FATS & OILS TECHNOLOGY

FST 2104

• Oils and fats differ only in that the former are liquid at ambient temperatures and the
latter are solid.

• The term butter is applied to some solid tropical vegetable fats such as cocoa butter and
shea butter.

• The term commodity is applied in an arbitrary manner to those materials produced in

sufficient quantity to be of interest to market analysts.
OILS AND FATS IN THE MARKET PLACE

Table 1. Commodities detailed in the USDA and Oil World sources.

• important distinction in relation to controlling supply is to distinguish major products

from by-products and to recognise co-products.

• Examples are given in the Table below.

• For by-products the amount of oil produced is not dependant on the oils and fats market
but on some other commodity.

• The supply of oils and fats is dominated by four sources: palm (and palm kernel),
soybean, rapeseed (canola), and sunflower oils.

Table 2:Commodity oils and fats divided into products, co-products, and by-products.

EDIBLE OIL PROCESSING

In the present context, the term edible oil processing covers the range of industrial processes
that start with the isolation of triglyceride oils and fats from raw materials of biological
origin.
 This range includes those refining processes that convert the crude oil into high quality oil
products that are fit for human consumption

• and also the oil modification processes that ensure that the physical properties of the fats
and oils meet market requirements

all at minimal cost.

Production of Triglyceride Oils

• 1. Production of animal oils and fats

• Marine oils 
• Animal Fats 

• 2. Production of fruit oils

• Olive oil 
• Palm oil 

• 3. Production of seed oils

• Seed preparation
• Expanding and expelling 
• Solvent extraction 
• Meal desolventizing, toasting, drying & cooling

Production of animal oils and fats

ANIMAL OILS AND FATS

• Includes animal fats that are obtained in the course of dressing the carcasses of
slaughtered animals (slaughter fats), or at a later stage in the butchering process when meat is
being prepared for final consumption (butcher fats).

• Butter and similar products obtained from milk are included  

• Processed animal fats include lard obtained by melting raw pig fat and tallow obtained
from raw fat of other animal species.

• Animal fats are largely used in the production of margarine, shortening and compound
fat.
• They also enter into many processed food products.

• Industrial and non-food uses of animal fats include the production of soaps, fatty acids,
lubricants and feedstuffs. 

THE PRODUCTION AND PROCESSING OF MARINE OILS

Raw Material

• According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, raw material used
for the production of fishmeal and fish oil falls into several categories:

• Fish caught specifically for reduction to fishmeal and fish oil such as menhaden,
anchovy, capelin and sardines.

• Incidental or by catch from another fishery, e.g the global discards amounted to 27.0
million metric tons (mmt) with a range of from 17.9 to 39.5 mmt with shrimp by catch
accounting for 11.3 mmt.

• Fish by-products from the edible fisheries such as cuttings from filleting operations, fish
cannery waste, roe fishery waste and surimi processing waste.

• When we talk about the Omega-3 market we could also include krill, squid, seal, marine
and freshwater algae, GM yeast and GM oilseeds even though these products are not derived
from fish.
Table 3. Species of fish caught for fish oil and fishmeal production.
Harvesting

• Fish used for the production of fishmeal and fish oil are often caught by large ocean
going vessels working fairly close to the processing plant, but usually not more than 3 days
away.

• Large factory ships tend to stay out for most of the fishing season and transfer product
and supplies to carrying vessels which then return to a shore facility.

• Other catch methods involve trawls which can be hauled at various depths depending
upon the location of the fish, baited long lines, pole line and hook and trap nets.

• In every case, the fishing method will depend upon the species of fish being sought, its
location and depth and the size of the schools. 

• Once the fish are delivered to the factory, they are unloaded from the vessel.
• The discharge of industrial fish from the vessel to the processing facility has presented
many challenges to the fishing industry over many years.

• The methods employed must not only be economical and pollution-free, but they must
get the fish to the plant in good shape as quickly as possible, since the vessel must be able to get
back on the fishing grounds while fish are available.

• These can be divided into wet and dry methods.

• Dry methods work best with small catches of edible fish while wet unloading seems to
work best for large catches.

• The downside of wet unloading is that unless the water is processed a large portion of the
catch (yield) can be lost.

• It becomes much more complicated when the unloading water is sea water since
processing will result in a high salt content in the fishmeal, which is not desirable.

