MICRONES- A More Efficient Palm Oil

Extraction Method

UNIVERSITI PUTRA MALAYSIA

&
FIBALOY INTERNATIONAL SDN BHD
NATIONAL KEY ECONOMIC AREA (NKEA)
Economic Transformation Program (ETP)
The aim of this program is to ensure productivity EPP 1: Accelerating the
gains in palm oil industry have significant impact replanting of oil palm
on GNI growth
EPP 2: Improving fresh fruit
8 EPPs (Entry Point Projects) are identified to grow bunch yield
incremental GNI of RM47.1 billion
EPP 3: Improving worker
productivity
EPP 4: INCREASING THE OIL EXTRACTION RATE
To increase OER to 23 percent by 2020: EPP4: Increasing the oil
1. Improve the quality of FFB at mill gate with the help extraction rate (OER)
of MPOB enforcement officers EPP 5: Developing biogas at
2. Enforce proper grading on incoming FFB, based on palm oil mills
MPOB’s guidelines
3. Millers and dealers of FFB to employ competent EPP 6: Developing oleo
graders, certified by MPOB derivatives
4. FFB price be valued according to the quality of FFB EPP 7: Commercialising second
received generation biofuels
EPP 8: Expediting growth in food
GNI from EPP 4: RM13.7 billion in 2020 and health-based downstream
segments
2
Average oil extraction rate (OER) is the amount of oil Tenera Fruit Composition
obtained from fresh fruit bunches (FFB). OER in Malaysian 7.20%
palm oil mills is below its optimum value; 15.84%
28.00%

• Significant advances in “Genotyping” which are purportedly Fibre by vol

capable of increasing oil palm yields by up to 33 percent Water by vol
(Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2015). Oil by vol

Nut by Vol
• Aggressive activities by MPOB enforcement officers to reject
under-ripe/over-ripe FFB’s arriving at the mill for processing 48.96%

(PEMANDU, 2014).
• Inefficient milling technology particularly
poor oil extraction leads to oil losses.
• Oil losses in unstripped FFB at 0.4% oil
loss/FFB or RM 3.0 million/mill/year
• 0.7% oil loss/FFB in press fiber and kernel
loss, 0.32%/FFB (50% oil in kernel) at or RM
6.8 million/mill/year
• Oil losses in sludge at 0.32% oil loss/FFB or
RM 2.8 million/mill/year
• Major oil losses in palm oil mills occur in the
Fibre, Sludge and Steriliser condensate (90 %
of all oil losses)
• High oil loss and % of broken kernels in press
fibre is due to inefficient sterilization,
digestion and screw press.
• Formation of emulsions at the oil/water
boundary in clarifier leads to more oil loss.
• Oil loss in condensate occurs due to longer
than necessary steriliser cycle or due to over
ripe fruit.
ENHANCING PRODUCTIVITY AND SUSTAINABILITY OF PALM OIL MILLING INDUSTRY
 LRGS PROGRAM
AVERAGE OER IN MALAYSIA
OER (ton
oil/ton FFB)
Potential yield 30
Fruits and oil
25 quality
BRIDGING GAP

Sterilization Economic,
social and
Oil Extraction environment
al impacts of
Oil Purification
new
technology

Oil Recovery
RM13.7 billion
in GNI
20

National average OER …

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010P
YEAR
RM 5.858 million
 UPM NEW TECHNOLOGIES RM 12 mil
per year

Oil losses in unstripped FFB Oil losses in press fiber and kernel
amounts to RM 3.0 million/ Oil losses in sludge oil
loss, amounts to RM 6.8 million/
mill/year (0.4%/FFB) amounts to RM 2.8 million/
mill/year (0.7%/FFB)
mill/year (0.32%/FFB)

Sterilization Extraction Separation

 HIGH PRESSURE STERILIZATION
Robo-REST

Kilang Sawit Bukit Kapah, Hulu Terengganu

In 2014/15 Fibaloy and Dolphin

Application Sdn Bhd integrated
UPM’s Dr. Azis’s High Pressure
Sterilization patent and LRGS
research into development of
Dolphin’s Robo-REST sterilization
system.

70 psi , 30 minutes sterilization 40 psi , 30 minutes sterilization

 CONVENTIONAL PALM OIL EXTRACTION
TECHNOLOGY

Digester

• Insufficient residence time, temperature and water in digester

reduce cells ability to rehydrate. Thus, it is difficult to remove oil
during pressing.
• 15 % of kernel nuts are broken and is lost with mesocarp fibre.
• High % of CPO remains in fibre resulting in 0.35 to 0.9 % in lost OER. Screw
• According to Mongana, losses in screw press ranges between 7-15 Press
% for 15 FFB t/h twin screw presses and are higher in bigger press .
 Palm Tenera – Fruit Morphology
In the traditional twin screw press kernel nut and oil loss is inevitable
due to the morphology of the fruit

