WO2015190907A1

WO2015190907A1 - Method for extracting crude palm oil using green technology

Info

Publication number: WO2015190907A1
Application number: PCT/MY2014/000257
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yusof Bin BASIRAN; Lim Chai BENG; Tan Yu HWA; Chiang Chuen SHIN
Original assignee: Palmite Process Engineering Sdn Bhd
Priority date: 2014-06-10
Filing date: 2014-10-31
Publication date: 2015-12-17
Also published as: MY167407A

Abstract

A method is disclosed for extracting palm oil (207) from press liquor (200) that generates a biologically-stable palm fruit extract (221) and an evaporator condensate (220) that can be easily recycled as by-products. The removal of undesirable suspended solids, such as fruit debris and sand, from the clarification process effluent (215), and the utilization of recycled process effluent (201) for diluting the press liquor (200), facilitates the use of an evaporator system for the removal of most of the water in the clarification process effluent (215) in an energy-efficient manner and the utilization of the evaporated product, containing mainly dissolved and suspended components extracted from fresh fruit bunches by the palm oil milling process, as a food product. The moisture content of the palm fruit extract (221) may subsequently be further reduced by spray drying (222) to produce a dried palm fruit extract (224). The evaporator condensate (220) is either recycled or treated and discharged.

Description

METHOD FOR EXTRACTING CRUDE PALM OIL

USING GREEN TECHNOLOGY

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates in general to a method for extracting crude palm oil using green technology that generates a food product and a liquid effluent that is much less polluting than the high-strength liquid effluent discharged from the conventional extraction process as by-products, and in particular to a method for extracting crude palm oil that generates a biologically stable palm fruit extract and a evaporator condensate, having low organic matter content, that can be either recycled or treated and discharged.

BACKGROUND ART

The conventional crude palm oil extraction process is shown in Figure 1. Fresh fruit bunches (FFB) 1 are cooked during sterilization 2 using steam and then, as sterilized fruit bunches 4, stripped 5 to separate the sterilized fruits from the empty fruit bunches 6. The sterilized fruits 7 are then reheated and agitated in steam-heated vessels known as digesters 8 to loosen the mesocarp from the nuts in preparation for pressing 9. The screw press expels a liquor 11 consisting mainly of palm oil, water and solids and a press cake 10 consisting of fibre and nuts. The oil in press liquor 11 has to be separated from the water and solids and this takes place during clarification. In the conventional clarification process, the primary separation is achieved in a settling tank using gravity. For optimum separation, it is first necessary to dilute the press liquor 11 with hot water 12 to reduce its viscosity. The diluted press liquor is then screened 13 to remove the coarse fibrous solids

1 that are subsequendy returned to the digesters 8. The screened and diluted press liquor

15 is then heated and pumped into the settling tank 16 where it separates into two phases, i.e. oil 17 and sludge 23. The oil layer 17 in the settling tank is skimmed off and passed to purifying centrifuge 18 which reduces the dirt content to 0.01 percent or less. The centrifuged oil 20 is then dried in vacuum drier 21 to give a product of crude palm oil 22 with a moisture content of approximately 0.1 percent. Sludge 23 from the settling tank has some oil, the bulk of which can be recovered using sludge centrifuge 26 after de-sanding hydro-cyclone 24 leaving substantially de-oiled clarification process effluent 28. The oil 27 recovered by the sludge centrifuge 26 contains some water and dirt and is therefore returned to the settling tank 16 for further treatment.

The milling process generates 0.6 to 0.7 tons of palm oil mill effluent (POME) per ton of FFB processed consisting primarily of a mixture of the sterilization process effluent 3 and the clarification process effluent 28. POME is characterized by a high biological oxygen demand (BOD) of 25,000 ppm and has to be treated to discharge standards stipulated by the Department of Environment (DOE). It is generally acknowledged that a more effective method of treating POME than the widely used anaerobic/aerobic ponding system is needed to comply with the more stringent discharge standards in environmentally sensitive areas.