• There are a number of processes that can be used to convert raw fish and cuttings into
fishmeal and oil.

• These fall into several categories defined as

• wet rendering,
• hydrolysis,
• silage production (autolysis),
• dry rendering and
• solvent extraction.

• The wet rendering process is used in the majority of the factories that produce fish oil
worldwide.

• This process is universal, i.e. factories all over the world both on land and on ships
employ it with slight differences in equipment type, but the major steps of cooking, pressing,
separating, and drying are always present.

Table 4: Processing steps used to produce fish oil from fish and fish cuttings.

Figure 1: Wet reduction process to produce crude fish oil

Hydrolysis (Enzymatic)
• Hydrolyzed fish proteins are produced by employing proteolytic enzymes either from the
fish themselves (autolysis/silage) or from other sources (hydrolysis).

• The enzymes can be of either animal, vegetable or microbial source and accelerate the
breakdown of the proteins into smaller units (peptides).
Hydrolysis can also be accomplished chemically under acidic or alkaline conditions.

• Although the process can be used with any fish, it is primarily used for white fish or offal
low in oil.

• In cases where oily fish are hydrolyzed, the processor must recover the oil phase without
denaturing the proteins or face supplying a high fat hydrolyzed protein product or a protein
product with reduced functionality.

• It has been difficult to achieve a commercially viable product from fatty fish that is both
functional and low in fat.

Figure 2: Hydrolysis process to produce crude fish oil.

Silage Production (Autolysis)

• Silage production is a simplified, low cost, hydrolysis process.

• Fish silage is liquefied fish stabilized against bacterial decomposition by an acid.

• The process involves mincing of the fish followed by the addition of an acid for
preservation.

• The enzymes in the fish gut break down the fish proteins into smaller soluble units and
acid helps to increase their activity while preventing bacterial spoilage.

• Formic, propionic, sulfuric and phosphoric acids have been used.

• Normally, about 3-4% of acid is added so that the pH remains at or below 4.0.

• Strong mineral acids require neutralization before feeding the final product.

• Silage might be defined as a crude form of hydrolyzate.

• Fish silage of the correct acidity is stable at room temperature for at least 2 years without
decomposition.

• The protein becomes more soluble, and the amount of free fatty acids increases in any
fish oil present during storage.

• Silage production offers a solution to the handling of fish waste when the logistics of
delivering the waste to a fish reduction plant are not economical.

• Silage can be produced in large or small containers both on the vessel and on shore.

• If the silage is processed quickly to recover the oil, it is possible to make an acceptable
fish oil product. 

Figure 3: autolysis or silage process to produce crude fish oil

Dry Rendering

• The dry rendering process, which is commonly used to prepare animal proteins and fats,
is not normally used in the manufacture of fishmeal and oil.

• However the process is used with catfish by-products.

• In this process the raw material is "cooked" to remove the water (essentially the drying
process in the fishmeal wet rendering process.

• The resultant dry cake is then pressed to remove any oil.

• Because the water has been removed, the lipid fraction can contain high levels of
phospholipids.

• The phospholipids normally hydrate in the wet rendering process and are recovered with
the water fraction.

• In the dry rendering process, they are not hydrated and therefore remain dissolved in the
lipid or oil fraction.
Figure 4. Dry rendering process to produce crude fish oil.
Solvent Extraction

• Solvent extraction to produce fish protein concentrate (FPC) is another process that yields
fish oil.

• Water and fat together constitute about 80% of the whole fish, with the fat itself in some
species being as high as 20%.

• The manufacture of FPC involves the removal of most of the water and some or all of the
fat.
• Methods developed so far are based mainly on the use of chemical solvents to remove
water, fat and fishy tasting components either from the raw fish or from fishmeal.

• The solvents most successfully used to make FPC are ethanol, n-hexane, isopropanol, or
ethylene dichloride.

• Normally the solvent is recovered and used over again.

• The recovered fat is usually mixed with water, solvent, and water soluble components.

Acid-Alkali Aided Process

• a process that can be used to produce a fish protein isolate and a fish oil by use of alkali
and or acid to digest the muscle proteins.
Other Sources of Marine Oils

Krill

• krill oil has generated a great deal of interest in the last few years because of the unique
form of the lipid in the krill.

• Krill is a term applied to describe over 80 species of open-ocean crustaceans.

