CONTINUOUS STERILIZATION OF FRESH

FRUIT BUNCHES - PART 2

K. Sivasothy and Rohaya Mohd Halim

INTRODUCTION of rotation of the rollers was set to 22 and 32 rpm.

Sterilization was carried out using a pilot-scale front-
his paper presents the results of a research loading steam autoclave (600 cm diameter and 1000

T study that focused on the development of a

continuous sterilization process based on
crushing fresh fruit bunches using a double-roll
cm long) (Figure 2).

crusher and sterilization of the crushed bunches

using steam.
The double-roll crusher is a simple robustly-built
piece of equipment that is suitable for heavy-duty
applications. It consists of two identical rollers that
are contrarotated at slightly different speeds inside
a rectangular housing. Double-roll crushers are used
in palm oil mills mainly to loosen fruitlets from
unstripped bunches before second-stage stripping
(Chong and Tai, 1997). The unstripped bunches are
crushed after they have been softened by the heat
treatment during sterilization. The crushing is also
effective in opening up the unstripped bunches to
facilitate steam penetration to the inner layers of
fruits in the bunch during re-sterilization. Bunch
crushers have recently been used directly on fresh
fruit bunches in a number of palm oil mills to re-
duce the retention time of the batch sterilization
process and to improve the bunch strippability and
the mill throughput.
In this study, the crushing was carried out using
rollers with ribbed surfaces as shown in Figure 1 and
a fixed clearance of 15 cm between the rollers. Bet-
ter gripping of bunches was achieved by attaching
projections on to the surface of the rollers. The speed
Figure 1. Top view of FFB crusher.
Figure 2. View of steam autoclave with door open.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CRUSHED BUNCHES
The fresh fruit bunches are squeezed and deformed
as they pass through the crusher. This disrupts the
close-knit arrangement of the spikelets. The shear-
ing effect induced by the difference in rotating
speeds of the rollers leads to tearing, and a signifi-
cant percentage of the bunches are split into two or
more pieces.
Visual examination of the crushed fresh fruit
bunches showed that although the crusher was ge-
nerally quite effective in disrupting the close-knit
arrangement of spikelets, there are noticeable vari-
ations in the crushing effectiveness. Approximately
55% of the bunches remain in a single piece after
passing through the crusher. Some bunches are split
into a few big pieces. In the extreme case, the bunch
is split into numerous pieces and some of the smaller
pieces consist of just one or two spikelets.
The crushing effectiveness can be adjusted by
changing the crusher design parameters such as the
clearance between the rollers, the speed of rotation
of the rollers and the differential speed. The use of
multi-stage crushing steps can also be considered.
The crushing effectiveness is also effected by fresh
bunch characteristics such as bunch size, ripeness