POME is a colloidal slurry containing water, oil, cellulosic fruit debris, gums, sand and water-soluble dissolved components originating from palm fruits. It is non-toxic as no chemicals are added during the oil extraction process. It is made up of about 94 percent water, 1 percent oil and 5 percent solids. POME is a rich source of dissolved phenolic acids, polyphenols and phospholipids. Many attempts have been made in the past to utilize POME, or products derived from POME, as food products. These attempts have generally been unsuccessful due to the large quantity of POME and the high concentrations of water, suspended fruit debris and sand. The large quantity of POME implies that transportation and storage costs will be high. The high moisture content implies that POME, or any product derived from it having high moisture content, is not biologically stable and will undergo changes in composition when stored for long periods without drying. Drying is generally used to stabilize food products to rninimize microbial deterioration and to bring down the transportation and storage costs, but the high moisture content of POME, the large quantity to be dried, the high sand content and the stickiness of the product being dried has meant that drying of POME is generally an expensive, energy-intensive and difficult operation that cannot normally be carried out using only the solid wastes generated by the palm oil milling process as energy sources. A problem faced with drying POME is that it undergoes an intermediate viscous or sticky phase. This causes the product being dried to stick to the surfaces of the drier and to agglomerate and form an impervious crust that impacts the overall heat transfer rate. This decreases the efficiency of the drier, extends the drying time, effects the homogeneity of the dried product and, may possibly, lead to the breakdown of the drier. Drying of POME using boiler flue gas leads to a product containing high soot content that cannot be utilized as a food product.

Evaporation has been used as a more energy-efficient method than drying for concentrating effluent in various industries. Nevertheless, the most widely used evaporator {i.e. the falling film evaporator) is not suitable for removing water directly from untreated POME. The large quantity of suspended solids and gums in untreated POME will lead to the formation of a hard scale on the heating surfaces of the falling film evaporator. The product leaving the falling film evaporator will have high moisture content since it will not be possible to concentrate untreated POME beyond approximately 20 percent solids due to the abovementioned problems. It will have little or no economic value, either as a food product or as a fertilizer, due to the high moisture content and the very high sand and suspended solids content. It cannot be easily dried using a rotary drier due to its high moisture content and the drying problems highlighted above. The product will also be very abrasive due to the high sand content.

There is therefore a need in the industry for a crude palm oil extraction process that is much less polluting and which generates by-products of economic value. DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The present invention modifies processes in the mill to alter the characteristics of the palm oil mill effluent (POME) and to minimize the amount discharged. The removal of undesirable suspended solids, such as fruit debris and sand, during processing according to the method of the present invention will convert the effluent to a form that will facilitate the use of a multi-effect evaporator system for the removal of most of the water energy-efficiently. The removal of water by evaporation and drying produces a palm fruit extract, converting the effluent to a food product that is biologically-stable and that can be cost-effectively stored and transported. The liquid effluent generated by the palm oil extraction method of the present invention is the evaporator condensate. This evaporator condensate will have much lower BOD and COD than the effluent discharged from a typical palm oil mill and can either be recycled or treated and discharged.

It is an objective of the present invention to provide a simple, environmentally friendly and cost-effective method for extracting crude palm oil that generates a useful byproduct and a liquid effluent having very low organic matter content that can be recycled to facilitate achieving zero discharge of liquid effluent from palm oil mills.

It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a simple, environmentally friendly and cost-effective method that is suitable for adoption by commercial palm oil mills to convert the effluent discharged from palm oil mills from a product having very little economic value and requiring substantial investment for its treatment to comply with regulations on discharge standards to a product that can generate additional income for palm oil mills.

It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a simple, environmentally friendly and cost-effective method for treating the effluent discharged from palm oil mills in a manner that significantly reduces the carbon and water footprints of palm oil mills. The above objectives are achieved in the present invention, which is a green technology approach to palm oil rriilling, by providing a method for extracting crude palm oil from press liquor that produces a biologically-stable palm fruit extract and an evaporator condensate as by-products. The said method comprises the steps of:

(a) diluting the press liquor with recycled process effluent to generate a diluted press liquor to facilitate oil-sludge separation;

(b) screening the diluted press liquor using screening means to remove coarse fibrous suspended solids and sand therein to generate screened liquor;

(c) separating oil in the screened liquor using a settling tank to an extent sufficient to generate an oil phase for further processing to extract the crude palm oil therein and a sludge phase containing recoverable oil;

(d) desanding the sludge phase using desanding means to remove sand therein to generate desanded liquor;

(e) treating the desanded liquor using three-phase decanting centrifuge to remove suspended solids therein while recovering oil to produce clarification process effluent, cake and recovered oil, the recovered oil being recycled to the screening means or the settling tank; evaporating the clarification process effluent using evaporation means to an extent sufficient to produce the biologically-stable palm fruit extract and the evaporator condensate containing evaporated components from the clarification process effluent as by-products.

