an assessment of indigenous technology of oil palm fruits

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



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)


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



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


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



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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an assessment of indigenous technology of oil palm fruits

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