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American Journal of Chemistry and Materials Science 2019; 6(1): 1-9
http://www.openscienceonline.com/journal/ajcms
An Assessment of Indigenous Technology of Oil Palm Fruits Processing in Southern Nigeria
Morakinyo Tunde Afolabi1, *
, Bamgboye Adeleke Isaac2
1Department of Food Science & Technology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 2Department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
Email address
*Corresponding author
To cite this article Morakinyo Tunde Afolabi, Bamgboye Adeleke Isaac. An Assessment of Indigenous Technology of Oil Palm Fruits Processing in Southern
Nigeria. American Journal of Chemistry and Materials Science. Vol. 6, No. 1, 2019, pp. 1-9.
Received: November 9, 2018; Accepted: February 18, 2019; Published: March 20, 2019
Abstract
The development of an affordable indigenous oil palm fruits processing technology in Southern Nigeria is highly necessary to
improve oil palm production. However, timely assessment of the levels of indigenous technology will elucidate the need for
advancement. Sixteen traditional, small and large-scale processing oil palm mills were selected majorly from Ogun, Oyo,
Osun, Ondo and Edo states of Nigeria for this study. Their levels of technology were investigated by considering the existing
numbers of unit operation, production time/cycle, man power requirement, throughput, efficiency, energy consumption, water
utility capacity, biomass consumption and heat loss/cycle. Furthermore, machine characteristics were evaluated based on oil
yield, throughput and extraction efficiency. Descriptive statistics was used for data analysis. The average throughput, oil yield
and extraction efficiency were 15.5 kg/hr, 12.5% and 62.5%; 45.5 kg/hr, 16.5% and 82.5%; 1150 kg/hr, 29.0%, and 90% for
traditional, small and large-scale oil mills, respectively. These results showed that there is a wide gap between small-scale and
large-scale oil palm fruit processing mills with respect to production capacity and technology. It was established that as the
level of technology increased, machines characteristics increased with biomass consumptions, but conversely with man power
requirement. The highly adopted traditional mill is un-mechanized, unfriendly and un-hygienic, while less adopted small-scale
is characterized with un-hermetically sterilization and scattered installation. Hence, to enhance palm oil productivity in
Southern Nigeria, small-scale mill must be up-graded to a synchronized medium-scale oil palm fruit processing mill.
Keywords
Man Power Requirement, Throughput, Oil Yield, Extraction Efficiency and Synchronized Mill
1. Introduction
The economic importance of palm oil and its multiple
values at domestic and industrial levels continue to increase
as world population increases. It is an important constituent
in human diet and about two Liters of it are consumed
weekly domestically in every Nigerian household Ekine D. I,
Ohimain E. O [1-2]. Palm fruit has highest oil yield when
compared with other oil bearing seeds crop and is followed
by soya beans. The Tropical Agriculturalist, Owolarafe, O. K,
Morakinyo, T. A [3-5]. The two prominent vegetable oils
derived from oil palm trees are palm oil from the mesocarp
of the palm fruit and palm kernel oil from the kernel. Nigeria
was the world largest producer of the crude palm oil in the
early 1950s till 1960, with market share value of 43.0%
equivalent to 645,000 MT/annum Akpan, P, Gupta, R [6-7].
Unfortunately, as a result of the civil war of 1967 to 1970 and
our ineptitude which led Nigeria as a nation to
pursuepetroleum products at the expense of advancing
agricultural produce, there was sharp decline in productivity
to 7.0% and remains almost stagnated since 2009 Akpan, P,
Gupta, R [6-7]. Malaysia and Columbia that got their palm
tree seedlings from Nigeria, for over two decades are now in
the second and third positions in the world palm oil
production, while Nigeria is in the fifth position with less
than a million tones of production per annum Olagunju F. I,
Bamgboye A. I [8-9].
