Our mill located in Malaysia is planning an expansion from 45 to 120 MT/Hr. I am seeking recommendations and suggestions to the downstream activities that are currently in mills. Please highlight and share especially those failed or unprofitable activities to avoid. Informations from our members would surely help us tremendously and highly appreciated.
Thank you.
I share the concerns raised by Chia Sheak Chong on the safety issues related to the downstream activities e.g. Solvent Extraction Plant and Biogas Capture. The operation and maintenance of these processes may be unfamiliar to the technical and operational staff of a standard palm oil mill. I hope Mr.Yong KC, Mr.Lee YC and Mr.Chang CS can enlighten us on the following questions:
Do the technical and operation staff of a normal palm oil mill have the required skilled and technical know how to operate the plant and equipment in the downstream activities? If no or insufficient, then what are the skills that have to be acquired?
What changes are necessary in the organization structure (besides the number of staff and employee head count which is obvious) in a normal palm oil mill to operate and maintain the downstream activities?
Do you have to depend a lot on the technology provider for the operation and maintenance of the plant and equipment of the downstream activities?
I note that most of the mills that have successfully benefited from the downstream activities are mills in excess of 60-100 tons FFB per hour and with throughput of about 400,000 - 500,000 tons FFB per year. Can smaller mills go into downstream activities? What would be the optimal capacity of mills (tons FFB per hour and tons FFB per year) for the following downstream activities:
a. Biogas capture b. Solvent Plant Extraction c. Empty Bunch Fibre processing d. Decanter Solids drying e. Composting of solid wastes and bio-solids.
Appreciate your sharing.
Solvent Extraction Plant will yield RPOER (Red Palm Oil Extraction Rate) of at least 0.45% which is definitely very profitable especially with the current high CPO price. Several changes to boiler and turbine are required with the increased power, steam and water consumption. The lower calorific value of deoiled fibre will make boiler operation and complying to clean air regulation very challenging. An efficient Empty Bunch Processing plant will minimize oil and nut losses in empty bunches. A good fuel preparation system is necessary to produce quality boiler fuel from the empty bunch fibre as substitute of shell and oil in mesocarp. SER(Shell Extraction Rate)higher than 7.25% is achievable if no shell being used as boiler fuel. Decanter solid dryer will produce Dried Decanter Solid which is in high demand as animal feed. This system will eliminate the high cost of Wet Solid disposal. DDSER( Dried Decanter Solid Extraction Rate) of 1.2% is easily achievable. The ROI of this system is fantastic.
👍. Our composting project fail cause we face most of the problem you mention above,especially our mill manager and estate manager in term of compost transport and handling Mill manager and engineer try to improve shredding ,pressing and burning in boiler ,finally we convert 100% of EFB to fuel in boiler But problem come back to us again ,estate yield drop ,estate manager complain to board that not enough organic matter cause mill don’t supply EFB to estate
1.solvent extraction plant oil recovery about 0. 5% to ffb, we are selling this oil to bio diesel buyer at 6% discount from CPO price, x your ffb per month x rm4930, 10mil investment you can get back within 2 years 2. For pome solid recover, we try decanter, belt press and dewatering press, we like dewatering press, easier to operate and less maintenance problem
WORLD NO.1
( with the kind permission Mr. Yong KC of Coronation POM )
1. What is oil and gas safety standard? Definitely we are not going to build our solvent plant beside our boiler house, follow 100% oil and gas standard, hot work SOP, risk is manageable, petrol kiosk just beside our housing estate (highly flammable) why authority allow? 2. You are planning to increase capacity from 45 mt to 120 mt, bio gas capture is one of the condition set by MPOB, so bio gas plant CAPEX is unavoidable, using digestet tank or lagoon, not a problem to us, FIT to us is success and high return. To purify 60% methane+32%CO2+other impurity to national gas line still Long way to go, to me still not a successful project 3. 35 years of hand on experience in handling EFB shredding and burning in boiler, all our Mills can burn 100% of EFB fibre without mixing any shell, we are commercial mill without big plantation beside our Mill. We are proudly to said that we shred 100% of EFB and convert to fibre as fuel to boiler, solve our EFB disposal problem, all boiler supplier not recommend to burn 100%EFB, but commercial mill without plantation for us to dispose ourEFB, as a Engineer think of a way, don't said no before you try. 4. decanter solid and belt press solid with 80%of moisture, this is the waste from our process, just install a dryer to get one to two million per year, why not? 5. Composting, to us is a fail project, we can produce very good quality compost, but organic farming is not easy in third world country like Malaysia, our farmer want to see the result overnight, compost very difficult to sell, but we still producing small quantity of compost for special market 6. To share our success and high return, our group nine months net profit 126 million
Thank you so much for the sharing of your experience, Mr. Chang CS.
Success and high return down stream activities in my mills 1. Solvent extraction plant 2. Bio gas recover and power generation FIT project 3. Empty bunch shredding and pressing, replace 100%shell for sell 4. decanter cake dryer, drying decanter cake as animal feed or organic fertilizer 5. Dewatering press to recover effluent solid and convert to fertilizer, solve your effluent desilting problem with income