The Effects of Sterilization Time of FFB on Fruit-Bunch Separation and Crude Palm Oil Quality Using Direct Steaming

Abstract

In palm oil milling factory, Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) must be undergone by sterilizing before processing oil extraction. In commercial industry, conventional sterilization units, a boiler and a sterilizer in steaming process, are separated. This is affected on heat losses and produced a lot of waste water. To minimize heat losses and producing waste water, a boiler and a sterilizer can be combined in one unit. Therefore, the aim of this work is to study ability to combine the boiler and the sterilizer in the same unit. A palm fruit bunch was sterilized in mini sterilizer by direct steaming at 1.5 bar for 30, 45 and 60 minutes. The results show that a percentage of fruit-bunch separation and crude palm oil yield increased when sterilization time was longer. The trend of increasing crude palm oil yield is similar to the trend of increasing fruit-bunch separation. Sterilization time up to 45 minutes, the fruit-bunch separation and CPO yield was approximately 90.36% and 26.72%, respectively, and Free Fatty Acid (FFA) was not more than 1.25%. This direct steaming method is possible to apply in sterilization process of oil palm bunch. It could decrease energy consumption and waste water.