two elements.

• Startup Money: How much does it cost?

You need money for various things, including business premises, equipment, raw materials, and staff. If you have done some bit of research about this business, you already know that you need machines (for the different stages of production) to ensure faster production. Consider choosing your machines carefully to avoid unnecessary costs of repair and maintenance which can affect the profitability of your firm. If finances allow, go for high-quality equipment. Part of the capital also goes to insurance, business registration, agency fee among many others.   Put into account money for paying your employees. Supposing you will be working as the manager, you will need other workers such as a technical assistant, storekeeper, production workers, quality control officer, salespeople, security officer and perhaps an administrative assistant. On average, you will need 10 members of staff, depending on the size of your business.   Palm kernel oil refining business is capital intensive, and one must ensure adequate preparation. Depending on the size of the venture, you may require between N5, 000, 000 and N10, 000,000. Contact us now to know more about equipment price and investment cost!

• When to start the business?

It is only wise to begin your palm oil extraction or refining business when everything is in place. Remember to set realistic expectations because the business is still new. Begin thinking about effective marketing strategies to spread the word about your products and in turn, attract customers.  Your enthusiasm and availability of capital will determine how soon you can begin operations.

Palm Oil Processing Technology

Palm oil is a kind of plant oil made from tropical woody plant-Palm. It is one of the largest produced, consumed and traded oils in the world, which is called The World’s Three Major Vegetable Oils together with soybean oil and rapeseed oil. Palm oil after pressing, refining and fractionation can get different melting point products, which are widely used in catering industry, food industry and oil & fat industry. As the main production areas of palm oil, Southeast Asia and Africa produces about 88% of the world’s palm oil, while Indonesia, Malaysia and Nigeria are the world’s top three palm oil producers. At present, China has become the world’s largest palm oil importer, whose palm oil consumption is about 6 million tons per year, accounting for 20% of the total world market.

Palm oil pressing technology

The pressing of palm oil has 5 steps:

1. Palm fruit cleaning

The oil palm fruit must be cleaned first to get rid of impurities and foreign materials that may damage the screw oil press. This step uses magnetic separator and vibrating screen to remove metal debris and sand, stone, etc.

2. Size reducing

This palm fruit processing step is to cut the palm kernels into small particles, which can increase their surface area, so that these pieces are easy for flaking.

3. Flaking

The flaking machine can extrude the particle palm kernels into flakes, which further enlarges their superficial area and also destroy the cell walls, so that oil is more easily extruded in later steps.

4. Steam cooking

The steam cooking machine (stack cooker) can adjust the moisture content of palm flakes, reduce the viscosity of oil, and also coagulate protein in oil meal to accelerate the separation of oil from protein.

5. Palm oil screw pressing

The conditioned palm flakes are fed into the screw oil press, and extruded in the barrel. Then crude palm oil is made.

Palm oil refining technology

After previous pre-treatment and pressing, crude palm oil shall be refined in complete oil refining line to get rid of FFA, natural pigment (decoloration) and odor (deodorization), and become salad leve oil – refined palm olein (RBD PO) and palm salad oil (RBD PKO).

The palm oil after refining is nearly colorless and transparent under liquid state, and is white under solid state. Besides, according to different user requirements, palm oil can further go through fractionation process to form PFAD, Olean, and Stearine.

1. Decoloration: add phosphoric acid 90℃ and specially made rocky soil;
2. Deacidification: adopts physical method;
3. Deodorization;
4. Bleaching to get refined oil (melting point 33℃-39℃), namely the commonly said 33℃ refined palm oil;
5. A.Refined oil fractionation: after entering the fractionation tank for cooling, the upper layer liquid is 24℃ OLEIN (i.e. 24℃ refined oil), the lowest layer is 44℃ solid refined oil, the output ratio is 24℃: 75%, 44℃: 25% (the highest cost). B. Pressure filtration: equipment is constant temperature plate pressure filter; if user want to production 24℃ oil, the temperature is set at 24℃, add pressure 6 – 10 atmospheres, liquid oil flow out, and solid fats discharged from the plate.