A visit to local palm oil production plant

A few days ago, I took a trip down to a rural area in the Southwestern part of Nigeria - The Yorubas. Specifically, I went for a visit to the palm-oil producing plant in the area. Perhaps not a plant per se, but an equivalence of it because the processing is about 95% manual and 5% machine-based. I frequently visited the place while growing up as a kid, especially as our family's cocoa farm is also within the same area.

Palm oil represents one of the most important food additives in Nigeria generally, irrespective of the tribe. The Yorubas are especially known for loving excess palm oil in their foods, although I am a true-bred Yoruba and I do not like excess oil in my foods. It is an edible vegetable oil derived primarily from the fruits of the palm tree - Elais guineenses - the mesocarp to be precise. It is high in fatty acid contents with the major one being the 16-carbon palmitic acid. The unbleached oil is also rich in carotene.

The richness in saturated fat means that palm oil consumption helps to increase low-density lipoproteins in the blood, thereby reducing the risks of cardiovascular diseases. According to the health benefits times:

One cup of Palm oil serves 1909 calories and 216 g of total lipid fat. It also offers 0.02 mg of iron, 0.6 mg of choline, 34.43 mg of Vitamin E, 17.3 µg of Vitamin K, 106.488 g of total saturated fat, 0.216 g of lauric acid, 2.16 g of myristic acid, 93.96 g of palmitic acid, 9.288 g of stearic acid, 79.92 g of total monounsaturated fats, 0.648 g of palmitoleic acid, 79.056 g of oleic acid, 0.216 g of gadoleic acid, 20.088 g of total polyunsaturated fats, 19.656 g of linoleic acid and 0.432 g of Linolenic acid.

Apart from human consumption, palm oil is also used industrially in the production of soaps, cosmetics, and biofuels.

The local production plant

The local production plant covers a fairly large area of land divided into several units, including the unit where harvested oil palm fruits are kept prior to processing, cooking unit, and oil extraction unit. Palm oil local production plants are usually located close to access to water because of the importance that water plays in the processing.

^{Fruit storage are. There are no harvested fruits currently.}

Harvested fruits from the farm are usually kept piled together depending on their maturity levels before harvesting. Those that are already ripe before harvesting need to be processed into palm oil almost immediately while those that are just about to ripe can still be kept for a few days. The latter are the ones usually kept piled together and covered with palm fronds in a unit designed for such.

The cooking area is usually for cooking as the name implies. Ripe fruits that have been removed from their bunches are collected in metal drums and cooked for a period of time. Extracted oil, after collection, is also heated in this unit.

^{A view of the cooking and oil extraction area together}

The oil extraction unit is, perhaps, the most important unit in the production plant. The place where the extraction is carried is usually a rectangular hole dug into the ground and lined with woods. It is usually located very close to water. Cooked fruit is poured into it and mashed, usually with legs, after it has cooled down to an extent. Mashing is done to remove the fleshy and oil-containing part of the fruit from the stony endocarp. In some cases, the cooked fruit is transferred into a milling machine that helps separate the fleshy parts from the endocarp before the content is poured into the basin. Water is then added and the actual oil extraction commences. The entire process can take a few days.

Below are the images I took from the production plant with their descriptions.

^{An extracted oil in the process of being cooked.}

^{Washing of the cooked and mashed palm fruit in the basin that has been specifically designed for such. As they mashed content is being washed, the oil embeded in the fleshy portion of the fruits start floating on the surface of the water}

^{The drum of the macheine used to separate the fleshy mesocarp of the fruit from the stony endocarp. Behind it is the flesh/kernel residue that have been manually removed during washing.}

^{A broader view of the extraction basin with the oil floating on the surface. The oil is filtered into a drum and cooked for a period of time after which it is filtered and ready to be used.}

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Thank you all for reading.

Resources

• https://www.healthbenefitstimes.com/palm-oil/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_oil