MICRONES- A More Efficient Palm Oil

Extraction Method

Prof Dr Robiah Yunus, UPM

Gregory L. Foster, Fibaloy International
 NATIONAL KEY ECONOMIC AREA
(NKEA)
Economic Transformation Program (ETP)
8 EPPs (Entry Point Projects) are identified to EPP 1: Accelerating the
grow incremental GNI of RM47.1 billion replanting of oil palm

EPP 2: Improving fresh fruit

EPP 4: INCREASING THE OIL EXTRACTION RATE
bunch yield
To increase OER to 23 percent by 2020:
1. Improve the quality of FFB at mill gate with the EPP 3: Improving worker
help of MPOB enforcement officers productivity
2. Enforce proper grading on incoming FFB, based EPP4: Increasing the oil
on MPOB’s guidelines extraction rate (OER)
3. Millers and dealers of FFB to employ competent EPP 5: Developing biogas at
graders, certified by MPOB palm oil mills
4. FFB price be valued according to the quality of
FFB received EPP 6: Developing oleo
derivatives
GNI from EPP 4: RM13.7 billion in 2020 EPP 7: Commercialising second
generation biofuels
The aim is to ensure productivity gains in palm oil EPP 8: Expediting growth in food
and health-based downstream
industry have significant impact on GNI growth segments
 Palm Oil Statistics Malaysian Palm Oil
 Palm oil = 55.9% market share of global • 8% of Gross National Income (GNI).
oils and fats. • 5.7 million hectares of palm oil plantations (71%
 Produces fruits after 30 months. of agricultural land, 14.8% of total land area).
 Productive for 20-30 years. • 5.0 (2016), 4.86 (2015) mil ha of matured palms.
 One oil palm tree produces 40kg of oil a • 21 tonnes of Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) per
year. hectare per year.
 Yields 4-5 tonnes of CPO + one tonne of • 4.3 tonnes of CPO per hectare per year.
CPKO per hectare per year. • Average Oil Extraction Rate (OER) 20.5%.
 Fruit is harvested every 10 days. • Palm Oil annual production;
 One fruit contains 30-35% oil. • 19.6 (2015) million tonnes of CPO
• 17.3 (2016) million tonnes of CPO
Potential income/losses from 1% OER
 1% OER = 0.21 tonne CPO per hectare per year.  453 mills in Malaysia
 1% OER = 0.917 million tonne CPO per year = RM2.2 billion  Total capacity 111.67
per year million tonne
 1% OER = 220,000 hectares of land = 22 million trees. FFB/year
• The idea of enhancing productivity and sustainability of palm
oil milling industry via fundamental studies for technology
innovation was conceptualized from the Long Term Research
Program (LRGS) under Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE).
• One of main discoveries from LRGS program is that palm oil
milling is not just mechanical processes; main principle that
governs efficiency of milling process is biotransformation of
fibers and oil palm cell walls.

• Starting from fruits detachment from

bunches up to oil excretion through
cell walls, it is all about hydrolysis of
polysaccharides in plant cell wall.
 Average oil extraction rate (OER) is the amount of oil obtained from fresh fruit
bunches (FFB). OER in Malaysian palm oil mills is around 20%, below its
optimum value of 30%.

OIL PALM FFB OIL

Tenera Fruit Composition

OER and FFB Yield OER % FFB t/ha
7.20%
25
15.84%
28.00%
20

15 Fibre by vol

10 Water by vol

5 Oil by vol
0 Nut by Vol
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
48.96%
Unrecovered OER due to mill process losses eventually
manifests as more plantation land area is needed.

Trees Land
Income

FFB
OIL

OER

20% 18 MT 90 MT 450 mil trees 4.3 mil ha RM45.0 B

22% 19.8 MT 99 MT 475 mil trees 4.7 mil ha RM49.5 B

2% 1.8 MT 9 MT 25 mil trees 0.4 mil ha RM4.5 B

 Planet - Land-use
7,000,000
 Reduction in inefficient
land-use by 419,100 6,000,000
hectares.
5,000,000
 Saving in plantation cost
4,000,000
by RM1.7 B*.
 510,000 tonne reduction 3,000,000

in CO2 emissions. 2,000,000

 People - Enable the
1,000,000
repatriation of 40,000
foreign workers. 0
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
 Profit – RM4.5 B potential Additional land (ha) required to compensate for a 2% unrecovered OER
income to Malaysia. Theoretical ha

