Palm Oil Processing Machines

Palm oil equipment gets quoted as a complete mill or as separate units, and the two quotes are almost never comparable. Knowing which stages you're actually being sold is most of the work.

Description

A palm oil line runs fresh fruit bunches through sterilising, threshing, digesting, pressing, then clarification and drying. Each stage exists for a reason, and the ones buyers try to skip on price are usually sterilising and clarification. Skip sterilising and your oil free fatty acid content climbs, which drops the grade and the price you get. Skip clarification and you're selling oil with water and sludge in it.

Capacity is quoted in tons of fresh fruit bunches per hour. Oil extraction rate on a well-run mill sits around 18-22% of bunch weight, so a 2 ton-per-hour mill gives you something like 400kg of oil an hour when everything is running properly. Kernels come out separately and have their own market, which is worth building into your numbers.

Fruit has to reach the mill fast. FFB left sitting climbs in free fatty acid before it ever gets to the steriliser, and no amount of processing brings that back down.

Where the grade actually gets lost

Free fatty acid decides your price. Bunches sitting in the sun for two days are already downgraded before they reach the machine. Your harvest-to-mill time affects your income more than most of the specification does.

Bunches in, oil out. Rated capacity is fresh fruit bunch input. Oil is about 18-22% of that on a good mill. Model your revenue on the oil, and don't forget the kernels are a separate line of income.

Sterilising isn't optional. It's the stage that stops FFA climbing and makes threshing work. A quote that leaves it out is cheaper because it's selling you less mill.

Clarification decides what you can sell. Oil with water and sludge in it sells at a discount, if it sells. This stage is what separates a mill supplying the market from one supplying its own neighbourhood.

Specification

These figures decide throughput and oil grade. We confirm them against written supplier data before quoting.

Capacity	Tons of fresh fruit bunches per hour. Input. Expect roughly 18-22% of that as oil on a properly run mill.
Stages included	Steriliser, thresher, digester, press, clarifier, dryer. The single biggest reason two quotes differ, so check this line before you compare prices.
Power supply	380V three-phase, 50Hz. Same frequency as our grid and generators.
Steriliser type	Horizontal, vertical or tilting. Affects batch size, labour and how much steam you need.
Press type	Screw press, single or double. Decides your extraction rate and how much oil stays in the fibre.
Total connected load	kW across the whole line. Sizes your generator, and it's higher than a single-unit quote suggests.

We do not publish prices, because the landed figure depends on the specification, the Customs valuation and the exchange rate on the day you pay.

Minimum order

One mill. Buying the full line from one supplier avoids the throughput mismatches that come from assembling stages piecemeal.

Small mills scale by adding a second line once fruit supply justifies it, not by oversizing the first one.

What decides the right one

Fruit supply and how fast it reaches you. That's the constraint. A mill bigger than your plantation or your buying network can feed is money doing nothing, and the fruit degrades while it waits.

Then whether you're selling into the local market or aiming at graded oil for larger buyers. That answer decides whether sterilising and clarification are negotiable, and generally they aren't.

Then steam. A steriliser needs a boiler, and boilers bring their own installation, fuel and safety requirements. We flag this early because it surprises people at the wrong stage.

Common questions

What's the minimum order

One mill line. Most operations start at 0.5 to 2 tons of bunches per hour.

What oil yield should I plan for

About 18-22% of fresh fruit bunch weight on a well-run mill, less if fruit is old or the press is undersized.

Do I need a boiler

For proper sterilising, yes. We spec it with the line and tell you what it means for installation and fuel before you commit.

What about the kernels

Kernels come out at threshing and crushing and have their own market. Palm kernel oil equipment is a separate line we can quote alongside.

How is it shipped and installed

Containerised, with installation and commissioning support through your first production run.

Tell us your fruit supply and your market

How many tons of bunches you can get a week, how fast they reach you after harvest, and who you're selling the oil to. We'll tell you what mill that is, what it lands at in Naira with every line itemised, and what oil yield to plan around.

Costs you nothing and commits you to nothing.

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