Energy consumption pattern in palm kernel oil processing operations

The energy consumption pattern in three categories of palm kernel mills was considered in this study. The mills were classified as small, medium and large respectively based on their capacities. Data on PKO production, quantity of fossil fuel used, electrical power used from the state grid, and captive power generated were obtained for each of the seven identified unit operations. Thermal, Electrical and Manual energy were identified to be the main sources of energy input in all the mills. Thermal energy input varying from 44.9% to 82.4% in the mills was observed to be the mostly used, followed by electrical energy (45.7% - 14.9%) and manual (9.4% - 2.7%) in small, medium and large mills respectively. Palm nut cracking and oil expression accounted for 73.4% of the energy consumed in both small mill and medium mills respectively and 85.2% in the large mill. This indicates that these two unit operations were the most energy intensive operations in all the mills considered.