Degumming in palm oil production

First step in the treatment of the crude raw palm oil (CPO) is the degumming and neutralization process, which removes gums and other sticky materials by adding phosphoric acid. The main purpose of degumming is to remove the Phospholipids from the crude palm oil. There are generally two different types of phospholipids present in the crude oil: , Hydratable, treated by water degumming, and Non-Hydratable, treated by acid degumming. The CPO is stored first in a buffer tank and passes through a heat exchanger to raise the temperature. In the lower part you can see that phosphoric acid is stored in a small tank. A certain amount of this phosphoric acid is mixed in-line with the CPO. The amount of phosphoric acid added depends on the concentration of the gums present as well as which type of oil is being refined. The next stage of this process is the degumming tank, where the oil and acid is mixed with hot process water. Here the gums separate from the oil. When the liquid enters a separator, the gum particles drop out of the oil, and are separated as a waste stream. The degummed oil enters the vacuum dryer where water is extracted until the required oil concentration is achieved.

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