• Of the seven species of Euphausiid crustaceans commonly found in the Southern Ocean,
only two of them regularly occur in dense swarms and are of particular interest to commercial
fisheries: E. superba and E. crystallorophias. 

• E. superba is the species commonly referred to as “Antarctic krill” and it is a widespread

species, which is subject to significant commercial fishing in the Southern Ocean and in the
waters around Japan.

• The total global production amounts to 150,000 – 200,000 metric tons annually and if the
krill contained 3% lipid and all of it was recoverable as krill oil, the total production would be
about 4500 - 6000 metric tons.

• Krill are very delicate and contain powerful enzymes within their digestive tract.

• This causes the krill to deteriorate rapidly once they are caught so processing must be
done at sea to preserve the quality of the raw material.

Fish Livers Oils

• The most important raw material for the production of liver oils comes from the fisheries
for cod, coalfish, and haddock.

• The livers of other species including several species of shark have also been used in the
production of liver oils.

• In order to obtain high quality, light colored oils with good flavor and odor containing a
minimum of free fatty acids, it is important to eviscerate the fish and recover the livers so that
they can be processed as quickly as possible.

• Generally, steam cookers are used to extract the oil from the livers.

• Low-pressure steam is piped into a tank containing the livers and the heat cooks the
livers.

• When the steam condenses a layer of hot water is produced which floats the oil.

• The oil is then separated and pumped into a storage tank.

• Some liver oils are extracted at sea when they remain at sea for long periods of time.
Figure 5: Production of cod liver and other liver oils

Single Cell Oils

• Certain single cell organisms, natural and genetically modified, have been shown to be
rich sources of the Omega-3 fatty acids - EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid or C20:5n-3) and DHA
(docosahexaenoic acid or C22:6n-3) or the Omega-6 fatty acid ARA (arachidonic acid
(eicosatetraenoic acid) or C20:4n-6).

• In addition to the products currently on the market, there are a number of cross-over
technologies taken from the growing bioenergy industry where organisms grown to produce
algal oil for biofuels were found to produce oils relatively rich in the desired Omega-3 fatty
acids.

• the subsequent processing would be the same; namely separation of the biomass from the
liquor, drying of the biomass, recovery of the microbial or single cell oil and the subsequent
refining of the oil.

• Various species of yeasts, fungi, and algae are able to produce high levels of the
nutritionally important essential fatty acids.

• Single cell oils can be grown in fermenters on an organic carbon source and, therefore,
are a highly attractive, renewable, and contaminant-free source of long-chain PUFAs.

• These organisms can also be grown in outside ponds (where the climate permits).
Figure 6: Production of single cell oils
Table 4. Oil content of some micro-organisms

Microalgae Oils

• Marine microalgae represent the primary food source of all sea life, including fish that
derive most of their long-chain PUFAs from this plant life.

• Fish raised in captivity and/or fresh water with an algae-free diet have very little EPA and
DHA fatty acids.

• Fermentation technology has been developed for the production of omega-3 fatty acids in
whole-cell algal biomass.

• This technology includes

• isolating strains of algae that meet the essential fatty acids objectives, cultivating,
harvesting, and processing the DHA fatty acid-rich oil.

• The oils are extracted from the cultivated microalgae by centrifugation, processed
immediately or spray dried.

• The DHA rich oil is extracted with a suitable solvent and desolventized under vacuum
and fractionated to remove the saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids.

• The DHA fraction is refined, bleached, and deodorized to obtain clear, odorless oil.

• This oil is typically blended with high-oleic oil to a 40% minimum DHA content for
oxidative stability.

Fungal Oil

• It has been recognized for many years that the distribution of fatty acid isomers varies in
fungi according to phylogenetic relationships.

• Fungal species Mortierella alpina is the source of omega-6 arachidonic (ARA) fatty acid
(C-20:4) and omega-eicosapentaenoic (EPA) fatty acid (C-20:5);

• fungal species Mucor mucedo is a producer of biologically active omega-6 γ-linolenic

(GLA) fatty acid (C-18:3).

• The fatty acid composition of δ-linolenic fungal fatty acid oil has a resemblance to
human breast milk.

• The fungal cultures are grown and fermented with specific conditions for each long-chain
PUFA to produce a biomass

• it’s then filtered and dried before oils rich in the EFAs are extracted, usually with a
solvent such as hexane.