The press liquor discharged from prior processing steps used for extracting palm oil from fresh fruit bunches (FFB) consists of a mixture palm oil, water, suspended solids and dissolved solids. The method disclosed by the present invention modifies the characteristics of the clarification process effluent to facilitate the use of a multi-effect evaporator system for the removal of most of the water that it contains to produce a biologically-stable palm fruit extract that is usable as a food product and an evaporator condensate that can be either recycled or treated and discharged. In the conventional palm oil extraction process, hot water is added to the press liquor to reduce its viscosity to facilitate primary oil-sludge separation during the clarification process using a settling tank. To rninimize the quantity of effluent generated in the present invention, recycled process effluent is utilized for dilution of the press liquor. The process effluent that can be recycled and utilized for dilution is the sterilization process effluent, or a mixture of sterilization process effluent and the water used for cleaning-in-place (CIP) of process equipment, or a mixture of sterilization process effluent, the water used for cleaning-in- place (CIP) of process equipment and a portion of evaporator condensate.

The sludge phase from the settling tank will have approximately 4 to 10 percent oil, the bulk of which can be removed by using a three-phase decanting centrifuge. The three-phase decanting centrifuge is used to concurrently recover residual oil in the sludge phase from the settling tank and to reduce the suspended solids content of the effluent discharged from the clarification process. The removal of undesirable suspended solids, such as fruit debris and sand, by the decanter will convert the effluent to a form that will facilitate the use of a multi-effect evaporator system for the removal of most of the water in the effluent energy-efficiently. The reduction in evaporation load on the evaporator by avoiding the addition of hot water to the press liquor to facilitate the clarification process can be as much as 200 kg per t of FFB processed. This significantly reduces the size of the evaporator and its steam consumption.

The clarification process effluent may be further treated to reduce its suspended solids content using mechanical separation means. This separation may be achieved by screening, centrifuging or filtration. Equipment that can be used for this purpose are strainers, vibrating screens, microscreens, disk-stack centrifuges, belt presses, filters, or a combination thereof.

The removal of suspended solids from the effluent discharged from the clarification process will convert the effluent to a form that will, not only minimize fouling of the evaporator, but also facilitate the usage of the effluent as a food product which is one of the objectives of the present invention. The greater the amount of suspended solids removed by mechanical separation (includes the removal of suspended solids by decanting centrifuges used for palm oil clarification), the lower will be the extent of fouling of the evaporator, thus facilitating the removal of more water energy-efficiendy by evaporation. The feed to the evaporator will consist mainly of water and dissolved solids (including gums) and fine fibrous suspended solids extracted from fresh fruit bunches (FFB) by the palm oil extraction process. It is a rich source of phenolic acids, polyphenols and phospholipids and other water-soluble minor components from palm fruits. Its economic value is further enhanced by concentrating it by removing most of the water that it contains using the evaporator to produce the palm fruit extract. Evaporation is carried out at low temperature and under vacuum conditions to preserve the nutritional properties of the effluent. The significant reduction in moisture content will extend the shelf-life of the palm fruit extract by reducing microbial and enzymatic activity. The storage and transportation costs of the palm fruit extract will also be lower.

The use of a multiple-effect evaporator system makes possible the removal of water and other volatile components from the effluent discharged from palm oil mills using a fraction of the energy required by a drier, especially if heated air is used to supply the energy for drying. To minimize fouling, evaporation is advantageously carried out using evaporators that are specially designed to concentrate viscous and heat sensitive products that tend to stick or foul the heat transfer surface. The most suitable evaporators for our application are forced circulation evaporators and scraped surface evaporators or evaporators using a combination of these two evaporation methods. The use of the falling film evaporation method should be limited to the first one or two stages only of a multiple-effect evaporator system when the viscosity of the product being evaporated is still sufficiently low.

To stabilize the palm fruit extract even more to facilitate long term storage and to make it easier to handle, further reduction in moisture content can be achieved by drying. Drying of the palm fruit extract is ideally achieved by using a spray dryer. Spray drying is a one-step processing operation for turning a liquid feed into a dried particulate form by spraying the feed into a hot drying gas medium. Spray drying minimizes handling and also preserves the product by reducing its water activity to a low level required to stop bacterial degradation. Its adequacy for processing thermo-sensitive materials is mainly due to the short residence time (in the order of a few seconds) of the product inside the dryer. This makes them particularly suitable for drying substances containing phytochemicals, such as phenolic compounds, to produce functional foods.