As at today, Nigeria is one of the major importers of palm
oil to meet both domestic and industrial demands. Explicitly,
2 Morakinyo Tunde Afolabi and Bamgboye Adeleke Isaac: An Assessment of Indigenous Technology of
Oil Palm Fruits Processing in Southern Nigeria
the Nigerian oil palm belt covers fifteen states of South-West,
South-South and South-East geographical zones, namely:
Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta,
Eboniyi, Ekiti, Enugu, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Imo, and
Rivers Gupta, R [7]. Reference [10] estimates this oil palm
belt to covers about 24 million hectares of land in Nigeria.
However, there are three levels of oil palm fruits processing
methods commonly practiced in the Southern Nigeria
namely, traditional, small-scale and large-scale methods.
However, this classification is based on level of technology
in terms of number of unit and mode of operations (batch,
semi-continuous or continuous), extraction ratio, production
capacity (fresh fruit bunches (FFB)/hr), man power
requirement and operating cost FAO, Adeniyi O. R [11-12].
The technologies of traditional and small-scale methods are
indigenous, while the large-scale method is foreign.
Reference [13] reported that traditional method is
characterized with hazardous conditions, highly
cumbersome, unhygienic, slow, inefficient and tedious and
inconsistent products of several different physico-chemicals,
nutritional, textural and organoleptic properties. Reference
[14] reported that, this method is a major source of income
and employment to over 4 million Nigerians and being
practiced in almost all 24 oil palm growing states. Several
studies have reported that about 90% of annual palm oil
production in Nigeria, comes from dispersed smallholders
who harvest wild and semi-wild fresh fruit bunches (FFB)
and processed the fruits using traditional method Olagunju, F.
I, Morakinyo T. A [8, 15]. According to Ekine D. I [1] about
25% - 75% of potential palm oil is lost during traditional
processing method, coupled with low extraction rate. The
small-scale oil palm processing mill of Nigeria Institute for
Oil Palm Research (NIFOR) could have been adopted by
local oil palm processor, but due to its initial manufacturing
and installation costs, only few small-scale oil palm
processors can afford it. However, most large-scale oil palm
mills were owned by foreign investors which are of larger
capacity. This paper presented the levels of technology
adopted in the Southern Nigeria by considering the existing
numbers of unit operations, production time/cycle, man
power requirement, throughput, efficiency, energy
consumption, water utility capacity, biomass consumption
and heat loss/cycle. Furthermore, machine characteristics
were evaluated based on oil yield, throughput and extraction
efficiency. The result of this investigation will generate
technical information that will advance indigenous
technology of oil palm processing in Southern Nigeria
towards economy sustainability.
2. Materials and Methods
The assessment was carried out by selecting sixteen oil
palm mills across Southern Nigeria at three levels of oil palm
processing scales, namely: traditional, small-scale, and large-
scale methods. The locations were selected based on
economic viability, productivity and accessibility. More
importantly, Southern Nigeria was reported as palm oil belt
with maximum activities of oil palm processing at different
levels of operations Eketa C. M [16]. The selected states for
this investigation are: Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Edo as
major oil palm states in Southern Nigeria. A survey was
carried out using questionnaires by visiting sixteen oil palm
mill locations across Southern Nigeria as the primary sources
of data generation. Through these questionnaires, thorough
assessment of the levels of technology in terms of the number
of existing units and mode of operations, man power
requirement, and throughput, oil yield, extraction efficiency,
and energy utility, amount of heat loss to the environment,
water and biomass consumptions were investigated.
However, secondary data were sourced from literature and
repository FAO, NIFOR [11-17]. Nigeria Oil Palm Industry
Report, Palm Oil Value Chain in Rivers and Imo States of
Nigeria PIND [18] and Feasibility study report of oil palm
processing in Nigeria Gupta, R [7]. The primary sources data
collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. During
this study, the three methods of oil palm processing mills
found during the investigation in sixteen locations of
Southern Nigeria were explained below to established
differences in their levels of operation and the technological
trend of the indigenous oil palm processing.
