Processing of Edible

Oil
(Palm Oil)
CHAPTER 3
 2 Learning outcome
 Students should be able to:
 To expose students about palm oil refining
processes
 To introduce terms in refining crude palm oil
such as RBD, Olein & Stearin
3 Learning Outcomes

At the end of this chapter, students should be

able to:

 state basic refining process from crude oil until

intermediate products such as Palm olein & stearin
and others
 describes important parameters such pressure,
temperature and others in the processes
3.1 Refining Process
5 Vegetables Oils and Fats….

 Palm Oil: composition

 C12:0 Lauric - 0.2%
 C14:0 Myristic - 1.1%
 C16:0 Palmitic - 44.0% saturated fatty acid
 C18:0 Stearic - 4.5%
 C18:1 Oleic - 39.2% unsaturated
 C18:2 Linoleic - 10.1% fatty acid
Vegetables
6 Oils and Fats….

 Palm Oil characteristics:

Saponification value 195-205

Iodine value 44-58

Nonsaponifiable matter 0.5%

Melting point 36-40 °C

Refractive Index at 40 °C 1.453-1.456

Carotene Content 50-2000 ppm

 7
Input Output
8 Characteristics of Crude
Palm Oil Impurities
 Hydrolytic
 Moisture, dirt, free fatty acids,partial glycerides and
enzymes
 Oxidative
 Metals, oxidation products, pigment, tocopherols , and
phospatides
9 Characteristics of Crude
Palm Oil Impurities..,
 Catalyst poison
 Compounds containing nitrogen, sulphur & halogens
 Hydrocarbons
 Terpenes, resdin, waxes ad unsaturated compounds
10 Refining

 The aim of refining is therefore to convert the crude

oil to quality edible oil by removing objectionable
impurities to the desired levels in the most efficient
manner.
 And also to neutralized Free Fatty Acid present in
the crude oil
11 Refining….

 The refining routes of palm oil is quite identical depends on its

characteristic:
 Product approach and refiners
requirement
 Higher oil yield,
 Reduction of the use of chemical
 Reduction in water use
 Effluent 75 to 90% reduce
 Quality and acidity of crude oil
 Ability to remove soapstock
 Environmental legislation
12 Refining….

 There are two routes are taken to process crude oil

into refined oil:
 chemical refining
 physical refining
Refining….
13

 Characteristics of Crude Palm

Oil….
 PFD of Physical Refining
To TOH From TOH
Storage
Tank
Vacuum
SHE SHE SHE
H3PO4

Vacuum

Bleaching Vacuum
Bleacher Level

Motorised Mixer

Static MIxer

BPO
Pre-
Buffer Stripper
Tank
FA
PHE Condenser
To Slope
Tank
PHE

PHE
Silo BPO
Trap FA
PHE Niagara Filter Filter Condenser

PHE

PHE RBDPO
Slurry Tank Trap
Filter
RBDPO RBDPO

Outlet

CPO
Inlet
14
15 Refining….

Refining involves with four stages:

1. Pre-cleaning- neutralization by
treatment of lye
2. Degumming- remove phospolidips
3. Bleaching- decolorization by
adsorptive treatment
4. Deodorization- stripping in
vacuum
16 Refining….

 Refining can be categorized into two types:

 Alkali/chemical refining
 Physical refining
17
18 Chemical Refining

 During chemical refining, the free fatty acids are

neutralized by an addition of the appropriate
quantity of lye.
 The resulting so-called ”soapstock”

CPB 30303 (Jan 2019)

19 Chemical Refining

 The phosphatides and gums are absorb alkali and

coagulated through hydration or degradation
 Coloring is degraded & absorbed by gums or
become water soluble by the alkali
 Insoluble matters is trapped with others coagulable
materials.
20 Chemical Refining

 Heat, time plus excess caustic can caused

saponification and producing glycerols and salts of
fatty acid form the neutral oil
 Separated either by decanting or - continuously - by
means of centrifuges. At this time, the non-
hydratable phosphatides are also separated.
21 Chemical Refining

 Factors contribute of alkali refining success:

 NaOH(lye) strength/
concentration
 Mixing time
 Mixing energy
 Temperature
 NaOH excess.
22 Chemical Refining

 Crude oil with high levels of phospatides such as

canola, soybean will be treated with food grade
phosphoric acid before mixed with caustic soda
 This step to ensure:
 Precipitate phosphatidic material
 Precipitate natural calcium &
magnesium as insoluble phospate
 Inactive trace metals such as iron
and copper
 Reduce neutral oil losses.
23 Physical Refining

 Physical refining, is a process which eliminates the

need for an effluent plant for the soap stock,
involves subjecting the oil to steam distillation
under higher temperature and vacuum for removal
of the free fatty acids . Expensive to removed
 Loss of neutral oil and reduce overall yield of crude
oil.
 : Simplified Flowsheet of Physical Refining

24
25 Physical Refining

 Suit when raw materials is low gums and high FFA,

unsaponifiable and others by stream stripping
 Need pretreatment with 2 steps:
 Addition of chemical to remove small amount of gums
 Uisng steam distillation to remove FFA and impurities.
 Physical Refining….
26
Low Phosphatides High Phosphatide
Crude fats & Oil Crude Fats & Oil

Acid Refining or
Physical refining process flow Degumming (Water Acid,
diagram Enzymatic or Another
Process

Dry Degumming or
Dry Degumming Bleaching

Dewaxing,
fractionation
Hydrogenation

Steam Distillation

Deodorized Fat or Oil

27 Physical Refining

 Requirement of pretreament:

 Phosporus reduced to less than

30 ppm to support on bleaching
or dry degumming process
 After that trace level of element
and phosphorus will reduce
approx to 5 ppm
28 Chemical vs Physical
Refining
 29 Influence of initial Free Fatty Acid (FFA) content on the
direct refining cost.

Chemical
refining

Physical
Diriect refining cost

refining

Crossing point shows

effective point at (lower or
higher) consideration to swap
any technique
1.2 % 2.0 %

FFA %
30
31
32 RESULTS

Colour of oil
 Summary of palm oil…product..
33

CPKO

CPB 30303 (Jan 2019)