• The extracted fungal oil is relatively stable, probably due to the presence of endogenous
antioxidants.

• Unfortunately, these minor components are lost in the subsequent processing steps:
refining, bleaching, and deodorization.

• Most processed fungal oils are protected by an added antioxidant system usually
containing mixed tocopherols and ascorbyl palmitate.

ANIMAL FATS

• Animal fats are only produced in relation to the raising of animals for meat, eggs, milk or
wool production.

• Animal fats are a side, co- or by-product of the production of another animal product.

• The volume of animal fats increases with an increasing production of meat, eggs, milk or
wool, but their production won´t increase with an increasing demand for animal fats.

• Animals are not raised for animal fats like oilseeds are planted for vegetable oil.

• There are 2 general categories of animal fats: edible and inedible.

• Edible fats are produced from fresh slaughter by-products that were declared fit for
human consumption after a veterinary inspection and are all gained from healthy slaughtered
animals.

• Their production is normally species specific.

• Typical edible fats are beef tallow, pork lard, goose or duck fat.

• Some beef tallow producers subdivide their production even further, e.g. into adipose
material from the abdomen (like kidney fat) and subcutaneous fat.

• Those beef tallows have different properties because of their different fatty acid
composition.

• Another edible fat is produced during the gelatin process.

• Edible gelatin is mainly produced from pork and ruminant bones, pork skins and
ruminant hide split.

• For the gelatin process these raw materials have to be defatted.

• This fat is a co-product of the gelatin industry.

Inedible fats

• The main raw materials are usually slaughter by-products that are fit for human
consumption but not destined for human consumption.

• They come from slaughter houses and cutting plants and include blood, fats, bones, feet,
horns, and innards like lungs, liver, and hearts.

• They can be sold for food but due to changed eating habits especially in the developed
countries they may amount to nearly 50% of the slaughtered animal.

Processing

• In general there are 2 different rendering systems established worldwide- dry and wet
rendering. 

• There is no general rule when and where wet or dry rendering is preferred, but it can be
observed that wet rendering is mostly used where heat sensitive, high value products like fish
oils, edible fats or poultry fats are produced.
• The fat melting and rendering processes aim at three important goals -

• Removal of water to get stable products which are fat and solids, e.g. proteins

• Separation of the dry product into fat and solids (protein)

• Sanitation, i.e. the reduction of possible pathogenic loads, which is the less important the
fresher the processed material is.

Wet rendering

• After the size reduction in a crusher (mostly followed by a mincer), the raw material is
melted in a cooker either with direct steam or indirect heat.

• To avoid damaging the nutritional values, this is carried out at the lowest temperature
possible (70-90°C).

• The separation of the three phases (solids, aqueous phase and melted fat) can be achieved
by different techniques.

• The most common is drainage of the solid phase, which is subsequently pressed and
dried.

• The liquid phase is sent to a decanter (horizontal centrifuge) or tricanter. Decanters

separate two phases, tricanters three phases in one step.

• Solids from the decanter are dried together with the other solid phase.

• The liquid phase (stick water) is sent to the dryer, either directly or after a concentration
step in an evaporation unit.

• In some cases the liquid phase is concentrated and dried separately into high-value,
highly digestible proteins.

• The fat is cleaned.

• In food plants the solids from a fat melting plant can be separated wet from the water
phase and cooled.

• The wet greaves (the unmelted residue after the fats have been melted) can be sold for
human consumption or pet food.
Dry rendering

• After having been crushed, the material is cooked.

• This process can be continuous or discontinuous.

• Downstream of the cooker, the processes are mainly continuous.

• If the cooker does not include the drying step as well, a dryer will follow.

• The cookers and dryers are mainly contact dryers such as disc dryers and evaporation
towers.

• Sometimes fat is added to the drying step to have a better heat transfer and to protect the
protein quality.

• The dried material is pressed to yield fat and solids. 

• The solids are milled into meal after cooling.

• This procedure can include a sieve to exclude foreign substances.

Fat treatment

• Animal fat, whether it is produced by wet or dry rendering, is cleaned in a separate step.

• Different methods can be used either alone or in combination.

• Sieve
The installation of a sieve is often necessary when a high amount of fibres or plastics is expected.
Small pieces of plastic in particular are very often a problem in further uses. The sieve can vary
from a rotating screen to a cloth filter.