2.1. Traditional Method
During this investigation, it was established that the
traditional method involves a team of 5-8 women processing
a maximum of 2 tons of harvested FFB for 7-8 days
Morakinyo T. A [19]. The processing facilities found in the
traditional oil palm mill were: metallic drum for cooking of
fruits, motorized digester, earth pit for oil clarification, fibre
and nut separation, nut cracker and metallic drums for oil
frying and mud tank for kernel and shell separation. In all the
traditional mills, the oil palm fruit processing involved the
reception of fresh fruit bunches from the local harvesters;
cutting bunches into small clusters (spikelet) and then
covered with tick jute or palm tree leaves for 5-6 days
(mulching and fermentation). The fresh fruits from the
mulched spikelet were usually stripped or loosened by impact
through beating with rods, followed by washing with water to
remove extraneous materials. The washed fruitlets were
cooked inside 200 Liters drum (Figure 1) for 4-5 hrs under
atmospheric pressure Morakinyo T. A [20]. The cooked fruits
were poured into the earth dug-out mortar after cooling
(Figure 2) for legs poundering or on wooden mortar
Babatunde O. O, Owolarafe O. K, Patrick A [21-23]. The
mashed fruitlets were diluted with water; agitated, scooping
foam was then decanted into a bowl, while fibre and palm
nuts were filtered out into a basket for sorting (Figure 2). The
oil/water emulsion was usually boiled and skimmed to decant
floated oil from slurry, which was later fried satisfactorily to
reduce moisture content. This method is highly hazardous,
unhygienic, laborious, time consuming and inefficient; and
characterized with too low extraction ratio of about 12%
Patrick A [23]. The heat transfer within the conventional
method of cooking fresh fruit bunches (FFB) inside open
drumis non-homogenous, because only those fruitlets at the
American Journal of Chemistry and Materials Science 2019; 6(1): 1-9 3
bottom of the drum, which may be estimated to be less than
20% of the total surface area of the drum were properly
cooked by conduction Jambawai R. M. J,, Morakinyo T. A
[24, 20].
Figure 1. Traditional sterilizer (Ibilo, Edo State).
Source: (Morakinyo and Bamgboye, 2016)
Figure 2. Traditional Earth Dug Mortal (Agbongbo Village, Ile-Ife, Osun
State).
Source: (Morakinyo and Bamgboye, 2016b)
2.2. Small-Scale Method/NIFOR Mill
It was reported that in 1986, Techno Serves Israel, in
collaboration with Techno Stock Nigeria, developed a
digester and hydraulic press for small-scale palm oil
processing enterprises FAO [25]. During the survey, it was
gathered that small-scale oil palm fruits processing mills
were adopted by many research farms of universities in
Southern Nigeria among the host of others. The designs have
a lot of short falls such as: the throughput of the motorized
digester found to be higher than hydraulic press, and since
both were not synchronized but installed separately, there
was heat loss and increase in man power requirement. These
enormous challenges called for semi-continuous technology
which was modified and developed by NIFOR. The palm
fruit processing machine of NIFOR is the latest processing
mill that has largest unit operations so far among small-scale
palm oil industries in Nigeria.
Other types of cooking and digester cum mono-screw
press were found with Tim Bake and Sabola oil palm fruit
processing mills located in Atan, Ogun State fabricated by
Faleru (Figures 3 and 4). All categories of small-scale mills
processed loosed fruitlets from the harvested bunch that were
fermented for 5-6 days by mulching. The fermented fruitlets
were cooked inside open metallic tank either cylindrical or
rectangular, vertically erected to allow biomass combustion
for 4-5 hrs (Figure 3). However, the NIFOR mill, provided
for the filtering of the fermented fruitlets before feeding into
the cooker for cooking under atmospheric pressure for 3-4
hrs (Figure 5). The cooked fruitlets were digested using
vertical digester propelled by 6hp, two-stroke, water-cool
diesel engine. This digester was capable of macerating over
250 kg of fruits per hour; and can macerate thoroughly either
the Dura or Tenera fruit or a combination of both without
breaking any nut. The next stage was pressing with either
hydraulic or mechanical spindle press (Figure 6), or digester
cum mono screw-press (Figure 7) Badmus G. A [26]. The
slurry, water and oil extracted into a collector were cooked to
separate palm oil from the mash, and further decanted for
frying operation. Pressing was observed as major challenge
in small-scale palm oil processing, because, all processing
operations were tending toward cold extraction and it is
usually conducted slowly to avoid huge loss of oil that might
result from inadequate pressing below 18% of its extraction
ratio. These sequences of operations took maximum of two
days due to long time involved in fruits and extracted oil
emulsion cooking. This method has some advantages over
traditional method, but still associated with low throughput
and efficiency from the investigation report. The major
challenge with both designs was heat losses, because,
motorized digester worked faster than mono-screw-press.