*Plantation Cost: upkeep RM350 ha-1; fertiliser RM2,248 ha-1; harvesting RM522 ha-1; transportation
RM535 ha-1; general charges RM657 ha-1; Total=RM4,312 ha-1 (Wahid & Simeh, 2009)
 • 90% of oil losses occur in the Fibre,
Sludge and Steriliser system.
• High oil loss and % of broken kernels in
press fibre due to inefficient sterilization,
digestion and screw press.
• 0.7% oil loss/FFB in press fiber and
0.32%/FFB kernel loss (50% oil in
kernel) at RM 6.8 million/mill/year
• Inefficient oil water separation in clarifier
leads to oil loss in sludge.
• Oil losses in sludge at 0.32% oil
loss/FFB or RM 2.8 million/mill/year.
• Oil loss in sterilizer occurs due to longer than necessary steriliser cycle or due
to over ripe fruit and inefficient cooking.
• Oil losses in unstripped FFB at 0.4% oil loss/FFB or RM 3.0 million/mill/year
• Oil losses in condensate at 0.1% oil loss/FFB or RM 0.75 million/mill/year
ENHANCING PRODUCTIVITY AND SUSTAINABILITY OF PALM OIL MILLING INDUSTRY
 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.
 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
 Leveraging effect of OER on yield

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

 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 .
 Maceration or Pulping
• To enhance oil extraction from fruitlets, an oil
chamber
extraction system that separates palm nuts/kernels • ruptures the fruits
from mesocarp prior to pressing has been • separates nuts from
developed. mesocarp fibre
• The process is aided by mechanical means where
Mesocarp Fibre
destruction of cell wall takes place through shearing
thus facilitates movement of oil in oil globule.
• The use of newly developed spiral press provides an
efficient way to maximize oil extraction from nut-free
mesocarp.
• Scaling up of technologies on biomass utilization
and energy management are given priority.
• These new technologies are imperative in advancing
productivity, thus collaboration with industry is vital at
early stage of development.
Palm Kernel
 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
 - 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

1. Macerator/Nut Separator (PI2016704397).

PATENTS
2. A system for continuous extraction of pericarp
liquid and method thereof (PI 2017700756).
STAGE I - Maceration & Nut
Separation
Maceration or Pulping
NUTS/KERNEL
chamber
• ruptures the fruits FIBRE
Capacity
• separates nuts from m3/h OIL
mesocarp fibre
WATER

Mesocarp Fibre

Palm Kernel
 Stage II and IV - Tri-compression
Screw Press
I. It is designed to maximize the screw effect through 3 separate
compression zones
II. Facilitates longer screw life
III. Simplifies screw replacement
IV. Incorporates a screw configured for the specific requirement i.e.
reduced throughput volume, increased / decreased pressure
 Stage II and IV - Tri-compression
Screw Press
Balance at Hydrator
Second pressing – During the second
Fibre by vol Water by vol Oil by vol
pressing the remaining 9 percent of the
oil is removed along with 95 percent of 26.32%
the water.

10.66% 63.03%

Balance at #2 Screw Press

Fibre by vol Water by vol Oil by vol
0.53% 0.87%

98.61%
Tri-compression Screw Press:
Screw Design
 Stage III-Hydration
MICRONES has introduced a hydration stage to recondition the
mesocarp for a second pressing

NOS returning
from vibrating
screen separator
 Stage III-Hydration

The traditional digester fails to

adequately facilitate the
rehydration of desiccated fruit
due to insufficient time and the
absence of a hypotonic solution
Plasmolised

Fruit dehydrates during sterilization

The extreme temperature and
pressure imposed by the
sterilisation process causes
water to evaporate from cells
resulting in cell plasmolysis.
When plasmolysis occurs the
cells vacuole shrinks causing Before
the fruit to wilt. sterilization

After sterilization
Stage III-Hydration

The water diffused into the cell’s vacuole

increases the turgor pressure within the
cell and facilitates the efficient removal of
oil when the mesocarp is subjected to
further pressing.

