• How is palm oil produced?
  • We have 4 principal palm oil production methods which are the traditional methods, small-scale mechanical units (processing units handling up to 2 tonnes of Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) per hour), medium-scale mills (3 to 8 tonnes FFB per hour) and large industrial mills (3 and 8 tonnes FFB per hour).
  • Can a small-scale palm oil mill be used in rural areas?
  • In the view of obtaining a small-scale palm oil mill in rural areas with probably no electrical energy, the major bottleneck in some small-scale palm oil processing industries is the stripping (separation) of palm fruits from bunches. Therefore, it is very important to have an efficient small threshing machine.
  • How can mechanisation improve oil palm plantation production?
  • The implementation of mechanisation in the oil palm plantation can help ease the dependence on human labour while avoiding diminishing field output. Fresh fruit bunch (FFB) evacuation involves the transportation of FFBs after harvesting from the field to the mill.
  • What is a palm oil mill?
  • A palm oil mill produces crude palm oil and kernels as primary products and biomass as secondary product. The capacity of mills varies between 60-100 tons FFB/h. A typical mill has many operation units as shown in Figure 2. This comprises sterilization, stripping, digestion and pressing, clarification, purification, drying and storage.
  • What are the main operating activities of a palm oil mill?
  • The major operating activities at the mills include splitting (cutting) and/ or chopping (shredding) of FFBs, stripping to separate fruits from bunches, selecting and sieving of stripped nuts using wreck and mesh wires respectively, loading and boiling of nuts, crushing of boiled nuts pressing and clarifying the red palm oil.
  • How much does a small-scale palm oil processing mill cost?
  • The findings show that the average cost of procuring equipment and its installations for a small-scale palm oil processing mill were estimated at N623,650.00. The gross margin return from this study was N44,000.00 while net return was N14,000.00.