Because spray drying is a relatively energy-intensive method for removing water, an evaporator is advantageously used for the removal of the bulk of the water in the effluent before drying into a dried particulate form using a spray dryer. An evaporator can be used to reduce the moisture content of the evaporated product to less than 60%. At this moisture content, the product becomes too viscous to pump through the evaporator. Spray dryers can handle viscous products very well. For this reason, a spray dryer is advantageously used to concentrate the evaporated product further to a dried product. The feed to the spray dryer may optionally be mixed with a nutritionally acceptable carrier, such as maltodextrin or corn starch, and its moisture substantially completely removed by spray drying to yield a powder having moisture content of about 5%.

The effluent generated by the crude palm oil extraction method of the present invention is the evaporator condensate. The condensate has low organic matter content (BOD about 500 ppm), contains no suspended solids and is slightly acidic (pH about 3.5). Its total solids content is slightiy above 100 ppm and its hardness is below 5 ppm. Some of the evaporator condensate can be recycled for use as dilution water without treatment. Evaporator condensate that is not utilized as dilution water, is either treated and discharged or treated and recycled for various other applications in the palm oil mill, such as for cleaning-in-place (CIP) of process equipment (including decanters, evaporators and spray dryers), washing of factory floors, for use as boiler or cooling tower feed water or for use as pump seal water. The evaporator condensate that is used as CIP water may subsequently also be recycled for use as dilution water.

Various biological, chemical and physical methods can be used for the treatment of the evaporator condensate. Chemical treatment may be required to raise its pH to prevent acid corrosion. Entrained suspended solids, colloids, oil, etc. may be removed by filtration. Equipment that can be used for this purpose include microfilters, ultrafilters, nanofilters, reverse osmosis, or a combination thereof. The condensate may also be treated using biocides (for cooling tower) and granular activated carbon filters before it is utilized. The condensate discharged from earlier stages (effects) of a multiple-effect evaporator system is less polluting than the condensate discharged from later stages, and will therefore require less treatment if it is re-used as boiler or cooling tower feed water.

Evaporator condensate that is not recycled back to the palm oil mill can be treated biologically using a small effluent treatment plant, such as a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) or membrane bioreactor (MBR), before it is discharged.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 illustrates schematically the conventional (prior art) crude palm oil extraction process using oil palm fresh fruit bunches as the feed.

Figure 2 illustrates schematically the preferred embodiments of the crude palm oil extraction method of the present invention using the liquor discharged from screw presses as the feed.

In describing the preferred embodiments of the present invention, which is illustrated in the drawings, specific terminology will be resorted to for the sake of clarity. However, it is not intended that the invention be limited to the specific terms so selected and it is to be understood that each specific term includes all technical equivalents which operate in a similar manner to accomplish a similar purpose. MODE(S) FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

In the present invention of a process or method for extracting crude palm oil, the feed for the oil palm clarification process is the liquor expelled from screw presses used in palm oil mills which is generally called press liquor. It consists of a mixture of oil, water, coarse and fine fibrous solids, dissolved solids and particles of sand. Hot water is not added to the press liquor to facilitate oil-sludge separation in the clarification process. Instead, the sterilization process effluent, the water used for cleaning-in-place of process equipment and a portion the evaporator condensate are recycled and utilized for dilution of the press liquor to facilitate primary oil-sludge separation using a settling tank. Referring now to Figure 2, press liquor 200 is mixed with recycled process effluent

201 to generate diluted feed liquor 202 and treated using screening means 203 to remove coarse fibrous solids and sand 204 (that may subsequently be recycled). Screening is advantageously carried out using a multi-deck vibrating screen. The screened liquor 205 is then fed to settling tank 206 to facilitate primary oil-sludge separation by gravity. The oil phase 207 discharged from settling tank 206 still contains moisture and impurities and, therefore, must be further treated to generate crude palm oil.