• Sedimentation
This simple method is very often used. The fat is stored in a tank with a conical bottom where
the water phase including solid sediments separates by decantation. The sedimented phase is
removed at the bottom.

• Decanter
Decanters are horizontal centrifuges that remove water and solids very quickly from the fat
phase.

• Separator
A Separator is a vertical centrifuge. Due to higher speed and the stacked discs, the cleaning
results are better than for the decanter. Separators are often used for final polishing of fats after
the decanter. The most common is the (self-cleaning) disc separator. The application of water or
acid solution to improve the cleaning is possible.

• Filter
Different filter techniques, e.g. pre-coat filters, can be used to remove solids.

• ruminant fat should be cleaned so that the amount of insoluble impurities does not exceed
0,15%
Other animal fats

• Besides the above described animal fats, there are some other fats which do not fall under
the heading “fat melting and rendering”, as they are gained by other processes.

 Butter fat/Clarified Butter

Butter is a water-in-oil emulsion resulting from an inversion of the cream, an oil-in-water
emulsion. Melting butter produces clarified butter or ghee, which is almost entirely butterfat.
Butter fat can be produced from milk from any species. Clarified butter can have different
regional names: Samna (middle east) or Ghee (South Asia).

Production of fruit oils

OLIVE OIL

• Olive Harvesting

• Olive picking is an important operation that affects virgin olive oil (VOO) quality since
its sensory quality depends on the health and ripeness of the harvested olives.

• The olives, however, are no longer hand-picked in most of the producer countries but are
harvested by means of several kinds of shakers that transmit vibrations to all the tree branches.

• The olives drop onto a net that has been previously spread out under the tree canopy and
then they are collected with vacuum systems.

• Transport of Olives to the Mill

• The picked olives should be transported in such a way that air circulation prevents the
rise of temperature on the bottom layers of olives

• Regardless of the transport system, the olives should be stored under optimal conditions
from the moment of harvesting up to their processing at the mill.

• The time between both events should be no longer than two days to avoid significant
changes in the oil sensory profile of healthy and optimally ripe olives.

• The figure below describes each of the steps with the machinery used.

• Olive Batch Cleaning

• The current harvesting process does not prevent the accidental collection of foreign
materials with the olives.

• These materials could be harmful to the olive mill machinery and they could also modify
the sensory attributes of the extracted olive oil, e.g. the presence of leaves increases VOO
bitterness.

• Thus, the processes of removing foreign materials and washing the olives are necessary
as soon as they reach the olive mill.

• The machinery consists of powerful fans, which removes foreign vegetable material, and
pipes with forced water circulation in which olives are washed.

• The washing step avoids olive oil being qualified as having negative sensory attributes
such as muddy sediment and earthy amongst others.

• Olive Crushing

• Cleaned and washed olives are then put on a moving belt to the processing zone of the
olive mill.

• The thickness and texture of the crushed paste varies with the ripeness of the olives

• and hence the type and speed of the crushers should be adjusted by the technician to
avoid overheating the olive paste, thereby helping to minimize any tendency to oxidation.

• A crusher with small holes in the grating, for example, gets a high extraction yield and
the resulting oil contains high amounts of phenols, and hence it will be bitter.

• Thus, the crushing process is important in order to guarantee the taste and aroma of the
end product and also the yield of the extraction process.

• Olive Paste Malaxation

• Metal crushers can cause emulsions that lower yield- but the mixing or malaxation
operation diminishes this effect by causing the droplets produced by crushing the olives to
coalesce, thereby increasing the percentage of available oil.

• Malaxation is a key step in the whole olive oil extraction process as good malaxation
means optimal oil extraction and good values of antioxidants and flavor.

• The malaxation involves stirring the olive paste slowly, which aids in the coalescence of
small drops into large ones and favors the breakage of the unbroken cells containing oil.

• The temperature of the paste should not be higher than 30ºC to avoid change in the oil
color (from yellow-green to reddish), the increase of acidity and the degradation of the volatile
compounds that would result in a VOO with the negative sensory attribute “heated”.

• Liquid-Solid Separation

• Next step is the separation of olive oil from the other constituents.

• Three different extraction processes can be applied to do this: pressure, percolation and
centrifugation.

• Liquid-Liquid Separation

• A final centrifugation of the VOO is needed to remove water and small solids from the
oil.

