A Systematic Approach for the Synthesis and Optimization of Palm Oil Milling Processes

A palm oil mill (POM) requires large amounts of steam and electricity to convert fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) into multiple products. During the extraction of crude palm oil (CPO) from FFBs, byproducts such as empty fruit bunch (EFB), palm kernel shell (PKS), etc., and palm oil mill effluent (POME) are generated. In the past decades, palm oil millers have attempted various improvements in milling technologies individually and collectively to enhance extraction efficiency to meet the process and product requirements. However, oil lost in the milling process remains the major issue in POM and leads to huge loss of profit. In order to address such issue, oil recovery technologies were introduced and implemented in the current POM. Nevertheless, such technologies come with additional capital investment and operating costs that may outweigh the profit generated. Therefore, in this work, a systematic approach is presented to synthesize the palm oil milling processes with oil recovery technologies which is technically feasible and economically viable. Multiperiod consideration is also incorporated in the optimization model to address the variation in feedstock availability.