Palm oil, as the world's largest vegetable oil, occupies a major position in edible oil and industry. It is currently mainly planted in tropical regions, mainly distributed in Southeast Asia, South America, and West Africa. Among them, Indonesia and Malaysia account for 80% of the world's production, and West Africa and South America have great development space.

Overview of palm oil pressing project: After picking, the fresh fruit bunches (FFB) of palm are sorted and enter the closed container (fermentation tank) for sterilization with high-temperature steam; the ripe fruit bunches (SFB) after high-temperature cooking are repeatedly dropped by the cage drum thresher to separate the fruit grains from the fruit bunches. After the empty fruit bunches (EFB) pass through the empty fruit bunch cutter and the empty fruit bunch press, the remaining residual oil is obtained and the moisture of the empty fruit bunch is reduced, and it is provided as fuel to the steam boiler for the plant area.

After the palm fruit is separated, it enters the crushing tank for secondary cooking, and the fruit grains are crushed into pulp and then enter the palm oil press. The press uses a twin-screw arrangement and hydraulically controls the discharge port to squeeze out the oil as much as possible and keep the palm kernel intact without breaking.

The squeezed palm oil is subjected to oil-water sedimentation, centrifuge, vacuum drying and other main processes to reduce the moisture and impurities in the crude oil to obtain standard crude palm oil (CPO).

The pressed palm kernel is polished, de-stoned, graded, crushed, air-selected, washed and dried to obtain palm kernel and palm shell

The entire factory uses steam turbines to achieve self-sufficiency in electricity. The factory area is equipped with raw water treatment, boiler water treatment, sewage treatment and other facilities.

After the fresh palm fruit bunches are picked from the tree, they should be sent to the oil mill for oil processing within 48 hours as far as possible to ensure that the FFA index of the product crude palm oil (CPO) is low and improve the quality of crude palm oil (CPO).

The palm oil pressing project mainly consists of site selection, earthwork, civil engineering, steel structure plant, power and water conservancy, and production process equipment.

Large-scale palm fruit oil pressing plants can achieve self-sufficiency in electricity supply and recycling of water and sewage.

The main process steps of the crude palm oil factory are as follows:

1. Weighing: The fresh palm fruit bunches entering the factory are weighed together with the transport vehicles. After unloading, the empty vehicles are weighed again to calculate the net weight of the materials. Main equipment: truck scale and weighing identification calculation system. 

2. Fresh fruit bunch receiving platform: The fresh fruit bunches after unloading are first sorted manually, and the stones, spoiled fruits and debris that do not meet the requirements are cleaned up. These debris will be sent back and deducted from the weight. At the same time, it also ensures that the equipment is not damaged and improves the quality of the oil. The sorted fresh fruit bunches are stacked on the inclined slope by the loader, and enter the fresh fruit bunch conveying scraper through the opening of the hydraulic device door. Main equipment: unloading platform, unloading slope, hydraulic gate, palm fresh fruit bunch scraper conveyor. 

3. Sterilization: Fresh palm fruit bunches are loaded into the sterilization tank by the scraper conveyor and cooked for 80-90 minutes under high temperature 145℃ steam conditions, thereby reducing the activity of enzymes and inhibiting the increase of free fatty acids (FFA). The quality of palm crude oil is guaranteed and conditions for subsequent processes are provided. The main equipment includes: fresh fruit bunch scraper conveyor, sterilization tank, Indexer control system, and cage tipping car.

4. Fruit threshing station: The cooked fruit bunches (SFB) after steaming and sterilization are separated from the palm fruit and empty fruit bunches by drum-type rotary beating.

The empty fruit bunches contain a certain amount of oil and water, which are reduced in water content and residual oil after passing through the empty fruit bunch shredder and empty fruit bunch press. After the size and water content of the empty fruit bunches are reduced, they are transported to the boiler as fuel. Main equipment: empty fruit bunch scraper conveyor, palm fruit threshing machine, empty fruit bunch scraper conveyor, empty fruit bunch shredder, empty fruit bunch press, and rotary vibrating screen.

5. Pressing station: After sterilization and de-fruiting, the fruit particles enter the crushing tank, where the fruit particles are stirred and crushed into a paste state, and steam is used for sterilization at the same time. Then they enter the double-screw press for extrusion, the oil and water are squeezed out, and the pressed cake including the palm kernel and pulp fiber is separated and crushed and spirally conveyed to the next section. Main equipment: screw conveyor, crushing tank, double-screw press, spiral crusher.

6. Oil clarification station: The oil clarification station is to reduce the moisture and impurities in the crude oil after pressing, so that its quality meets the market sales standard. After pressing, the crude oil is filtered, settled, sanded, centrifuged, vacuum dried and other processes to remove moisture and impurities in the palm crude oil. The main equipment includes sand settling tank, double-layer rotary vibrating screen, continuous vertical oil clarification tank, sand clarifier, three-phase horizontal screw centrifuge, disc centrifuge, vacuum dryer, etc.

7. Kernel & shell separation: The fiber in the pressed cake is separated and removed, and the kernel shell after the palm kernel is crushed is separated and stored.

The fiber of the cake from the double screw oil press is separated by wind, and the palm kernel is polished, de-stoned, crushed, air-selected, washed and separated to separate the palm kernel and palm shell. The palm kernel and palm shell are dried and stored, and the fiber part is transported to the boiler fuel bunker as boiler fuel. Main equipment: fiber sachets, polishing drums, de-stone separation columns, 1,2-level kernel and shell separation columns, water-washed sachets, kernel drying bunkers, kernel and shell screw conveyors and elevators.

8. Boiler room: The boiler is the steam source and power source of a factory. The high-pressure and high-temperature steam generated by the biomass boiler using palm fruit as fuel is provided by the back-pressure steam turbine generator. The discharged steam is used to provide heat source in the production process, realizing biomass reuse, power self-sufficiency, and steam self-sufficiency, reducing the production cost of the factory and improving the environmental protection effect. Main equipment: biomass steam boiler, fuel bunker, deaerator, boiler feed water tank, fuel scraper conveyor.

9. Power room: The power room provides power output for the factory. Emergency power uses diesel generator sets, and production power uses steam turbine generator sets, and the two can be switched. Main equipment: steam-water separator, steam turbine generator set, steam separator, diesel generator set, diesel storage tank.

10. Raw water treatment system: production water is introduced from nearby rivers to the reservoir. After water purification, it is filtered, dosing, clarified, softened, and RO system before being provided to production, boiler water, fire water, and domestic water.

Main equipment: raw water pump, raw water pipeline, high-level water tank, pressure sand filter, clarified water tank, dosing system, softened water system.

11. Sewage treatment system: The sewage generated by the palm oil factory contains many harmful substances and recyclable oil. After condensation and sedimentation, the upper oil layer of the discharged sewage is recovered, and the bottom sewage BOD, COD, solid suspended matter SS, etc. are high. Through aerobic, anaerobic, aeration, filter press, filtration, chemical treatment, etc., the sewage meets the government's emission standards.

Main equipment: pump, belt filter press, aerator, MBR water treatment system.