The sludge phase 208 from settling tank 206 has about 4 to 10 percent oil and is further processed using desanding means 209 to generate desanded liquor 211. Desanding is advantageously carried out using multi-stage desanding hydrocy clones. The desanded liquor 211 is then fed to three-phase decanting centrifuge 212. The three-phase decanting centrifuge is used to concurrently recover residual oil in desanded liquor 211 and to reduce the suspended solids content of the effluent discharged from the clarification process. The three-phase decanting centrifuge generates three phases. One phase is an easily disposable decanter cake 213 having moisture content of less than 80%. The second phase from three-phase decanting centrifuge 212 is recovered oil 214. Recovered oil 214 is a mixture of oil and sludge, and is recycled back either to screening means 203 or to settling tank 206. The third phase discharged from the three-phase decanting centrifuge 212 is clarification process effluent 215 containing water, soluble solids (including gums) and fine fibrous solids and traces of oil. The clarification process effluent 215 may be treated using mechanical separation means 216 to remove even more suspended solids prior to evaporation. The use of mechanical separation means 216 generates two phases. One phase is an easily disposable cake 217. Another phase is clarified sludge 218 containing water, soluble solids (including gums), fine fibrous solids and traces of oil. The clarification process effluent 215 or clarified sludge 218 is processed using evaporation means 219 to remove the bulk of the water and other volatile components that it contains to form palm fruit extract 221 and evaporator condensate 220 containing the evaporated components. The clarification process effluent 215 may be chemically dosed to increase the pH of the evaporator condensate or precipitate the volatile components therein. Some of the evaporator condensate 220 can be recycled for use as dilution water as described earlier. Evaporator condensate that is not utilized as dilution water, is either treated and discharged or treated and recycled for various other applications in the palm oil mill, such as for cleaning-in-place (CIP) of process equipment (including decanters, evaporators and spray driers), washing of factory floors, for use as boiler or cooling tower feed water or for use as pump seal water. The evaporator condensate that is used as CIP water may subsequendy also be recycled for use as dilution water.

Evaporation may be carried out by using a falling film evaporator, a forced circulation evaporator, a scraped surface evaporator or an evaporator using a combination of these evaporation methods. The use of the falling film evaporation method should be limited to the first one or two stages only of a multiple-effect evaporator system when the viscosity of the product being evaporated is still sufficiendy low. The use of scraped surface evaporation or forced circulation evaporation methods will miriirnize fouling of the evaporator as the concentration of solids increases. The scraped surface evaporation method is advantageously used as the final evaporation stage of a multiple-effect evaporation system to achieve very high concentration of solids. The product is advantageously scraped by blades attached to a shaft that is moved back and forth by hydraulic or pneumatic action. The removal of suspended solids prior to evaporation implies that the viscosity of the feed to the evaporator will be quite low compared to the viscosity of raw effluent in a conventional mill. If recycled process effluent is utilized during clarification to facilitate oil-sludge separation, the load on the evaporator will also be significantly reduced.

The palm fruit extract 221 may be dried using drying means 222 to make it easier to handle and to make it more biologically stable to facilitate long-term storage. Drying is advantageously carried out using a spray dryer. Because spray drying is a relatively energy-intensive method for removing water, the evaporator is used for removing more than 80% of the water in the feed to the evaporator to generate a product having moisture content less than 60%. At this moisture content, the viscosity of the product becomes too high for pumping through the evaporator. The spray dryer is therefore advantageously used to concentrate the product further to a dried product having a moisture content of about 5%.

The modes or embodiments for carrying out the invention described herein are only meant to facilitate understanding of the invention and should not be construed as limiting the invention to those modes or embodiments only. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the modes or embodiments of the invention described herein are susceptible to variations and modifications other than those specifically described. It is to be understood that the invention includes all such variations and modifications which fall within the scope of the inventive concept thereof.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention finds ready industrial applicability in the palm oil industry as it is a method for extracting crude palm oil that generates a useful by-product and also facilitates recycling of the effluent. The method can be used for treating all of the effluent discharged from palm oil mills to comply with regulations on discharge standards on liquid effluents and to reduce the carbon and water footprints of palm oil mills. In essence it is a modern green technology approach to oil palm milling as it addresses the problem of the high volume of effluent discharged from palm oil mills while generating a useful by-product of economic value.

