MY ONLINE RESEARCH ON PALM OIL BUSINESS

Palm Oil
Palm oil is the native oil used in Nigeria for cooking. The palm oil business is one of the lucrative
businesses in Nigeria because of its diverse usefulness and huge profit involved. During the course of my
research I realize it can be used for so many things which means we have a broader market to sell our
product not only for consumption.

Uses of Palm Oil

Palm oil can be used to make several other things which means we can sell to manufacturing companies
which has been identified has our target market. Palm oil are essential raw materials for the following:
 Soap manufacturing
 Margarine
 Body and exfoliation cream
 Cosmetics
 Drug production
 Fluids for drilling
 Water treatment chemical
 Production of canned food such as sardine
 Production of dog and other domestic animal food
 Preservation of food, raw and cooked
 Bio-diesel industries

REQUIREMENTS NEEDED TO START PALM OIL BUSINESS

The following are the requirement to start palm oil business:
1. Capital: The cost to be factored into the capital include the following:
Land acquisition or land rental cost
Processing machine cost
Cost of hiring employees
Farm maintenance cost
Cost of purchasing the seedlings
Cost of means of storage
Transportation cost

2. Land: The scope of the business will determine the size of the land to acquire
3. Labour: We need to hire people for processing, we may go for part-time staff who will work at
different stages of the business
 STEPS TO START PALM OIL BUSINESS
Palm oil business is very profitable if managed and handles well. There are mainly three types of palm oil
business;

1. Palm Tree Plantation: Palm tree plantation is capital intensive and requires a lot of patience
because the incubation period after plantation of the palm trees can take five to ten years before
harvesting but if planting seedling for transplant it takes 2 years to harvest. Palms less than 5 years
after planting will produce around 300 bunches per harvesting team per day. The palm tree fruits,
leaves, trunks and sap are also used for different things. The following are required for palm tree
plantation;
 Acquire large expanse of land, preferably acres of land
 Soil must be tested for appropriate palm tree plantation because not all soil are suitable
and since the land and soil will affect the quality of the fruits
 Location of land is important for easy access to production plant and market
 We will need at least 1000 seedling to start
 Plant the palm tree
 Give 8-9 meters space between 2 plants
 Wait for five to ten years
 Harvest the palm produce

2. Set Up A Palm Oil Extraction Mill: This is another aspect of palm business that is capital intensive
because it requires the installation of palm oil milling machines for the processing of the palm oil
kernels seeds.

To process we need to purchase the palm kernel in large quantities from harvesters and process
them into palm oil or we wait for our own plantation to ripe for harvest.

Process of Palm Oil Milling

Palm oil mill process include 6 parts
 Palm bunches receiving
 Sterilizer
 Threshing
 Mashing and Pressing
 Crude oil clarifying
 Palm kernel recovery

Palm oil mill bunches receiving: Collecting the ripe fresh cluster from the orchard and convey by trucks
then pour cluster into the discharge door after weighed by ground weigher.
Palm Oil Mill Process of Sterilizer: Fresh palm fruit bunch are airtight sterilise in sterilizer, injecting direct steam
to heat 60mins.The purpose is to prevent enzymes broken down avoiding FFA content in oil further increase.

Palm Oil Mill Process of Threshing: The purpose of threshing is to separate palm fruit from the Fresh Fruit
Bunches (FFB).The separated oil palm fruit is sent into the pressing section.

Palm Oil Mill Process of Mashing and Pressing: The purpose of mashing is to separate the pulp and nut and crush
the palm pulp. At the same time, the steam is used to cook the palm fruit and broke the cell of pulp. Because of
cooking, sterilizing, threshing and mashing made the pulp soft and damage pulp cell structure

 Palm oil mill process of oil clarifying: Machine-pressed crude oil first diluted with water washing, through
settlement and filtration, the fiber material removed from the oil, and then carry out continuous settlement,
the whole divided into two parts: oil and sediment. Oil by centrifugal separation and through vacuum drying
pumped into the storage tank for storing; oil sediment by filtration and dirt oil separation, oil process second
settlement, dirt oil mixture process clarification separation, Skim oil then carry out a second settlement,
sewage pumps to sewage treatment pond for dealing with.

Palm oil mill process of palm kernel recovery: Press cake broken by breaking screw conveyor and then
transported into the fiber separation air net and fiber polishing roller for fiber separating. The separated
fiber material is sent to the boiler room as fuel; the separated stone is transported to stone warehouse by
pneumatic conveying system for temporary storage.

PALM OIL PROCESSING MACHINES

Palm oil mill process flow diagram main stations:

No Main section Main machine
Fresh palm fruit
1 bunch reception Loading ramp
section
2 Sterilization section Sterilization tank
3 Threshing section Threshing Machine Platform
Digesting & Pressing
4 Digester & Screw presser
section
Oil clarification
5 Clarification Tank
section
Fiber separation
6 Polishing drum
section
(1)Palm nut storage tank (2)Polishing drum (3)Nut grading screen (4) Palm nut
Palm kernel recovery
7 Ripple mill (5)Separating column system (6)hydro cyclone equipment (7)Palm
section
kernel drying bunker (8)Dry Palm kernel final storage warehouse
8 Nutsheller
9 Engine room Diesel generator
10 Boiler house Boiler
11 Water treatment
Effluent Treatment
11
Plant
Palm oil mill process
1. Degumming. In this step gums in crude oil are removed by hydration with the help of
phosphoric acid. ...
2. Neutralization. In this step free fatty acids are neutralized by using sodium
hydroxide and convert them into soap. ...
3. Bleaching. During bleaching, unwanted pigments are adsorbed physically and oil
will become much clearer. ...
4. Deodorization.

What are the advantages of palm oil mill plant?

◆Self-sufficient palm oil production, low production cost, low environmental pollution,
recycling utilization of resource. ◆Palm oil mill plant adopts the most scientific palm oil
processing equipment configuration, using mechanical oil pressing technology, make
successfully extraction of palm oil from palm fruit.