Sains Malaysiana 49(8)(2020): 2005-2011

http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/jsm-2020-4908-23

Oil Extraction from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches with Crystallization Technique

(Pengekstrakan Minyak daripada Serabut Tandan Kosong Kelapa Sawit dengan Teknik Penyejukan)

KESSNIA IRA NG, COSWALD STEPHEN SIPAUT @ MOHD NASRI* & JIDON ADRIAN JANAUN

Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Received: 21 October 2019/Accepted: 4 April 2020

ABSTRACT

Oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) are the common by-product of palm oil mills as in 2017 approximately 87.721 million tons of EFB were produced. This abundance of EFB causes several problems, including pollution and pest infestation, which have an impact on the well-being of the environment and humanity. Due to this, research on EFB has been conducted, demonstrating its capability to be a sustainable resource for derived products, such as bio-oil and EFB fibre as composite filler. Research shows that processed EFB fibre contains 2-3% of residual oil but current oil extraction methods require the use of either high temperature and/or high pressure. Existing methods require high energy consumption and are unable to extract all residual oil within EFB. Therefore, a new EFB oil extraction technique is proposed, based on the fundamental theory of crystallization as a separation method. This technique was able to achieve reductions of 74.45 and 30.03% in the oil yield from processed EFB using liquid nitrogen and standard refrigeration system as crystallization media, respectively. 

Keywords: Nitrogen liquid; separation technique; standard refrigeration system

ABSTRAK

Serabut tandan kosong kelapa sawit (EFB) merupakan produk sampingan daripada industri kelapa sawit; lebih kurang 87.721 juta tan telah dihasilkan pada tahun 2017. Dengan jumlah sedemikian, EFB boleh menyebabkan pencemaran dan serangan serangga perosak. Ini boleh memberi kesan yang teruk terhadap bukan sahaja persekitaran malah kesihatan masyarakat sekeliling. Oleh sebab demikian, penyelidikan atas EFB telah dijalankan. Penyelidikan yang dijalankan telah menunjukkan bahawa EFB mempunyai potensi sebagai sumber mapan untuk produk berasaskan EFB; seperti minyak biologi dan serabut EFB sebagai pengisi komposit. Penyelidikan ini juga menunjukkan ia mempunyai sisa minyak kelapa sawit sebanyak 2-3%. Tetapi teknik pengekstrakan minyak terkini memerlukan penggunaan tenaga seperti tekanan dan haba yang tinggi. Namun, ia tidak dapat mengekstrak minyak kelapa sawit sepenuhnya. Oleh itu, teknik pengekstrakan baru dicadangkan yang berasaskan teori asas penyejukan sebagai keadah pemisahan. Teknik ini menunjukkan pengurangan ekstrakan minyak sebanyak 74.45% dengan nitrogen cecair sebagai media penyejukan dan 30.03% dengan sistem penyejukan sebagai media penyejukan. 

Kata kunci: Cecair nitrogen; sistem penyejukan; teknik pemisahan 

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*Corresponding author; email: css@ums.edu.my