AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE EFFICIENCY OF A PALM MESOCARP SEPARATION MACHINE

A bench-top machine would be suitable for farmers to separate palm mesocarp from palm kernels on a small scale. The purpose of this study was to conduct an experimental investigation on the efficiency of such a machine for palm mesocarp separation from the palm kernels with the following operational steps: (1) developing a separation machine having a pressing force measurement by upgrading an existing palm mesocarp separation machine; (2) conducting an experiment to determine a suitable operating point; and (3) examining the efficiency of the newly developed separation machine and analysing the extracted palm oil properties. The results show that suitable weight loadings for the cases without heating, with steaming, and with roasting are 1000, 1500 and 1500 g, respectively, whereas the optimal pressing distance is 19 cm. Deterioration Bleachability Index (DOBI) of palm oil extracted from oil palm mesocarp in the cases of no heating, steaming and roasting are 2.99, 3.68 and 4.15, respectively. In addition, the free fatty acid (FFA) in the cases of no heating, steaming and roasting are 3.89%, 3.14% and 2.72%, respectively. Therefore, DOBI and FFA levels satisfy the standard requirements for DOBI is not less than 2.00 and for FFA is not more than 5.00%.