However, hydraulic press received highest patronage in
Nigeria for a long time before the development of NIFOR
innovation Ilechie C. O [27]. It was also gathered that oil
loss/fibre ratio ranged from 18-35%, coupled with challenge
of low pressure, due to hydraulic pump failure. Some of these
hydraulic presses installed were no more functioning in many
4 Morakinyo Tunde Afolabi and Bamgboye Adeleke Isaac: An Assessment of Indigenous Technology of
Oil Palm Fruits Processing in Southern Nigeria
institutions and research centre in Nigeria Morakinyo T. A
[19]. A typical data for the performance evaluation of some
unit operations were reported by FAO [11] (Table 1).
However, the enormous challenges previously reported,
necessitated the development of a synchronized medium-
scale palm fruits processing mill which consist of fire-in-tube
boiler, sterilizer, inclined screw conveyor, motorized steam-
jacketed vertical digester, sterilizer twin-cam screw press and
crude oil tank. The optimum oil yield of 25%, efficiency of
83% and throughput of 75 kg/h as average values for both
Tenera and Dura cultivars were obtained from the mill
reported by Morakinyo T. A, Morakinyo T. A [19, 15].
Figure 3. Un-pressurized Cooker for Fruits Cooking (Tim Bake Mill, Atan,
Ogun State).
Figure 4. Motorized Digester cum Mono Screw-Press (Tim Bake Mill, Atan,
Ogun State).
Figure 5. Un-Pressurized Cooker for Fruits Cooking (NIFOR, Benin, Edo
State).
Figure 6. Mechanical spindle press (Ibilo, Edo State).
Figure 7. Digester cum, Mono Screw-press (NIFOR, Benin, Edo State).
Source: Morakinyo, (2014)
American Journal of Chemistry and Materials Science 2019; 6(1): 1-9 5
2.3. The Large-Scale/ Full-Mechanized
Method
During this investigation, it was observed that the
processing operations in large-scale mill with all unit
operations take minimum man power requirement to process
fresh fruit bunches to palm oil within 3-4 hrs per cycle. The
large-scale oil palm processing mill equipment are: boiler,
sterilizer (Figure 8), bunch stripper, digester, screw-press
(Figure 9), crude oil tank, cage breaker, fibre separator, nut
drier, nut cracker, kernel separator, clarifier, oil drier, oil
screener and special oil tank Morakinyo T. A [19]. Majority
of large-scale oil palm mills in Southern Nigeria are in the
range of 3-6 ton of FFB/hr without turbine, but powered by
4-stroke diesel engine generators, except multinational oil
palm mills such as Presco and Okomu. These multinational
mills make use of generator for the running of the biomass
water- in-tube boiler for the first 45-60 minutes. The
superheated steam generated of 20 bar from the boiler were
then used for the propelling of the turbine which generated
power output of about 1200 kW of electricity sufficient to
energize the whole estate. The lower pressure steam from the
turbine was eventually re-used for sterilization purposes
throughout the processing stages. However, all the unit
operations were running on automation; oil samples on
regular bases were collected for laboratory analysis. The oil
palm bunches were received for processing through loading
ram by gravity into railed cages of 2.5 ton in capacity.
Although such large installations are capital-intensive while
their extraction rates ranging between 28 - 30% for Tenera
fruitlets.
