What is the process of palm oil fractionation?

Palm oil fractionation equipment means that palm oil is divided into two parts by controlling the cooling and crystallization process of palm oil, low melting point liquid phase (soft fat) and high melting point solid phase (stearin). Due to different geographical locations, different countries have different temperature requirements for palm oil fractionation. There are three common palm oil fractionation temperatures: 18°C, 24°C and 36°C.

There are three palm oil fractionation technologies:

Dry fractionation technology, solvent fractionation technology and surfactant fractionation technology. Fractionation equipment adopts dry fractionation process. Dry fractionation is a relatively economical method.

Dry fractionation has the advantages of simple process, high degree of automatic control, low steam consumption, good product quality, no need for centrifugal separator, no other solvents, and no waste water. advantage.

Palm oil fractionation process

1. Heat palm oil

Palm oil is semi-solid at room temperature and dissolves into a liquid state by heating with steam. Before crystallization, palm oil is usually heated to around 70°C to break up existing crystals.

2. Cooling and crystallization

The key to the palm oil dry fractionation process is cooling crystallization. If crystallization is successful, separation will be easy. Therefore, under the conditions of stirring and circulating water cooling, the cooling process should be controlled by setting the temperature difference between the oil and cooling water and the cooling time, so that it can form crystal nuclei and grow slowly. Cooling stops when the desired temperature is reached.

3. Filter

It is important to control the cooling and crystallization conditions, and the choice of filtration equipment also has a great influence on the yield of liquid oil. At present, the filtration systems used in industry are: drum filter, continuous belt vacuum filter and membrane filter. Over the past decade, membrane filters have been widely used in the palm oil fractionation industry. Compared with continuous belt vacuum filter and drum filter, membrane filter has a higher yield of soft fat (70%-75%) and higher hardness of stearic acid, while the other two filters The isolated soft fat yield is typically only 65%.

Palm Oil Fractionation Plant

Tips: One time fractionation is enough in most cases. However, for some relatively high demandindustry of stearin, confectionery industry for example, twice palm oil fractionation is suggested.

Palm oil fractionation plant has three fractions: stearin (palm stearine), soft fat (palm olein) andmiddle section (palm mid-fraction). After palm oil fractionation, palm oil will be clean after 5.5 hours in0’C to ensure it can keep flow ability and transparency in the refrigerator and improve the quality andappearance of palm oil.

Factors Affecting Fractionation Effect of Palm Oil

• Control Of Cooling Water Temperature;
• Filling And Squeezing Pressure;
• Filter Cloth Air Permeability (400, 600 L/dm2/min);
• Design Of Crystallizers;