Effects of Pilot Plant‐Scale Ultrasound on Palm Oil Separation and Oil Quality

Abstract

The effects of ultrasonic standing waves on palm oil separation of ex-screw press feed from the mesocarp of the palm oil fruit, oil recovery and oil quality were determined. The ex-screw press feed at 85°C was pumped simultaneously into two identical vessels. One vessel was the control (non-ultrasound) and the other vessel (ultrasound) was fitted with two 400 kHz transducer plates operating at 13.4 kJ/kg, which were placed in direct contact with the feed. Oiling-off by gravity settling occurred at faster rates after sonication. The total recoverable oil after 30 min gravity settling and upon centrifuging the underflow sludge (remaining colloidal fraction) at 10009g was higher after sonication. Total recoverable oil was 30.7 ± 2.9 % and 43.5 ± 8.6 % (w/w original feed basis) for the non-sonicated and sonicated samples respectively. Sonication reduced the oil content of the sludge ex-centrifuge, demonstrating that higher recovery of palm oil was obtained with ultrasound application. Sonication did not affect the DOBI (deterioration of bleachability index) value, and vitamin E and free fatty acid contents of the separated oil. High-frequency ultrasound enhances the separation rate of palm oil and increases oil recovery without compromising oil quality.

Reduction and Enrichment of Uranium after Biosorption on Inactivated <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i>

“…Thermodynamic parameters of the adsorption process, such as enthalpy (∆H 0 ), entropy (∆S 0 ) and Gibbs free energy (∆G 0 ) are important indicators for the practical application of U(VI) biosorption by microbes. The thermodynamic parameters can be calculated by the following equations [46]: (11) (12) ...where K d (=q e /C e ) is the distribution coefficient, ∆H 0 (kJ/mol), ∆S 0 (J/mol•K) and ∆G 0 (kJ/mol) are the enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs free energy, respectively. The linear variation of lnK d versus 1/T is shown in Fig.…”

“…Uranium was classified as a confirmed human carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1996 [7][8]. Conventional methods of removing uranium pollutants, such as chemical precipitation, ion exchange, solvent extraction, evaporative recovery and membrane separation [9][10][11][12][13][14] consume large amounts of energy and can cause secondary pollution. They also have low removal efficiency when the ion concentration is less than 100 mg/L [15].…”

Characteristics of Fresh Fruit Bunch Yield and the Physicochemical Qualities of Palm Oil during Storage in North Sumatra, Indonesia

“…The deterioration of palm oil was determined by the DOBI method, as previously reported, [12] with a few modifications. About 0.2 g oil was weighed into 50 mL n-hexane (99%).…”

The Effect of Megasonic Separation on the Nutritional and Physical Properties of Food - An Overview

“…Tests demonstrated that tocols (tocotrienols, tocopherols) and other phytonutrients such as carotenoids, contributing to the orange-redish colour of the oil are not modified when subject to megasonic separation for about 60 min (Table 1) [15]. An enhanced rate of oil recovery due to megasonic processing can provide opportunities for decreasing traditional extraction temperatures below 90°C and therefore provide with crude palm oil of higher nutrient content.…”

“…Table 1: Quality parameters of palm oil separated from pressed oil palm fruit feeds after 400 kHz ultrasound processing. Data is compared with a commercial sample of palm oil using the conventional palm oil milling process taken on the same day in a palm oil mill (Adapted from Juliano et al [15]). …”