2.4. Trend of Indigenous Oil Palm Processing
There are many indigenous fabricators of small-scale palm
oil processing machinery. However, most of them supplied
cooker, digester cum mono screw-press along with clarifier
FAO [11]. Table 1, depictsome of the latest machine
innovation, such ascold/dry digester cum mono screw-press
developed by NIFOR, having throughput of 500-850 FFB/hr
and extraction efficiency of 76-80%. If wet/hot method
(sterilization) is applied, the performance will improve
tremendously. Presently, NIFOR’s mill has no boiler
separately, but a cooker with in-built steamer that generated
steam under atmospheric pressure. Therefore, there is need
the modification of the design by separating the boiler from
the steamer.
Figure 8. Horizontal sterilizer (Presco, Benin).
Figure 9. Twin-cam screw-press, (A & Hatman, Benin).
Table 1. Typical Process Unit Performance and Consumption of Oil Palm Fruits in Southern Nigeria.
Unit
Operat. Machine
Rated
Capacity
(kg/h) FFB
Effici.
(%)
Extra
c.Rati
o (%)
Water
Consp/tonof
FFB (L)
Power
(kW)
Fuel
(L)
Biomas
(kg)
Capital
Investment
(US$)
Dry Spindle Press 100-200 55 12-14 282 0 0 88 150-200
Hydraulic Press 200-300 67-74 12-15 287 0 0 90 5000-7000
Screw Press 250-400 77.4 16-18 781 12 7 73 1500-6000
Wet Vertical Digester 500-800 80-90 19-20 750 0 2 70 1500-2500
Dry Motorized Horizontal Digester 500-1000 55 12-14 250 0 2-3 75 2500-3000
Dry Digester-Fly press 200-300 60-70 16-18 380 0 1- 1.5 84 3000-5000
Digester Hydraulic Press 400-800 67-78 15-17 400-500 0 2-3 113 7,000-10,000
Dry Motorized Digester + Hydraulic
Press 500-800 78-87 18-20 270 0 2-3 113 10,000-15,000
Digester + Screw-press 500-850 76-90 18-20 276 0 2-3 146 12,000-15,000
6 Morakinyo Tunde Afolabi and Bamgboye Adeleke Isaac: An Assessment of Indigenous Technology of
Oil Palm Fruits Processing in Southern Nigeria
3. Results and Discussion
The result of technological assessment of sixteen oil palm
mills in Southern Nigeria is showed in Table 2. In the
traditional mill, the average number of mechanical operation
was two, such as propelled digester and palm nut cracker. All
other sequences of operations were done manually. The
average man power requirement was eight, and energy utility
of 10.0 kW. The average heat loss, water and biomass
consumption capacities were: 557.5 kJ/kg, 900 Ltrs and
282.5 kg respectively. However, for the small-scale and
large-scale oil palm mills, the average unit of operation, man
power requirement, energy utility, heat loss, water and
biomass consumption capacities were: 4.0, 7.0, 17.5kW,
460.0 kJ/kg, 600.0 Ltrs and 320.0 kg; 18.0, 6.0, 320 kW,
147.5 kJ/kg, 2250.0 Ltrs and 625.0 kg, respectively.