• This process is carried out in vertical centrifuges that rotate at high speed (6000-7000
rpm).
• Warm water is added to clean the oil of fine solids.

• The technician can adjust the ring size to adjust the phase separation point and hence the
oil to water ratio at the exit.

• The objective of this step is to obtain cleaned oil with less than 0.2% of moisture and
volatile matter (% w/w), and less than 0.1% of insoluble impurities in light petroleum (% w/w).

• Virgin Olive Oil Storage

• The whole process produces VOO, which is stored in large storage tanks that protect the
oil from oxidation, and by-products.

• VOO should be stored in sealed stainless steel tanks, with nitrogen blanketing, and kept
at about 15-18ºC to avoid oxidation.

• Temperatures below 12ºC would cause the oil to become semi-solid due to the saturated
fatty acids, while VOOs stored in outdoor tanks or exposed to oxygen, light and high temperature
may be rancid in a few weeks.

• Virgin Olive Oil Filtration

• Although VOO does not have to be filtered prior to bottling, some consumers do not
purchase bottles that show some sediment at the bottom despite the fact that filtered oils are less
stable because some of the water soluble components (mostly phenols) are removed.

• Diatomaceous earth is the commonly used filter aid.

• Virgin Olive Oil Bottling

• Glass is the ideal olive oil container as it is recyclable, impermeable to oxygen, allows
airtight closure, does not transmit anything into the oil, and colored glass blocks light.

• The oil is usually bottled with nitrogen to extend the shelf-life.

• Oils in clear glass exposed to light at room temperature, however, can lose the
fruity/green aroma in two/three months and be rancid shortly thereafter.

PALM OIL MILLING PROCESS

• Palm oil is extracted from fresh fruit bunches (FFB) by mechanical process, where a mill
commonly handles 60 to 100mt per hour of FFB.

• An average size FFB weighs about 20-30kg and contains 1500-2000 fruits.

• The FFBs are harvested according to harvesting cycles, and delivered to the mills on the
same day.

• The quality of crude palm oil is dependent on the care taken after harvesting, particularly
on the handling of the FFBs.

• A palm oil mill produces crude palm oil and kernels, as primary products and biomass as
secondary product. 

• A typical mill has many operation units

• This comprises of sterilization, stripping, digestion and pressing, clarification,

purification, drying and storage.

• For the kernel line, there are steps such as nut/fibre separation, nut conditioning and
cracking, cracked mixture separation, and kernel drying, storage.

• The dried kernels are often sold to palm kernel crushers for extraction of crude palm
kernel oil.
Figure 2. Flow chart for the palm oil process

• Sterilisation

• This first step in the process is crucial to the final oil quality as well as the strippability of
fruits.

• Sterilization inactivates the lipases in the fruits, and prevents build-up of free fatty acids
(FFA).

• In addition, steam sterilization of the FFBs facilitates fruits being stripped from the
bunches.

• It also softens the fruit mesocarp for digestion and release of oil, and conditioning of nuts
to minimize kernel breakage.

• Air is removed from the sterilizer by sweeping in steam

• In general, bunches are cooked using steam at 40psi. in horizontal cylindrical autoclaves
for 60-90 minutes.

• Inadequate sterilzation affects the subsequent milling processing stages adversely.

• Stripping

• Stripping or threshing involves separating the sterilized fruits from the bunch stalks.

• Sterilized FFBs are fed into a drum stripper and the drum is rotated, causing the fruits to
be detached from the bunch.

• The bunch stalks are removed as they do not contain any oil.

• It is important to ensure that oil loss in the bunch stalk is kept to a minimum.

• The total oil loss absorbed on the stalks depends on the sterilizing conditions and partly
on the way the stripper is operated.

• Prolonged sterilization will increase oil loss in stalks.

• Irregular feeding of the stripper may also result in increase of oil loss in stalks.

• Stalks which have fruits still attached on them are called hard bunches, and have to be
recycled back to sterilizers for further cooking.

• Hard bunches are detected by visible inspection.

• Digestion and Pressing

• After stripping, the fruits are moved into a digester where, the fruits are reheated to
loosen the pericarp.

• The steam heated vessels have rotating shafts to which are attached stirring arms.

• The fruits are rotated about, causing the loosening of the pericarps from the nuts.

• The digester is kept full and as the digested fruit is drawn out, freshly stripped fruits are
brought in.