Fruit Composition
Fibre by vol Water by vol Oil by vol Nut by Vol

7.20%

28.00%
15.84%

The void space between nuts

1.52m3/t - 0.874m3/t = 0.65m3/t
0.65/1.52=42.5%

48.96%

If fibre occupies 7.2% of the

void then 42.5%-7.2%=35.3 %
of oil + water will also fill the
void. Nuts will have to break to
access and remove this
fraction
 Field study- Press oil losses

• Using the traditional method Oil / Nut loss is Tamaco is a three times winner of MPOB’s
inevitable highest OER award
• At best it’s a trade-off between how much CPO
SAMPLE
to lose or how much kernel to lose 2015 OLWB% OLDB%
40 4-Jan 0.88 25.29
35
5-Jan 0.78 7.38
6-Jan 0.65 16.75
30
7-Jan 0.6 9.77
25 8-Jan 0.41 7.16
Percent

% OLDB
20 9-Jan 0.59 10.28
15 % Nuts 10-Jan 0.61 10.34
10
Broken 11-Jan 0.73 11.97
12-Jan 0.67 11.69
5
13-Jan 0.63 21.27
0 14-Jan 0.67 10.28
1.67 3.24 4.91 6.57 8.14 9.81 * Nwankwojike, et al., 2011
15-Jan 0.55 9.02
Mpa
16-Jan 0.66 11.52
17-Jan 0.71 12.52
Histogram OLDB% 18-Jan 0.62 11.17
10 Despite what is
reported even best Mean 0.65% 12.43%
8
mills are losing 0.5 Count 15 15
Frequency

6 Std Dev 0.11 5.01

Frequency % OLWB of CPO
4 Confidence 0.002 0.081
during extraction Flow Rate t/h 54
2
Crush Rate t/h 90
0 1%FFB Dry basis 0.54%
7.160 11.863 16.567 More
Bin Sample of press cake fibre taken at Tamaco Mill II Sabah, 2015
 What has gone wrong?

As presses get bigger

oil loss and nut
breakage increases yet
screw press
manufacturers are
developing and pushing
bigger presses 20-30
FFBt/h

According to Mongana, small capacity presses cause 4 percent loss What about
(OLDB) as compared to 7-8 percent loss (OLDB) associated with larger
CPOt/Ha??
presses. However in reality OLDB often ranges between 7-15 percent for
conventional 15t FFB/h twin screw presses.
 Leveraging effect of OER on yield

At 20% OER an increase in OER of 0.4%, increases CPOt / Ha by 2%

 MICRONES Crude Oil Extraction Technology
“The future of palm oil extraction has arrived”

MICRONES is an acronym for Maceration Induced Cell

Rupturing Oil Nut Extraction Synthesis

Methods of extraction have not changed since the pioneering work of

United Plantation’s Tan Sri Bek-Nielsen and Axel Lindquist who were
inspired by Mongana CONGOPALM Society report in 1955 and later
collaborated with Usine de Wecker screw press company-Luxenbourg
 Hot Water

NEW CPO EXTRACTION

TECHNOLOGY Fruit
reception
/Storage

Maceration /
Fibre & Nut
MICRONES is an acronym separation
for Maceration Induced Cell
Rupturing Oil Nut
Extraction Synthesis STEAM
HOT WATER
PRESS LIQUOR 1st Pressing
NOS + HOT OILY WATER Station
MESOCAP / FIBRE

Hydrator
Micrones is
designed to work
with; 2nd
• Conventional Pressing
sterilisers Station
• Continuous
sterilizers.

Vibro-screen
60 ton FFB MICRONES System separator
 MICRONES - Four Stages Process

Stage I Stage III

Fiber & Nut Stage II Gravitational leaching of Stage IV
separation Second stage pressing oil from cells, cell re- Final stage pressing
hydration and NOS
recycling
 TECHNOLOGY Hot
Water

COMPARISON
CONVENTIONAL Fruit
TECHNOLOGY reception
/Storage

Maceration /
Fibre & Nut
separation

1st Pressing
Station

Hydrator

Press fibres together with nuts to extract oil

2nd
out, causing kernel/nut breakage and oil loss. Pressing
Station

Only nut-free fibres are sent to the press

while the clean nuts are collected. Vibro-screen
separator
Conclusion
 MICRONES isolates and removes kernel nuts before they enter the press to ensure
nuts are not broken and kernel is not lost

 MICRONES induces maceration to ensure oil bearing cells are ruptured and virgin oil
is decanted early in the process

 MICRONES directs the mesocarp through 2 separate and dedicated pressing stages
with a hydration phase in between to ensure the purging effect of the second pressing
stage is optimal.

 MICRONES requires less power as energy is not expended breaking kernel nuts or
separating kernel from mesocarp fibre

 MICRONES delivers measurable Triple Bottom Line Outcomes