Considering these results, it was observed that as technology
increased from the traditional to large-scale, the number of
the unit of operations, energy utility and water and biomass
consumption capacities increased sharply from 2-18, 10-500
kW and 275 to 800 kg, respectively. In contrast to these
observations, man power requirement and heat loss decreased
from 8-6, 665-147.5 kJ/kg as technology increased. These
results showed that there are a lot of technological vacuum
required to be filled with appropriate technology to boost
productivity in oil palm industry. Some researchers Monday
O. A, Abbas, S. A, Rusinek R, Morakinyo, T. A [28, 29, 30,
5] reported that the traditional method is a cold mechanical
oil expression which is simple, ecological, unhygienic and
less expensive but characterized with low oil extraction rate
of about 6-15%. In synopsis, the level of mechanization in
the traditional method is very low and unproductive, full of
drudgery, energy sapping and unfriendly because almost all
processing operations are manual. Several researchers
reported the same observation, that due to this cold
extraction, the chemical properties of the extracted palm oil
using traditional mill are of lesser quality than that of the
large-scale mills Aletor V. A, Ohimain E. O, Morakinyo, T. A
[31, 2, 5]. As shown in Table 3, the production time/cycle on
hourly basisfor major unit operations such as boiler,
sterilizer, stripper, digester, presser, and clarifier were: 0.00,
4.50, 96.00, 2.50, 3.75 and 3.00; 3.50, 96.00, 3.25, 3.25, and
3.00; 1.50, 0.88, 1.25, 1.00, 1.75 and 1.13 (hrs) for
traditional, small-scale and large-scale mill, respectively. In
the same trend, as technology is advancing, the production
time/cycle on hourly basis for each unit operation decreased
tremendously. From the empirical data, it can be deduced that
traditional and small-scale mills are time wastage, low
productivity, low quality and highly laborious compare to the
large-scale mill Morakinyo, T. A [5]. Furthermore, the result
of unit operations characterization is shown in Table 4 for the
sixteen oil palm mills. From the table, the average oil yield,
throughput and extraction efficiency are: 15.5 kg/hr, 12.5%
and 62.5%; 45.5 kg/hr, 16.5% and 82.5%; 1150 kg/hr 29.0%,
and 90% for traditional, small and large-scales oil mills,
respectively. As seen in Table 4, as the level of technology
increased from traditional to large-scale, oil yield, throughput
and extraction efficiency increased. Obviously, from all
indications, there is a notable wide gap between small-scale
and large-scale oil palm fruit processing methods compared
to the gap between traditional and small-scale methods in
respect to throughput, oil yield, extraction ratio and
technology scale. These observations were similar with the
report of FAO FASTAT [32], which shows that as technology
advances in oil palm processing mills from the traditional to
the large-scale methods, throughput, extraction ratio, oil yield
and quality of palm oil increased tremendously. However, the
large-scale mill is a full-mechanized scale, highly capital
intensive to establish and un-affordable to oil processors.
Hence, the challenges of small-scale mill were considered as
installation of unit operations separately, and in scattered
pattern, sterilization of fruitlets without using super-heated
steam, lack of instrumentation and control transducers to
regulate processing parameters on all unit operations, lack of
mechanical drives to reduce number man power and
reduction in heat lost to mill workers and environment. Some
these challenges were considered in developing a
synchronized medium-scale palm oil processing mill reported
by Morakinyo, T. A [15]. Unfortunately, this innovation is yet
to be adopted by Nigerian oil palm processors due to lack
focus and ineptitude to develop indigenous technology. This
synchronized indigenous medium-scale oil palm processing
mill encompassing with all necessary technological
intervention at affordable cost, less hazardous and more
hygienic with increase in production has been developed and
evaluated Morakinyo, T. A [15]. This mill has oil yield,
throughput and efficiency of 25%, 75 kg/hr and 83%,
respectively. The innovation has increased oil yield,
throughput and performance efficiency of traditional method
by 100%, 500% and 33%, respectively. Hence on small-scale
(NIFOR), it has increased by 67.0%, 52.0% and 4%,
respectively Morakinyo T. A [5].
Considering the assessment data, it is obvious that strong
based technological intervention is urgently needful at
various levels of oil palm processing operations. Those
noticeable innovations should be adopted and necessary
modifications should be properly financed for better
performance. During, the study of this technological
assessment, it was observed that, a lot of indigenous
innovation toward advancing oil palm production were
scattered all over universities, polytechnics and research
institutes which require a central co-ordination body to
synergy them together in terms of forming a collaborating
team among inventors. This can only be done by Ministry of
Science and Technology, Small and Medium Enterprises
Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), National
Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure
(NASENI) and Raw material and Development Council
Anozie A. N [33]. The inventor and innovator should be
rewarded adequately morally and financially, not demanding
hundred thousand of Naira for patency. Presently the role and
the mandate of some agencies have been distorted by
American Journal of Chemistry and Materials Science 2019; 6(1): 1-9 7
exploitation of the researchers instead of encouraging them.
This corruption syndrome must be purged from our system if
we really need to advance indigenous technology for our
emancipation. The National Office for Technology
Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) should look for
research break-through in all our institutions, research
institutes and fabricating shops for timely adoption of new
invention and innovation and render all needful assistants
toward acquisition and mass production of such machines.
