Enhancing the quality of crude palm oil by solvent extraction

This study aims to enhance the quality of crude palm oil by solvent extraction. The research focuses on investigating and improving the physical refining process of edible oils, specifically determining the optimal fermentation time for achieving the highest palm oil quality, and assessing the influence of temperature and heating time on the oil quality. Various experiments were conducted to achieve these objectives, including sample collection, processing of palm fruits, sterilization at different temperatures and times, determination of oil yield, and physicochemical analyses of the extracted oil. The findings revealed several significant outcomes: the optimal fermentation time was approximately 6 days, with a mean oil yield of 210.25 g for boiled samples and 173.75 g for unboiled samples. Longer heating times resulted in increased oil yield, ranging from 19.5% to 22.3% under dry heating conditions and from 22% to 25% under wet heating conditions. Higher temperatures correlated with higher oil yields, increasing from 14.3% at 70°C to 24.1% at 90°C under dry heating conditions. The effect of heating time on unsaturated fatty acid contents varied, ranging from 49.67% to 50.7% under dry heating conditions and from 50.4% to 48.5% under wet heating conditions. These findings underscore the importance of optimizing fermentation time, temperature, and heating duration to maximize oil yield and quality in the physical refining process of edible oils.