• The fruits are passed into a screw press, where the mixture of oil, water, press cake or
fibre and nuts are discharged.

• Improvements in press designs have allowed fruits to undergo single or multiple pressing.
• Second stage pressing on the press cake fibres enables more oil to be extracted.

• Clarification

• A mixture of oil, water, solids from the bunch fibres is delivered from the press to a
clarification tank.

• In the conventional process, separation of the oil from the rest of the liquor is achieved by
setting tanks based on gravity.

• The mixture containing the crude oil is diluted with hot water to reduce its viscosity.

• A vibrating screen helps remove some of the solids.

• The oil mixture is heated to 85-90◦C and allowed to separate in the clarification tank.

• A settling time of 1-3 h. is acceptable.

• Oil from the top is skimmed off and purified in the centrifuge prior to drying in vacuum
dryer.

• The final crude palm oil is then cooled and stored.

• The lower layer from the clarification tank is sent to the centrifugal separator where the
remaining oil is recovered.

• The oil is dried in vacuum dryers, cooled and sent to storage tanks.

• Decanters

• Decanters are also used in some mills as an alternative to separating the suspended solids
from crude palm oil in a clarification tank.

• Various designs of decanters are available.

• Their usage is however, hampered by higher maintenance costs from the wear and tear.

• An advantage to the use is the reduction in palm oil mill effluent.

• The cake is discharged as solid waste for fertilizer production or animal feed, while the
oil is recovered.
COCONUT OIL
 In the tropics, the coconut palm (Cocos nucifera, L.) is one of the most useful trees.
 A perennial provider of food, beverage, shelter, animal feed, and feed-stock for the
oleochemical industries.
 In some areas of the tropics, the palm grows with a minimum of attention through a
lifespan of more than 50 years.

THE FRUIT
 The common mature coconut fruit weighs more that 1 kg and is ovoid in shape and green
or yellow in color.
 The nut has a smooth epidermis over a fibrous mesocarp (husk) that covers the hard
endocarp (shell).

 Within the shell is the endosperm (kernel, meat approximately 1–2 cm thick.
 A thin brown layer called testa separates the kernel from the inner surface of the shell.
 The cavity within the kernel has an average volume of 300 ml and contains the
endosperm liquid (coconut water).

KERNEL
 The kernel is the origin of the following products: coconut oil, desiccated coconut,
coconut skim milk, coconut cream, coconut flour, protein powder, and copra meal.

COCONUT WATER
 Coconut water is a sterile liquid.
 From mature nuts, it has the following constituents: total solids 4.7%, fat 0.74%, protein
0.55%, ash 0.46%, and reducing sugar 1%.
 The liquid has a pH of 5.6.
 It is a co-product of desiccated coconut and considered a health beverage.
 Concentration of coconut water by reverse osmosis may further expand its use in the
fermentation and food industries.

TESTA
 The thin brown layer between the kernel and shell is the testa.
 This layer is pared off from the kernel’s outer surface to eliminate colored bodies in the
production of desiccated coconut.
 The parings contain oil that has a fair amount of unsaturated fatty acids C18:1 and C18:2.

SHELL AND HUSK

 The shell that encloses the kernel is a hard spherical covering 3–5 mm thick.
 It is used mainly for fuel in copra making.

COPRA
 Copra is the dried kernel of coconuts.
 Fresh kernels contain approximately 50% moisture.
 Various drying methods are employed to bring down the moisture content ideally to 6–
8%.
 At this level, mold growth in copra is inhibited.
 The conversion of kernel to copra is an essential step if the oil is to be drawn by the
conventional mechanical extraction method.

PRE-PROCESSING OF COCONUT
 After dehusking coconuts are split into halves and drained.
 The halves are then dried by various methods such as (1) sun drying, (2) direct fire
drying, (3) hot air drying.

SUN DRYING
 The halves are exposed to the sun and in due time the kernels shrink.
 The partially dried kernels are separated from the shells for further drying under the sun
for 6–8 days.
 During occasional rains, the kernels are protected with adequate cover, such as plastic
sheets or any other suitable material.