The small-scale method is a semi-mechanized method,
characterized by low production.
Table 2. The Results of Assessment of the Oil Palm Mill in Southern Nigeria.
S/No Mill Location/State Method No. of Unit
Oper.
Man Power
Requ.
Energy
Utility
(kW)
Heat Loss
(kJ/kg)
Water Utility
(Ltrs)
Biomass
Quantity
(kg)
1 Oyelade Elere, Ogun Traditional 2 8 10 450 800 275
2 Abas Orile, Ogun Traditional 2 8 10 550 850 280
3 Badejo Ikoyi, Oyo Traditional 2 8 10 555 850 280
4 Akintola Oko, Osun Traditional 2 8 10 560 850 280
5 Ayokunle Ikire, Osun Traditional 2 8 10 600 850 280
6 Kayode Ife, Osun Traditional 2 8 10 665 900 290
Average 2 8 10±0.0 557.7±70 850±31.6 282.5±4.9
7 Double Chief Avielle, Edo Small-scale 4 7 15 400 450 305
8 Akoko Edo Igarra, Edo Small-scale 4 7 15 420 500 310
9 NIFOR Benin, Edo Small-scale 5 7 15 430 500 310
10 Tim Bake Atan, Ogun Small-scale 4 8 20 520 600 320
Average 4 7 17.5±3.5 460±84.8 5425±106 312.5±10.6
11 J. B Farm Ikenne, Ogun Large-scale 10 5 150.0 150.0 1500.0 450.0
12 Lomiro Lomiro, Ogun Large-scale 15 5 150.0 150.0 2000.0 500.0
13 A&Hatman Okhuo, Edo Large-scale 15 6 250.0 150.0 2000.0 550.0
14 Araromi Aiyesan, Ondo Large-scale 15 6 250.0 140.0 3000.0 600.0
15 Okomu Benin, Edo Large-scale 18 6 500.0 120.0 3000.0 800.0
16 Presco Benin, Edo Large-scale 18 6 500.0 115.0 3000.0 800.0
Average 15 6 325.0±247 147.5 2250.0±1060 625.0±247
Table 3. Production Time/Cycle for Major Unit Operation of the Oil Palm Mills in Southern Nigeria.
S/No Mill Location/State Method Boiler
(hr)
Sterilizer/
Boiling
(hr)
Stripper/
Fermentation
(hr)
Digester
(hr)
Presser/
Earth Pit
(hr)
Clarifier/
Decant (hr)
1 Oyelade Elere, Ogun Traditional - 5.00 96.00 2.00 4.00 2.00
2 Abas Orile, Ogun Traditional - 5.00 96.00 2.00 3.50 2.00
3 Badejo Ikoyi, Oyo Traditional - 5.00 96.00 2.50 4.00 2.50
4 Akintola Oko, Osun Traditional - 4.00 96.00 2.50 4.00 2.50
5 Ayokunle Ikire, Osun Traditional - 4.00 96.00 2.50 4.00 2.50
6 Kayode Ife, Osun Traditional - 4.00 96.00 3.00 3.59 3.00
Average - 4.50±0.7 96.00±0.0 2.5±0.4 3.75±0.7 2.5±0.7
7 Double Chief Avielle, Edo Small-scale - 4.00 96.00 4.00 4.00 3.00
8 Akoko Edo Igarra, Edo Small-scale - 4.00 96.00 3.50 3.50 3.00
9 NIFOR Benin, Edo Small-scale - 3.00 96.00 3.00 3.00 2.50
10 Tim Bake Atan, Ogun Small-scale - 3.00 96.00 2.500 2.500 3.00
Average 3.50±0.7 96.00±0.0 3.25±11 3.25±1.1 3.00±0.0
11 J. B Farm Ikenne, Ogun Large-scale 2.0 1.00 1.5 1.00 2.00 1.00
12 Lomiro Lomiro, Ogun Large-scale 2.0 1.00 1.5 1.00 2.00 1.00
13 A&Hatman Okhuo, Edo Large-scale 1.5 1.00 1.5 1.00 2.00 1.50
14 Araromi Aiyesan, Ondo Large-scale 1.5 1.00 1.0 1.00 2.00 1.50
15 Okomu Benin, Edo Large-scale 1.0 0.75 1.0 1.00 1.50 1.25
16 Presco Benin, Edo Large-scale 1.0 0.75 1.0 1.00 1.50 1.25
Average 1.5±0.7 0.88±0.2 1.25±0.4 1.00±0.0 1.75±0.4 1.13±0.2
Table 4. Machine Characteristic of Oil Palm Mills in Southern Nigeria.
