My dairy game 19/01/2025 "palm fruit procession"

Processing Palm Oil from Palm fruits

INTRODUCTION

Palm oil is very lucrative in Nigeria . It is one of the most common economic empowering product gotten naturally from palm tree.
So guys, today I bring to us all an exciting content which illustrates the step-by-step mechanisms that I used during the weekend to process palm fruit from the stage of harvesting to the palm oil extraction itself
Here is a breakdown of the process:

HARVESTING

In this stage or process, I went to the location of the palm tree and tapped out the riped palm fruits leaving the unripe ones for the coming season. Then after tapping, I transported the fruits to the house were a sliced and carefully picked out the fruits from the shell.

STERILIZATION

This is the stage were I took the picked fruits to the oil processing mill, put in drum then cook to boil. This process is carried out inorder to loosen the seed for easy separation of the outermost shell(oil content part) from the innermost shell(kernel).

THRESHING

In this process, the cooked seeds is exposed to an external force which helps in separating the shells from the bunch. This process can be undertaken either manually or with the use of a mechanical machine or engine capable of carrying out the task.

CRUSHING

Here, the separated or grounded palm fruit is crushed or squeezed to release red oil which is the primary product of palm fruit. This process can also be carried out manually or with the use of engines designed for the task.

DEPERICARPING

This is the process that comes immediately after crushing the grounded palm fruit to obtain red oil. Here, the fibre is separated from the nut (kernel). This process is also carried out by the use of mechanical rotating machine and can as well be carried out manually using hands.

FRACTIONATION

This is the second to the last process were the extracted oil is heated to boil inorder to remove odour, colour and other impurities. It further undergo nuclear fission to break down large cell structures thereby releasing pure palm oil.

PACKAGING AND DISTRIBUTION

This is the last stage where the extracted and purified oil is filled in cans, rubber or any chosen container for storage, sales or for domestic consumption

ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF PALM OIL

1. For cooking
2. For sales as a means of livelihood
3. Manufacture of cosmetics, soaps and lotions
4. For lubrication of rough surfaces