Physical Refinery Part 2

Process and product quality control

 

In physical refining process, there are two critical control points which is at the deodorizer and final polishing filter. The temperature in the deodorizer must be maintains above 260 ^oC for palm oil and 220 ^oC for soft oil while final polishing filter is the last protection before deliver the RBD palm oil to customer. Beside Deodorization temperature, the bleaching earth dosage is another parameter that must take into consideration in order to maintain refined oil quality and minimize oil loss. Table below showed the common quality issue with possible reasons and corrective action.

 

Quality	Possible reasons	Corrective actions
High FFA	Low deodorizer temperature Low vacuum in deodorizer Retention time in deodorizer too short Low sparging steam to oil ratio	Check deodorizer temperature and pressure Recalibrate deodorizer temperature and pressure Use longer cycle time Check sparging steam rate and pressure
High color	Insufficient bleaching earth dosage Short retention time in bleacher	Use proper amount of bleaching earth Run the plant within the design capacity
High PV
High oil loss	Deodorizer temperature too high High bleaching earth dosage	Check deodorizer temperature and pressure Recalibrate deodorizer temperature and pressure Use proper dosage of bleaching earth
High moisture	Leakage in final product cooler	Check oil quality before and after the cooler. Change the gasket