Reversing Plasmolysis in Hydrator

40 PSI
70 PSI

Water absorption ceases after 60

mins when the cell vacuole is
revitalised and the void spaces
within ruptured cells have been
filled
 Stage III-Hydration
During a residence time of 60 min in the hydrator, 3
significant events occur simultaneously;

1. The bond attaching oil to the fibre is broken to allow oil to

separate from the fibre.
2. Progressively, oil residing within ruptured oil cells is displaced by
water entering the cells and coalescing thereafter before separating
in the solution due to the forces of gravity and buoyancy

At 100 0C it is not possible for more hydrolysis to occur. However due to the
difference between water and oil density, buoyancy forces oil out of ruptured
cells coalesce and rise to the surface of the hydration chamber due to gravity
(Yayat, 2014)

3. Water is diffused into the vacuole of un-ruptured oil cells

through the cell wall
 Stage III-Hydration
From first
screw pressing
Balance at #1 Screw Press
Fibre by vol Water by vol Oil by vol

Hydration 28.18%

Chamber
67.48%
4.34%

Recycled water
after separation
from fibre Top-up water

Second
Balance at Hydrator
screw
Oil/NOS from pressing
Fibre by vol Water by vol Oil by vol
macerator &
screw presses
Oil/NOS 26.32%
Separation

Oil/NOS to
continuous
settling tank 10.66% 63.03%

Water/Oil, NOS
Recycled to hydrator
 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
 Competitive Analysis
Processes New Technologies Conventional Technologies
Macerator/digestor Nut-free fibres are produced. Clean Fibres and nuts are sent together to
nuts can be produced. the press station, resulting in higher
kernel breakage and loss during
pressing.
Press Press nut-free fibres to eliminate
risk of nut breakage. Optimum Press fibres oil-containing fibres
pressing pressure can be easily together with nuts, causing kernel
controlled. breakage and loss.
Hydration chamber
system Re-hydrates fibre and facilitate the No hydration system is adopted. OER
efficient removal of oil when the did not improve for many years due to
mesocarp is subjected to second no significant improvement of
pressing. processing strategies and equipment.

Overall Higher OER and PKR due to lower The traditional process is inefficient
process oil loss compared to the at maximizing oil extraction.
traditional method.
 COMPETITIVE EDGE
MICRONES

COMPETITOR

HIGH
∆ ∆ ∆
Relative Offering Level

∆
∆ ∆ ∆
∆ ∆

∆
∆
LOW ∆
OIL INSTALLATION POWER
COST QUALITY MAINTENANCE
RECOVERY DIFFICULTY REQUIREMENT

Key Competitive Factors

27
 Market Need
The oil palm milling industry
needs a technology that can
guarantee
• High oil extraction rate
(high CPO and CPKO
yields).
• High quality biomass with
low oil content.
• Low quantity of
wastewater.
• Low maintenance cost.

Target Market
• Construction of new mills in
Indonesia, Papua Guinea, and
Latin America.
• Upgrading of extraction systems installed in mills in peninsular and East Malaysia.
 The Market for Oil Extraction System
 Total number of 60 FFBt extraction
systems in Indonesia and Malaysia at
end of 2016 is approximately 1,100.
 An additional 1,000 of 60FFBt/h
extraction systems will be required to
meet a world CPO demand of 128 mil
tonnes by 2022.
• The potential total gross sales for 5
years is RM96 million and RM17
million profit before taxes.
 Extraction systems in Malaysia are well past their expiry date.
 An attractive opportunity emerges to replace these systems as Malaysia has
limited scope to improve profitability from new plantation due to land
shortages.
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

Terima Kasih | Thank You
MASS BALANCE
OIL LOSS TO FFB LIMIT
• Press cake - Nut = 44% ; Fibre = 56%
• Nut breakage in press fibre - Cracked nut < 5% ; In fibre - 0.65
Broken kernel < 1% In nut - 0.10
• Ripple mill cracking - Whole nut <> 95% In bunch - 0.40
In sterilizer condensate - 0.10
• Production kernel - Shell & Dirt < 6% ; Moisture In sludge - 0.35
< 7% Total - 1.60
• Press fibre / Cyclone fibre - Oil/sample < 4% ;
OIL/NOS < 7% KERNEL LOSS TO FFB LIMIT :
• Dry nut - Oil/sample < 1% ; OIL/NOS < 1%
• Empty bunch - Oil/sample < 2% ; OIL/NOS < 7% In dry shell / LTDS - 0.05
In wet shell - 0.06
• Sterilizer condensate - Oil/sample < 1% ; In fibre - 0.21
OIL/NOS < 15% Total - 0.32
• Sludge - Oil/sample < 1% ; OIL/NOS < 15%
• CPO production - FFA < 5% ; Moisture < 0.15% ;
Dirt < 0.03%

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