| Raw Material Quality Control in a Palm Oil Mill | Indonesia | 1993 | Full scale |
MANUFACTURE OF FOOD PRODUCTS AND BEVERAGES # 18
Background:
PT. Ekadura Indonesia operates a palm oil plantation 250 km from Pekanbaru in Sumatra. The plantation covers an area of about 10,000 ha and is divided into two sections. The plantation was established in 1994 with a capacity of 30 tons of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) per hour and was expanded to 60 tons in 1996. In 1996, approximately 136,734 tons of fruit were processed, resulting in around 33,025 tons of kernels. Estimates for 1997 suggest that approximately 187,000 tons FFB will be processed. To achieve a "Green Company" award, PT. Ikadura Indonesia built a wastewater treatment plant, consisting of two cooling ponds, four mixing ponds, four anaerobic ponds, two settlement and one aerobic lagoon with a volume of 45,000 cubic meters.
The company participated in Cleaner Production Program initiated by Environmental Impact Management Agency BAPEDAL
Cleaner Production Principle:
Recovery, reuse and recycling; Housekeeping.
Cleaner Production Application:
Production wastes, such as shells and fiber, are used as fuel in the boiler, while ash from the empty bunch incinerator is used as fertilizer for the plantation. In general, palm oil processing consists of:
| Receiving and sorting fresh fruit bunches; |
| Steaming to facilitate separation of the oil from the fruit; |
| Pressing of the fruit for 90 to 100 minutes at 3 kg/cm2; and |
| Mechanical separation of the oil from the shells. |
Waste shells and fiber are used to fuel a boiler that produces steam for the separation process. The production of high quality crude palm oil and kernel is heavily dependent upon the quality of the raw material, specifically fresh fruit bunches with a good ripeness ratio that allow for extraction of the maximum amount of crude palm oil and kernel and minimize unwanted free fatty acids. Under-ripe fruit decreases the CPO extraction potential while over-ripe fruit increases the free fatty acids, both result in a decrease in quality of the crude palm oil.
Cleaner production activities have, therefore, focused on quality control of the raw material through:
| Harvesting standards; |
| Harvesting interval control; |
| Harvesting supervision; |
| Collecting lost fruit; |
| FFB transportation to factory; and |
| Sorting. |
Assessing the quality of the harvest being sent to the factory allows for monitoring and improvements in the harvesting process. This attention helps to reduce fresh fruit wastage and quality problems in crude palm oil production. Trucks are selected randomly and the loads are then sorted as to quality. Approximately 100 fresh fruit bunches are sorted from each truck.
The criteria for sorting includes:
| Under-ripe fruit; |
| Over-ripe fruit; |
| Empty bunches (no fruit); and |
| Long stalks. |
Based on this evaluation, it was determined that revenue losses from unsuitable raw material were significant.
Environmental and Financial Benefits:
In just two months, fruit losses decreased from a high of 91,039 kilos to 3,997 kilos. The benefits from the decrease of under-ripe FFB was 87,042,000 Rp. The Benefits from the Increase of CPO extraction rate percentage was 70,342,632 Rp.
The total financial benefits from decreasing the percentage of under-ripe FFB and increasing the CPO extraction rate, after only three months were Rp. 157,384,632.
Constraints:
None mentioned.
Contacts:
Review Status:
This case study was the result of a BEPADAL cleaner production project and was taken from BEPADAL's booklet, Cleaner Production in Indonesia (see address above). It was edited for the ICPIC diskette in November 1998. It has not undergone a formal technical review by UNEP IE.
Subsequently, in March 1999 the case study underwent a technical review by Dr. Prasad Modak, Environmental Management Centre, Mumbai, India.