DIRECT FIRE DRYING

 The direct fire dryer consists of a bamboo grill platform where the split nuts are placed.
 Underneath is a fire hearth where coconut shells and husks are burned to provide heat for
the vaporization of water from the kernels.
 The kernels shrink and are separated from the shells for further drying.
 Smoke from the burning fuel imparts a light brown color on the copra and its oil.
 Small farm producers continue to use this traditional method because of the low cost of
construction, simplicity of design, and ready availability of shell and husk for fuel in coconut
farms.
HOT-AIR DRYING
 The dryer uses husks or shells for fuel in a specially designed burner that can operate
with an even supply of heat.
 The dryer is provided with a steel plate bottom to isolate the kernels from the smoke
generated by the fuel.
 There are a number of hot-air dryer models, devices inspired by modern technology.
 In principle, these dryers apply hot air to expel moisture from the kernels.
 Since smoke does not come in contact with the kernels, the product is a cleaner and
whiter copra.

OIL EXTRACTION
 Coconut oil extracted from copra.
 In the traditional process, animal-powered ghanies are used.
 On an industrial scale, the dry process is the traditional method of extracting oil from the
coconut.
 This is done by crushing copra in an expeller.
 The meal (or cake) may be further treated with solvents to extract residual oil.
 The wet-process feedstock is fresh kernel instead of copra.
 The extracted oil does not have to be refined, unlike the oil from copra.
 The co-products of oil from the wet process are edible.
DRY PROCESS
 The dry process involves mechanical extraction of oil in crushers or expellers with copra
as feedstock.
 Mechanical extraction may be supplemented with a second extraction, using solvents, to
recover residual oil from the meal.

Post-expeller treatment
 The oil from the expellers passes to a screening and settling tank to initiate the separation
of fines, which are recycled with fresh feedstock to the system.
 To each ton of supernatant oil, 10 kg of bleaching earth is mixed.
 Passage through a polishing filter gives a clear oil ready for storage or further processing.
 Copra meal (cake) from the filter press is pelletized, bagged, and dispatched to animal
feed millers.

Solvent extraction
 This operation supplements mechanical extraction and consequently minimizes residual
oil in the copra meal.
 Copra undergoes an accelerated preliminary extraction with a controlled residual oil
content of 14–18% in the expeller meal; expeller throughput rate is almost doubled.
 Hexane (bp 68.7°C) is widely used as the solvent for extraction.
 In an extraction unit that operates on a countercurrent system, the cake is met by oil-rich
miscella (hexane + oil) and leaves the extractor as it is rinsed with pure hexane.

 The solvent-extracted cake has a residual oil content of approximately 3.5%.

 Hexane in miscella and cake is recovered for reuse in succeeding operations.
 Escaping hexane vapors are trapped by cold mineral oil spray to preclude hazards and
maximize solvent recovery.

WET PROCESS
 Dehusked mature nuts are shelled to separate the kernels, followed by paring to remove
the testa.
 The testa is set aside for the extraction of paring oil, a byproduct.
 The pared kernels are finely comminuted through a wedge and die plate mill and through
a roller mill.
 The comminuted mass is passed through a screw press, which expels the coconut milk.
 The milk is filtered through a screen conveyor.
 The cream that is separated from the milk by centrifugation is centrifugation, oil is
separated.
 Trace moisture in the oil is reduced to 0.1–0.2% level by atmospheric heating.
 A typical yield of 6.8 tons ‘‘natural’’ coconut oil is extracted from 25 tons of fresh kernel.
 The skim milk is spray-dried to recover proteins and carbohydrates.
 Residue from the screw press and parings are milled to recover oil and coconut flour.
 The crude oil is then taken to refining units for final processing. A general description of
the refining process
 is given in later chapter.

USES OF COCONUT OIL

 It is a raw material for the production of medical foods and infant food formulations.
 In industry, the fatty acids of coconut oil provide a versatile feedstock for an array of
products from diesel fuel substitute to hygienic products.
 In coconut producing countries, refined-bleached-deodorized (RBD) coconut oil is used
extensively as frying oil.
 Physical blends and inter-esterification mixtures of coconut oil and hydrogenated palm
oil are processed into margarines and shortenings.

STORAGE OF COCONUT OIL

 Although coconut oil has a natural resistance to oxidative rancidity, the bulk storage
systems should take into account all factors that contribute to the deterioration of the product
during storage.
 These factors are light, prooxidants, air, heat, and moisture.
 Light may have the least effect because the oil is handled in a closed system.
 Crude coconut oil has natural and protective antioxidants