Claims

A method for extracting crude palm oil (207) from press liquor (200) that produces a biologically-stable palm fruit extract (221) and a evaporator condensate (220) as by-products, comprising the steps of:

(f) diluting the press Hquor (200) with recycled process effluent (201) to generate a diluted press liquor (202) to facilitate oil-sludge separation;

(g) screening the diluted press liquor (202) using screening means (203) to remove coarse fibrous suspended solids and sand (204) therein to generate screened liquor (205);

(h) separating oil in the screened liquor (205) using a settling tank (206) to an extent sufficient to generate an oil phase (207) for further processing to extract the crude palm oil therein and a sludge phase (208) containing recoverable oil;

(i) desanding the sludge phase (208) using desanding means (209) to remove sand (210) therein to generate desanded liquor (211);

(e) treating the desanded liquor (211) using three-phase decanting centrifuge (212) to remove suspended solids therein while recovering oil to produce clarification process effluent (215), cake (213) and recovered oil (214), the recovered oil being recycled to the screening means (203) or the settling tank (206);

(f) evaporating the clarification process effluent (215) using evaporation means (219) to an extent sufficient to produce the biologically-stable palm fruit extract (221) and the evaporator condensate (220) containing evaporated components from the clarification process effluent (215) as by-products.

A method according to Claim 1, wherein the clarification process effluent (215) is treated using mechanical separation means (216) prior to evaporation (219) to remove suspended material therein to produce a clarified sludge (218) and a cake (217), the clarified sludge (218) being fed to the evaporation means (219).

A method according to Claim 2, wherein the mechanical separation means (216) employs screening or centrifuging or combination thereof.

A method according to Claim 3, wherein the mechanical separation means (216) further employs filtration.

A method according to Claim 3 or 4, wherein the mechanical separation means (216) may be strainers, vibrating screens, microscreens, disk-stack centrifuges, belt presses, filters, or combination thereof.

A method according to Claim 1, wherein the recycled effluent (201) is sterilization process effluent.

A method according to Claim 1, wherein the recycled effluent (201) is a mixture comprising sterilization process effluent and water used for cleaning-in-place of process equipment.

A method according to Claim 1, wherein the recycled effluent (201) is a mixture comprising sterilization process effluent, water used for cleaning-in-place of process equipment and a portion of the evaporator condensate (220).

A method according to Claim 1, further incorporating the step of drying the palm fruit extract (221) using spray drying means (222) to produce a dried palm fruit extract (224).

10. A method according to Claim 9, wherein the palm fruit extract (221) is pre-mixed with nutritionally acceptable carrier or encapsulating agents comprising maltodextrins, cyclodextrins, starches, modified starches or acacia gum (gum arabic) or combinations thereof to improve the properties of the dried palm fruit extract (224) for use as a food product.

11. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the evaporation means (219) employs forced circulation evaporation technique or scraped surface evaporation technique.

12. A method according to Claim 1 , wherein the evaporation means (219) employs a combination of falling film evaporation technique and forced circulation evaporation technique in series.

13. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the evaporation means (219) employs a combination of falling film evaporation technique and scraped surface evaporation technique in series.

14. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the evaporating means (219) employs a combination of forced circulation evaporation technique and scraped surface evaporation technique in series.

15. A method according to any one of Claims 11, 13 or 14, wherein the scraped surface evaporation technique utilizes reciprocating scraper blades on a hydrauHcally-driven or pneumatically-driven shaft.

16. A method according to Claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the evaporator condensate (220) is biologically treated and discharged.

17. A method according to Claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the evaporator condensate (220) is treated biologically, chemically, physically, or a combination thereof, and recycled for use in the palm oil mill.

18. A method according to Claim 17, wherein the chemical treatment of the evaporator condensate (220) consists of raising the pH to minimize acidic corrosion.

19. A method according to Claim 17, wherein the chemical treatment of the evaporator condensate (220) consists of using biocides.

20. A method according to Claim 17, wherein the physical treatment consists of using microfilters, ultrafilters, nanofilters, reverse osmosis, or combination thereof.

21. A method according to Claim 17, wherein the physical treatment consists of using granular activated carbon filters.

22. A method according to Claim 1 , wherein separating the oil (207) in the screened liquor (205) using settling tank (206) is to an extent where the percentage of oil in the sludge phase (208) is in the range 4% to 10%.

23. A method according to Claim 1 , wherein the evaporation means (219) is used to remove more than 80 percent of the water in the clarification process effluent (215) to produce a palm fruit extract (221) having less than 60 percent moisture.

24. A method according to Claims 9 or 10, wherein the dried palm fruit extract (224) has less than 10 percent moisture.