Open AccessEngineering solutions for the palm mill of the future: Increasing extraction rate and sustainability through biotechnology
Author(s) -
Hemavathi Silvamany,
Nik Suhaimi Mat Hassan,
Nik Mohd Farid Mat Yasin,
Amirul Al Hafiz Abdul Hamid,
Muhammad Izhar Khairi,
Muhammad Zaidy Arnan,
Mohammed Faisal Mohammed Yunus,
Harikrishna Kulaveerasingam,
Christopher J.R. Dunning,
Karthini Nagalingam,
Chien Lye Chew
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.179
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/1195/1/012061
Subject(s) - pulp and paper industry , extraction (chemistry) , palm oil , supercritical fluid , oil mill , supercritical fluid extraction , environmental science , materials science , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , food science , chromatography , biology , engineering , organic chemistry
The edible oil industry involving extraction and processing of oils and fats from vegetable sources has witnessed a tremendous growth over the decade accounting for rapid expansion of urbanization and industrialization. Consequently, concerted efforts have been undertaken to increase the palm oil extraction rate (OER) at processing mills. This paper explores the commercial application of enzymatic treatment of sterilised palm fruitlets and diluted crude oil (DCO) stream in a 60 t/hr oil palm mill. Incubation of sterilised palm fruitlets mixed with enzymes in a pre-digester vessel at 70 °C and retention time of 30 minutes resulted in an increment of 1.15 % OER. Parallelly, dosing of enzyme into DCO with simpler system yielded in OER increment up to 1.19 %. This study offers insight into the potential oil left in pressed fibre using different methods, such as prolonged Soxhlet extraction, ultrasonic treatment, and supercritical fluid extraction. Additionally, confocal microscopy images of treated samples showed disintegration and thinning of cell walls resulting in higher free oil droplets.