Palm Oil Industry
Today, raw palm oil is considered as one of the primary vegetable oil sources in the world. Although, plantation of palm trees for producing palm oil was initially commenced in Africa, today, the highest rate of palm oil production is carried out in Southeast Asia region. Other than Southeast Asia region, countries on the Ecuador zone such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Nigeria are among other countries which produce palm oil in the world.

In the recent years, a significant part of the increased oil demand in vegetable oil and biodiesel industries is being satisfied by palm oil.


Process
Fresh palm fruit bunches (FFB) delivered to the plant are firstly taken to the sterilizer. Steam at 130 degrees temperature is administered to the palm fruit for a period of nearly 45 minutes. Upon completion of the sterilization process the fresh palm fruit bunches are transferred to the thresher to separate the palm fruit from the stalk. Palm fruit separated from its stalk in the thresher is taken to the large cylindrical tanks called "digester" and then delivered from the bottom of these tanks to large presses for pressing process. Raw palm oil is obtained upon the pressing process carried out. This oil is then stored in cylindrical tanks and ran through vibratory sifting equipment and then collected in the tanks located in the subsequent stage. Raw palm oil is transferred to sand arrester equipment for removal of the sand content and then fed to 3-phase decanter directly and raw palm oil is separated into oil, water and solid phases through decanter centrifuges. Oil obtained upon decanter is delivered to vacuum dryer for complete elimination of the small water content. Oil obtained upon vacuum dryer is taken to the storage tanks.

Decanter centrifuges are preferred in palm oil process due to their compatibility with full automation, high performance, minimum space requirement and ease of operation.