The Effect of Changing the Nozzle Arrangement in the Vacuum Dryer on Decreasing the Moisture Content of Crude Palm Oil (CPO)

Abstract

Crude palm oil is obtained from the mesocarp of oil palm fruit through a pressing process. The main cause of the decline in the quality of palm oil is the highwater content. Reducing humidity can be done by optimizing the palm oil dryer or what is called a vacuum dryer. The current vacuum dryers are considered less than optimal because the crude palm oil water content is often high, with the nozzles positioned in a straight line so that the distance between the nozzles is tight. For this reason, research was carried out on the effect of varying the diameter of the nozzle arrangement on reducing crude palm oil water content in vacuum dryers. The research was carried out at different nozzle distances in a vacuum dryer with varying nozzle arrangement diameters of 290 mm, 380 mm, 470 mm, 560 mm, and 650 mm and an inter-nozzle angle of 25.71° from the center of the vacuum dryer tube. This research starts from the design stage, making preliminary models, numerical studies, making prototypes, and experimental studies. From the research carried out on this vacuum dryer, the value of the amount of water vapor volume fraction formation in the vacuum dryer outlet channel for various nozzle arrangement variations was obtained. The total volume fraction of water vapor at a nozzle arrangement diameter of 290 mm is 3.31, a nozzle arrangement diameter of 380 mm is 3.64, a nozzle arrangement diameter of 470 mm is 0.68, a nozzle arrangement diameter of 560 mm is 4.37, and a nozzle arrangement diameter of 650 mm is 4.65. From these results it can be seen that the moisture content is proven to change in each nozzle arrangement and the most optimal decrease in moisture content occurs at a nozzle arrangement diameter of 650 mm as indicated by the formation of the largest volume fraction of water vapor. Based on experiments, it was found that the efficiency of the vacuum drying machine could reach 65.67%.