11 • ENGINEERING NEWS
and freshness. Another factor that is probably im-
portant is the orientation of the bunch as it enters
the crusher. More studies are needed to enable pre-
dicting the characteristics of the crushed bunches
and to allow fine-tuning of the crusher.
It was observed that 6.34% of the fruitlets were
detached from bunches as they pass through the
crusher. However, it tended to be higher in the case
of over-ripe bunches and can be nil in the case of
unripe bunches.
Bruising of fruitlet mesocarp by the crusher is
inevitable, but the bruising appears to be mainly lim-
ited to the outer fruitlets in the bunch due to direct
contact with the rollers. Bruising of fruitlets before
crushing occurs when harvested bunches fall to the
ground and during loading, transportation and dis-
charge from the lorry or trailer into hoppers and fi-
nally into sterilizer cages. Approximately 2.88% of
the fruitlets from bunches that are freshly harvested
appear to be bruised. When these bunches are
crushed, the percentage of bruised fruitlets increases
to 30.74%.
Nut breakage during crushing may increase the
contact between palm oil and palm kernels during
extraction by the rest of the palm oil mill. This cross-
contamination is undesirable in view of the very
different properties of palm oil and palm kernel oil.
Palm oil is mainly used in food applications, whereas
palm kernel oil is mainly used for the production of
oleochemicals. Analysis of the crushed bunches
showed that only 1.90% of the nuts are broken. This
low level of nut breakage should not lead to any
serious contamination problems, considering that a
lot more nuts are normally broken by the screw
press.
EFFECT OF STEAM PRESSURE
One of the important objectives of this study is to
examine if bunch crushing can facilitate steam pen-
70
60
50
Steaming time (min)
40
30
20
10
0
-5 0 5
Steaming pressure (psig)
Figure 3. Relationship between steaming pressure and steaming time to achieve complete stripping of bunches.
ENGINEERING NEWS • 12
TABLE 1. REL
RELAATIO NSHIP BETWEEN
STEAMING PRESSURE AND STEAMING
TIME TO ACHIEVE COMPLETE STRIPPING
OF BUNCHES
Steaming pressure (psig) Steaming time (min)
0 20-60
5 10-25
10 5-15
20 2.5-10
etration into the inner layers of the bunch during
sterilization without the use of multiple-peak steri-
lization cycles. Table 1 shows the steaming time re-
quired to achieve complete stripping of crushed
fresh fruit bunches using a single-peak sterilization
cycle at different steam pressures. Particular empha-
sis was given to the use of low steam pressure as
this would facilitate the development of continuous
sterilization. The autoclave was steam-sweeped at
the start of the sterilization cycle for a period of 5
min. The condensate and exhaust valves were kept
fully open and the pressure in the sterilizer was
maintained at atmospheric presssure during the
steam-sweeping step. At the end of the steam-sweep-
ing step, the exhaust valve was closed and the con-
densate valve left partially open to allow continu-
ous discharge of the condensate while minimizing
the loss of steam.
It can be observed from Table 1 that complete strip-
ping can be achieved with as little as 20 min of steam-
ing under atmospheric conditions, although 60 min
of steaming is required to ensure that 100% of the
crushed bunches can be fully stripped. This large
variation in the steaming time may be due to varia-
tions in the characteristics of bunches, such as size
and ripeness, but it may also be due to variations in
the effectiveness of opening up of the bunch by the
crusher.
It is evident from Figure 3 that there is an expo-
nential relationship between sterilization pressure
10 15 20 25
and the steaming time required to completely strip Table 2 that bunch strippabilty is generally improved
the bunches. About 60 min of steaming is required by the steam-sweeping step. The effect of the steam-
at atmospheric pressure, 25 min at 5 psig, 15 min at sweeping step appears to be most significant when
10 psig and 10 min at 20 psig. A significant reduc- the steaming time is less than 30 min. The steaming
tion in steaming time of about 35 min can be time needed to achieve complete strippability of all
achieved by using a steam pressure of 5 psig as com- the bunches is 60 min with steam-sweeping. The use
pared to atmospheric pressure. A further reduction of a comparable steaming time without steam-
in steaming time of about 10 min can be achieved sweeping will lead to only about 92% of the bunches
by using a steam pressure of 10 psig as compared to being fully stripped. Because steam-sweeping adds
5 psig. Extrapolation to the range beyond 20 psig to the overall cycle time, a nett saving of about 15 to
indicates that the steaming time required at steam 25 min in the overall cycle time can probably be
pressures above 20 psig will not be much less than achieved.
10 min.
OIL QUALITY
EFFECT OF STEAM-SWEEPING
Table 3 shows the effect of time delays on free fatty
Although bunch crushing appears to be effective in acid (FFA) formation. For each trial, a bunch that
facilitating the penetration of steam into bunches had been freshly harvested was crushed, split into
and the displacement of the air that is trapped in- spikelets and homogenized and divided into three
side bunches, there is still the problem of getting rid batches. Sterilization of the batches, using steam at
of the air that is trapped in the autoclave. This can atmospheric pressure for a period of 60 min, was
be achieved by steam-sweeping at the start of the delayed for the periods shown in Table 3. The meso-
sterilization cycle. A study was carried out to exam- carp was manually peeled off the sterilized fruitlets
ine the effect of steam-sweeping the autoclave for 5 and the oil extracted by pressing using a hydraulic
min at the start of the sterilization cycle on the steam- press. The oil was then clarified by heating and cen-
ing time at atmospheric pressure. It is evident from trifuging in the laboratory before being analysed for
the FFA content.
TABLE 2. EFFECT OF STEAMING TIME A T ATMOS-
AT The FFA content of the oil extracted from bunches
PHERIC PRESSURE OONN BUNCH STRIPP ABILITY
STRIPPABILITY that are sterilized 5 min after crushing is about 1.04%,
Percentage fully stripped bunches
Steaming time
Steaming No steam- With steam-
With TABLE 3. THE EFFECT OF DELDELA
AYING
(min) sweeping sweeping STERILIZA TIO
STERILIZATIO
TIONN OF CR USHED BUNCHES
CRUSHED
O N FF A FORMA
FFA TIO
FORMATIO
TIONN
10 0 0
20 0 50 Dela
Delayy time FFA content of oil
FFA
(min) (%)
30 8 83
45 83 92 5 1.04
60 92 100 30 1.52
90 100 100 60 2.27

2.5

2.0

1.5
% FFA

y=0.0225x + 0.8991
R2=0.9946
1.0

0.5

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Delay time (min)
Figure 4. The effect of delaying sterilization of crushed bunches on FFA formation.

