Treatment of empty fruit bunches for recovery of residual oil and additional steam production

Abstract

The fiber and shells in fresh fruit bunches (FFB) are important as fuel in a standard palm oil milling process, with the empty bunches being incinerated or mulched for fertilizer application to oil palms. However, dewatering the empty bunches in an additional pressing station can substantially enhance the available energy. Recovery of residual oil which results from the pressing of the empty bunches is an attractive economic proposition in itself, especially with the change in the composition of the fresh fruit bunches as a result of the introduction of the weevil. The resultant fibrous material serves as valuable fuel for steam generation which can be profitably used for further downstream processing, especially where a refinery is located near a palm oil mill.