S/No Mill Location /State Method Throughput (kg/h) Oil yield (%) Extract. Eff. (%)
1 Oyelade Elere, Ogun Traditional 15.0 12.0 55.0
2 Abas Orile, Ogun Traditional 15.0 12.0 55.0
3 Badejo Ikoyi, Oyo Traditional 15.0 12.5 55.0
4 Akintola Oko, Osun Traditional 15.0 12.5 60.0
5 Ayokunle Ikire, Osun Traditional 16.0 13.0 60.0
6 Kayode Ife, Osun Traditional 16.0 13.0 70.0
Average 15. 5± 0.7 12.5 ± 0.5 62.5 ± 2.7
7 Double Chief Avielle, Edo Small-scale 32.0 16.0 80.0
8 Morakinyo Tunde Afolabi and Bamgboye Adeleke Isaac: An Assessment of Indigenous Technology of
Oil Palm Fruits Processing in Southern Nigeria
S/No Mill Location /State Method Throughput (kg/h) Oil yield (%) Extract. Eff. (%)
8 Akoko Edo Igarra, Edo Small-scale 40.0 16.0 80.0
9 NIFOR Benin, Edo Small-scale 51.0 17.0 82.0
10 Tim Bake Atan, Ogun Small-scale 60.0 17.0 85.0
Average 45.5 ± 17.0 16.5 ± 0.7 82.5 ± 2.4
11 J. B Farm Ikenne, Ogun Large-scale 600.0 28.0 88.0
12 Lomiro Lomiro, Ogun Large-scale 750.0 28.0 88.0
13 A&Hatman Okhuo, Edo Large-scale 900.0 28.0 89.0
14 Araromi Aiyesan, Ondo Large-scale 1050.0 30.0 90.0
15 Okomu Benin, Edo Large-scale 1800.0 30.0 91.0
16 Presco Benin, Edo Large-scale 1800.0 30.0 92.0
Average 1150.0 ± 525 29.0 ± 1.4 90.0 ± 2.8
4. Conclusion
The basic technical information for advancing indigenous
oil palm processing equipment has been elucidated in this
study. The results from this assessment called for urgent
attention of governments at all levels and the research
institutes to look inward of bridging the technical gap with
appropriate technology. The wide gap between the traditional
method and large scale mill could be eliminated if there is a
central coordination unit not limited their supervisory role on
research institutes but involving local fabricators, faculties of
technology and engineering across universities and
polytechnics. Hence, adoption of a medium-scale oil palm
fruits processing mill, and modifying it to process oil palm
bunches will go a long way in enhancing productivity of
palm oil to meet our domestic and industrial needs. More
importantly, whatever any innovator might have achieved so
far should be gathered to develop oil palm processing mill
that will be eliminate all the challenges characterized both
traditional and small-scale oil palm processing mills in the
Southern Nigeria to boost productivity.
Acknowledgements
These following oil palm mills are highly appreciated for
their unalloyed supports of releasing technical details
towards the success of this investigation. They are: A &
Hatman Oil Palm Mill, Okhuo, Benin, Presco Oil Palm
Processing Mill, Sapele Road Benin City, Araromi Aiyesan
Oil Palm Mill, Aiyesan, Ondo State, Double Chief Farms,
Aveille, Auchi, Edo State, Tim Bake & Sabola Oil Palm
Mills Atan, Ogun State, etc.
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