13 • ENGINEERING NEWS
which is well within the acceptable limits. It can also
be noted from Table 3 that the FFA content rises to
about 2.27% for delays up to 60 min. This implies
an increase of about 1.23 % in the FFA content that
can be directly attributed to a delay of about 1 hr.
This emphasizes the need for sterilizing bunches
immediately after they are crushed.
It is apparent from Figure 4 that there is a linear
relationship between time delay and FFA content,
and the FFA content increases at an average rate of
0.02 % min-1. Extrapolation shows that the FFA con-
tent of bunches sterilized immediately after crush-
ing would be about 0.90%.
The milder process conditions used for the steri-
lization of crushed bunches may reduce the extent
of oxidation of the oil. However, the fruitlets appear
to be insufficiently cooked and it will be necessary
to subject them to further heating.
CONCLUSION
This study has shown that it is possible to achieve
complete stripping of fruitlets from crushed bunches
using sterilization process conditions that are gen-
erally much milder than that used for normal
bunches. The percentage of nuts that are broken by
the double-roll crusher is only 1.90%, i.e. an insig-
nificant quantity compared to other methods of
bunch downsizing. The deterioration in oil quality
will also be marginal if the bunches are sterilized
immediately after crushing.
Some important issues have been insufficiently
addressed given the exploratory nature of this study.
A problem that needs to be addressed by further
studies is the extraction of oil and kernels from the
sterilized fruitlets. Heating crushed bunches for
about 60 min using steam at atmospheric pressure
may not be sufficient to achieve all of the known
objectives of the batch sterilization process. The
fruitlets appear to be insufficiently cooked and it is
generally difficult to peel off the mesocarp. It may,
therefore, be necessary to consider further heating
the stripped fruitlets to optimize the extraction of
oil and kernels. Heating the pericarp will ensure that
the physico-chemical changes necessary for good de-
oiling are adequately carried out. The heating will
also pre-condition the nuts to minimize kernel break-
ENGINEERING NEWS • 14
age during pressing and nut cracking. If adequately
heated, the heat penetration will cause the kernels
to shrink and detach from the shell. During press-
ing, the shell may deform and, if the kernel has not
shrunk somewhat, the kernel will break.
The present study has focused mainly on the steri-
lization process. No attempt was made to alter any
of the parameters affecting the performance of the
crusher. In view of the large variation in the steam-
ing time required to achieve complete strippability,
it is necessary to investigate if the design of the
crusher could be modified to reduce this variation
without significantly increasing the extent of fruitlet
bruising.
REFERENCES
CHEAH, K Y and MAYCOCK, J H (1991). Micro-
wave sterilization of fresh fruit bunches. Engineer-
ing News, 21:2-4.
CHONG, K P and TAI, L T (1997). Studies on the
stripping of unstripped bunches by the self-sepa-
rating bunch crusher system. Proceedings of the
National Seminar on Palm Oil Milling, Refining Tech-
nology and Quality. Kota Kinabalu. 18 pp.
LOH, T W (1994). Innovative methods in oil process-
ing/oil palm industry. Proceedings of the 1994 PORIM
National Palm Oil Milling and Refining Technology
Conference. Kuala Lumpur. p. 75-80.
MONGANA REPORT (1955). IRSIA. Volume 1, Palm
Oil Research Institute of Malaysia, Bangi. p. 84-85.
OLIE, J J and TJENG, T D (1974). The Extraction of
Palm Oil. The Incorporated Society of Planters. Kuala
Lumpur. p. 29-35.
SIVASOTHY, K (1989). A study on sterilization with
emphasis on achieving continuous processing.
PORIM Report PO(163)89. p. 17-21.
SIVASOTHY, K; MA, A N; MAYCOCK, J H and
KOICHIRO, Y (1993). Combined sterilization-strip-
ping process. Palm Oil Developments, 19:20-29.