Palm oil refinery process, chemical refining and physical refining of palm oil

Crude Palm oil is obtained from palm oil expeller or palm oil mill plant contains some undesirable impurities and these some of the impurities need to be removed partially or completely through the palm oil refinery process in order to produce good edible oil that have better stability and keepability. So the palm  oil refinery proces is an essential process in palm oil production process. Palm oil refinery process mainly includes palm oil degumming, palm oil deacidification, palm oil bleaching and palm oil deodorization. In order to get  international industry’s standards edible oil, the chemical refining and physical refining is the common method in palm oil refinery process.

Small scale palm oil refinery plant and large scale palm oil refinery plant

Depending on the level of automation, palm oil refinery plant can be divided into the following three categories:

low cost mini palm oil refinery plant

Batch Refinery (1-20TPD)1TPD，2TPD， 3TPD， 5TPD，10TPD，15TPD, 20TPD, 30TPD. (Suitable for mini and small scale palm oil refinery factory)

medium scale palm oil rerfinery mill project

Semi-continuous Refinery (10-50TPD)15TPD，20TPD.30TPD (Suitable for middle-sized palm oil refinery factory)

Large scale palm oil refinery plant for industrial business plan

Continuous palm oil refinery (50-600tpd) 30TPD ,50TPD,100TPD,200TPD,400TPD (Suitable for industrial scale palm oil mill plant)

Middle sized palm oil refinery plant

Recommed reading: 1-10tpd small scale palm oil refinery plant

                                       Continuous palm oil refinery plant

Crude Palm Oil (CPO) is mainly further processed into edible oil for food purpose. To meet the international industry’s standards for edible oil, the crude palm oil produced by palm oil mills should be refined in palm oil refinery plant. Palm oil refinery process mainly includes palm oil degumming, palm oil deacidification, palm oil bleaching and palm oil deodorization.

Crude palm oil refinery process flow chart:

Palm oil refinery process flow chart

Palm oil refinery process flow chart

How to refine crude palm oil to refined oil?

The refining process removes water, odouriferous matter, phosphatides, free fatty acids and other impurities including dirt and traces of metals from palm oil mill. After processed in palm oil refinery plant, the final oil product is a kind of premium edible oil of consistent quality which not only satisfies customer requirements and industry’s standards in respect of Iodine Value, FFA, flavor, color, melting point, peroxide value, impurities and moisture.

Basic Steps of palm oil refinery plant:

The first step is degumming

In degumming process, remove the gelatinous substances such as phospholipids and proteins in the crude edible oil to obtain degummed edible oil.

The second step is deacidification

The acidic substance not only affects the taste of the vegetable oil, but also affects the quality of the vegetable oil. What's more, according to edible oil standards, the acid price index is one of the most important indicators for measuring the quality of edible oil.(Acid value shall not be more than 0.5)

The third step is decolorization

Decolorization process is with the adsorption of white clay to remove the dark color in crude vegetable oil, then make the oil clear appearance, light color.

The last step is deodorization

In the deodorization process, with high temperature evaporation principle, the vegetable oil is heated to above 230 ° C, to reduce the peroxide value of the vegetable oil, at the same time, a small amount of pigment and free fatty acid are also able to be removed. Deodorization can make sure the quality of the reined vegetable oil, which is also an important steps of making refined vegetable oil.

Successful Projects of palm oil refinery plant:

The following is some onsite photos of our palm oil refinery plant projects. Feel free to contact us if you are interested!

Palm oil refinery plant projects have successfully installed by Henan Doing Company ( Click here to view larger )

Physical Refinery Vs Chemical Refinery

Chemical refining and physcial refining of palm oil

Crude palm oil can be processed by either physical refining (distillative neutralization, steam stripping) or chemical refining (alkaline refining) to produce RBDPO and NBDPO. RBDPO refers to refined, bleached and deodourised palm oil, while NBDPO refiers to neutralised, bleached and deodourised palm oil.

What is physical refining of palm oil?

Physical refining is also known as steam refining. In degumming process, it utilizes citric acid or food grade phosphoric acid to remove natural gums in the form of phosphatides. Then, in bleaching process, under vacuum, Fuller’s Earth is used to remove colouring matters and adsorb any metal ions. The deacidification and deodorization process is under high temperature and low pressure. By used of live steam, the FFA is stripped of. The steam is then recovered together with the entrained oil is as palm fatty acid distillate. The off-flavors and odours can also be removed from the crude palm oil in the steam distillation process.

Physical palm oil refinery process is the most common used type in palm oil processing industry. It is featured of low production cost, high efficiency, simple production process and low effluent load.

Recommed reading:  Crude palm oil refining methods and palm oil refining process flow chart

What is chemical refining of palm oil?

Chemical refining of palm oil is the traditional method used in past centuries. The main purpose of chemical refining is to remove the FFA by an alkaline solution and at the same time remove other impurities.This chemical refining of palm oil can be used for refining almost all crude vegetable oils, such as soyben oil, peannut oil, cottonseed oil, rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, palm kernel oil and so on.

The factors that influence the deacidification in palm oil chemical refining process:

1.The types and amounts of alkali;

2.The lye concentration;

3.Operating temperature;

4.Operating time;

5.Operating of mixing and stirring;

6.The influence of impurities;

7.Operating of oil soap separation;

8.Operating of washing and drying.

If you are planning to set up a palm oil refinery plant or a palm oil refinery factory, you are in the right place! Henan Doing Company is a professional manufacturer of palm oil refinery plant, which is able to use chemical refining method and physical refining method. The process steps in palm oil refinery process can be adapted in accordance with the crude vegetable oil quality to give a good final oil quality with acceptable oil losses. Our engineer can help you to design the palm oil refinery plant for you. Detail indformation about palm oil refinery process, palm oil refinery technology, welcome to contact us.