About Palm Oil:
The economical history of the Palm Oil began in the rain forests of Western Africa in the late 19th century. Since its introduction into Malaysia in the early 20th century until the early 60s, its impact on the economy was marginal. For many years the economy of Malaysia had depend for its wealth & prosperity upon Rubber. In 1961, Malaysia embarked on an intensive agriculture diversification program, and the crop that has achieved the most notable success since then is Palm Oil. Within a relatively short period, Malaysia became the world's largest commercial producer & exporter of Palm Oil in 1966. Diversification into Palm Oil means that the country is now less dependent on the fortunes of Rubber as a plantation crop.
The year 1974 marked the beginning of a succession of refineries which were set up trough out the country. Within 2 years, a total of 15 refineries were in operation, making Malaysia the Palm Oil refining country in the world. Today, 3 decades after the interception of the Palm Oil refining industry, refined & process Palm Oil accounts for almost 90% of the total Palm Oil exports.
The rapidly increasing Palm Oil refining & fractionation capacity consolidated Malaysia's position not only as a leading producer, but also as a major marketing factor in the national trades of Oil & Fats. This position has been achieved trough, among other factors, stringent observance of quality control & the capacity of local refiners to meet the high standards demanded by the world market.
Much of the success of the of the industry was contributed by the fact that it was possible to open market which were once dominated by other vegetable Oil & Fats. However, there is now a marked shift of concentrations away of the industrialized countries to the non-traditional or developing countries such as India, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Egypt, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Several Latin American & African coun tries are also buyers of Malaysian Palm Oil.
Palm oil processing starts with the harvesting of fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) which are milled within 24 hours from harvesting. After the steaming process, the palm fruitlets are crushed in pressing machine to obtain crude palm oil and palm kernel. Waste and water is then cleared and separated from the CPO by means of a centrifuge. The cleared crude palm oil emerging from the centrifuge is then sent for refining while the palm kernel nut is sent for crushing. The empty fruit bunches and liquid wastes arising from the process are used as fertilizer in the plantations.
The palm kernel is further crushed to produce crude palm kernel oil and the remaining palm kernel meal is used as animal feed. If you want to produce refined oil in palm oil processing, crude palm oil and crude palm kernel oil is processed through three refining stages, namely degumming, bleaching and deodorizing.
In the processing of degumming, the gum and fatty acid in crude palm oil and crude palm kernel oil are separated together with other impurities such as trace minerals, copper and iron by the application of phosphoric acid. In bleaching, the oil is mixed with bleaching earth (betonies calcium) in a vacuum room to remove impurities and color pigments in the palm oil. In deodorizing, the odour and taste of the oil is removed when the oil is steamed at high temperatures between 240°C to 260°C and then cooled to room temperature.