SIPOM

Sustainable & Intelligent Milling

Administration
Presented by Ir. Ravi Menon
MODULE 5. Fruit Digestion ( 12 slides)
 Sustainable and Intelligent Palm Oil Milling (SIPOM)
5. Sterilised Fruit Digestion

The pericarp comprising the fleshy mesocarp and the outer skin called endocarp
can have a thickness that can vary from 2 mm to 8 mm.
Good mill engineers can predict the MiII OER, by cutting across the pericarp of a
fruit with a knife and inspecting its thickness
The assessment is done by examining the depth
the knife blade could sink into the pericarp
It is possible for a skilled engineer to predict the OER of the crop
even before starting the processing activities in the mill.
 Sustainable and Intelligent Palm Oil Milling (SIPOM)
5. Sterilised Fruit Digestion

This has to be practiced many times to acquire the skill .

The pericarp thickness alone is not sufficient as other factors like the
high % of unripe and under ripe or parthenocarp fruits
would adversely affect the accuracy of the prediction.
For average crop the following guide lines may be useful
but the engineers are advised to conduct their own trials
and establish their own prediction guide-lines
 Sustainable and Intelligent Palm Oil Milling (SIPOM)
5. Sterilised Fruit Digestion
NO Pericarp thickness % Un-ripe % Under ripe % Parthenocarp Predicted OER
(mm)

1 2mm < 5% > 10% <5% 16 %

2 3 mm < 5% > 10% <5% 16.5 %

3 4 mm < 5% > 10% <5% 17.0 %

4 5 mm < 5% > 10% <5% 18.0 %

5 6mm < 5% > 10% <5% 20.0 %

6 7mm < 5% > 10% <5% 22.0 %

7 8mm < 5% > 10% <5% 24.0 %

 Sustainable and Intelligent Palm Oil Milling (SIPOM)
5. Sterilised Fruit Digestion

The pericarp is made up of the cells that houses the oil

and they are bonded to each other as well as to the fibres running lengthwise
by an intercellular cement which is pectic in nature.
At the time of harvesting the pectin level will increase to
about 4% of non0oily solids.
The fibre s vary in length from a few mm to 40 mm in large fruits.
Digester details are
Sustainable and Intelligent Palm Oil Milling (SIPOM)
5. Sterilised Fruit Digestion

The sterilised fruit going to the digester

is also known as
Mash Passing to Digester (MPD)
MPD contains fruit, calyx leaves,
under-developed fruit (parthenocarp)
 Sustainable and Intelligent Palm Oil Milling (SIPOM)
5. Sterilised Fruit Digestion

It is useful to take 1 kg MPD

samples every 30 minutes and analyse the following:
Mesocarp, nut, parthenocarp, normal fruit
from a given crop. This analysis will help us to find out the
reason
For certain process defects
Sustainable and Intelligent Palm Oil Milling (SIPOM)
5. Sterilised Fruit Digestion
The digestion time based on a 10 tph press
and a 2.5 tonnes digester is
2.5/10 x 60= 15 minutes but if a 3.5 tonne digester
is used the time will be extended 21 minutes.
As the digester is normally operated at ¾ full
the actual practical time would only
be about 11 minutes and 16 minutes respectively.
Sustainable and Intelligent Palm Oil Milling (SIPOM)
5. Sterilised Fruit Digestion

In earlier days digesters used to have jackets

for steam heating but that practice has
become obsolete now due to the popularity
of the direct steam injection.
The heating of the mash should be controlled
to avoid temperatures in excess of 90 deg
as high temperatures can cause oxidation of the CPO.
 Sustainable and Intelligent Palm Oil Milling (SIPOM)
5. Sterilised Fruit Digestion
Despite some of the advantages associated with high MPD
temperatures it can cause separation problems
during clarification stages.
It is important to ensure that the gap between
the stirring arms blade tip and the digester body is as close as possible .
It is also important to ensure that the vertical
angle strips mounted on the digester wall remain
intact all the time as the rotation of the stirring
arms can cause the whole content of the digester
to rotate with it thus preventing proper digestion of the mash.
 Sustainable and Intelligent Palm Oil Milling (SIPOM)
5. Sterilised Fruit Digestion
The digester must ensure that the cell walls of the fruits are ruptured
The MUST FOLLOW conditions are:
Right Temperature ( about 90 deg C)
Minimum blade tip clearance to body
5 pairs of stirring arms
Sufficient constraining vertical angle strips
to prevent rotation of mash Digester at least ¾ full all the time
Efficient drainage of free oil. If not water/ oil
emulsion will be formed with fibrous materials
 Speed of rotation of stirring arms: 26 rpm (MPOB Process Hand Book)
Sustainable and Intelligent Palm Oil Milling (SIPOM)
5. Sterilised Fruit Digestion

DE WECKER P 9 DIMENSIONS
Height: 2.5 m
Diameter: 1.2 m
Total volume: 2.8 m3 (100 cft)
Retention time : 20 min
Less shaft and stirrer arms; 2.52 M3 (90 cft)