Hi everyone. My name is Vanessa Lagos, and today I'm going to talk about the processing and
obtaining of palm oil and byproducts for animal nutrition.

This is the outline of this presentation. I will start with a background about palm oil production,
then I will talk about the process of palm oil extraction. I will move then into the by-products of
the whole process. Then I will talk about the swine nutrition interest by-products. And at the end,
I will give you some conclusions.
 
So let's start with a little bit of background. This graph shows the production of different
vegetables oils in the world. The Y axis shows the oil production in million of metric tons and the
X axis represents 9 different oilseed crops. The vegetable oil produced the most worldwide is the
crude palm oil, followed by the soybean oil, and the rapeseed oil. In the fifth position, after the
sunflower seed oil, is located the palm kernel oil which also comes from the oil palm fruit. But why
is that? Why crude palm oil is located in the first place?

Oil palm is the most efficient oilseed crop in the world. One hectare of oil palm may produce up to
10 times more oil than other major oilseed crops such as rapeseed, sunflower, and soybean. 

To put this in a better perspective: in 2012, only 5.5% of the land dedicated to oilseed crops was
used for oil palm, compared with 10% for sunflower, 13% for rapeseed, and 40.1% for soybean. But 39%
of the vegetable oil produced in the same year was obtained from oil palm compared with 8% from
sunflower, 16% from rapeseed, and 27% from soybean.

This graph shows the palm oil production by country in 2017 and the Y axis represents the oil
production in million metric tons. More than 50% of the palm oil in the world is produced by
Indonesia and more than 80% is produced by Indonesia and Malaysia. In the third, fourth, and fifth
place is located Thailand, Colombia, and Nigeria, which represent around 7% of the worldwide
production. 

Next question: Where is this oil consumed? This graph shows the palm oil consumption by country in
2015 and the Y axis represents the consumption of oil in millions of metric tons. India, Indonesia,
the European Union, China, and Malaysia are the 5 countries that consume palm oil the most. So what
is palm oil used for?

71% of palm oil is used for food: cooking, margarine, processed food, chocolate, among others. 24%
is dedicated to consumer products such as soap, cosmetics, detergents, candles, feedstock, and so
on. And 5% is used as source of energy: electricity, fuel, and heating.

And the final question would be the cost of these products. This graph shows the price of palm oil
and palm kernel oil from April to October of 2017. Palm kernel oil is more expensive than palm oil.
Taking September as an example: the metric ton of palm oil was $724, whereas one metric ton of palm
kernel oil was $1,346—twice the price of palm oil. 

Now, let's move into the processing of palm oil extraction. This process starts with the palms.
Elaeis is a genus of palms with two species: Elaeis oleifera and Elaeis guineensis. The difference
between these 2 species is their origin. Elaeis oleifera, the American oil palm, is native to
tropical central and south America. And Elaeis guineensis, the African oil palm, is native to west
and southwest Africa. This is the principal source of palm oil. 

In terms of cultivations, it is possible to grow 143 palms per hectare. It takes 2 years for oil
palms to produce fruits that are suitable for harvest. But once the palms are producing fruits, they
are able to keep producing for up to 30 years. And one oil palm produces around 170 kg of fruit per
year. This number is important because the fruit is the actual source of oil. 

There are 2 desired products from the oil palm: crude palm oil and palm kernel oil. Crude palm oil
comes from the mesocarp of the fruit, whereas palm kernel oil comes from the kernel located in the
nut of the fruit.  

This process starts with the harvest of the fruit bunches, their transportation and delivery in the
oil palm factory. Once there, bunches are sterilized in an autoclave, then palm fruit is separated
from the bunch and the empty bunch is collected to be used as fertilizer or a source of energy.
After that, free fruits undergo digestion and pressing processes to obtain a mixture of oil, water,
and solid impurities; and the press cake (nut and fiber). The mixture is then clarified to obtain
oil, oily light sludge, and heavy sludge. The oil is dried by vacuum drying where the oil is pumped
to the tank for storage. The oily light sludge goes to a tricanter which produces more oil, water,
and the decanter cake—our first by-product. The heavy sludge is then centrifuged and the effluents
are separated from the solid part. The solid portion is then considered the palm oil sludge—our
second by-product. In terms of the press cake, nut and fiber are separated, and the fiber is used as
source of energy in the factory. The nut is cracked to reduce the particle size and the shells are
removed by flaking. Shells are also used as a source of energy in the factory. Then, the kernel is
finally obtained, which undergoes a steam conditioning before it's stored. 

Now let’s talk about the kernel processing. Palm kernel oil is obtained by 3 different ways. The
first way is by mechanical extraction. Kernel is pressed once or more times to obtain oil and palm
kernel expeller—our third by-product. The oil is filtrated and packed. This process is simple and
cheap, but only 92% of the oil in the fruit is obtained.

The second way is by solvent extraction. Kernel is cracked to reduce the particle size and to allow
the solvent to act. Then it undergoes solvent extraction, mainly with hexane, to obtain oil and palm
kernel meal—our fourth by-product. The oil goes to a distillation process, before it is filtrated
and packed. This process is more expensive than the mechanical extraction but 98% of the oil in the
fruit is obtained.

The third way is a combination between the mechanical and solvent extraction. Kernel is pressed to
obtain oil and palm kernel expeller. Oil is filtrated and packed, but palm kernel expeller undergoes
solvent extraction to produce oil and palm kernel meal. The oil goes to a distillation process
before it is filtrated and packed. This process is still expensive but 99% of the oil in the fruit
is obtained. 
 
Now, let's review the by-products from the whole process. From cultivation to oil extraction, there
are 7 by-products that can be used in animal nutrition: oil palm fronds, oil palm trunks, palm press
fiber, decanter cake, palm oil sludge, palm kernel expeller, and palm kernel meal. However, not all
of them can be used in swine nutrition. And let's see why.

Oil palm fronds, oil palm trunks, and palm press fiber have a low concentration of crude protein,
fat, and ash, and have a high concentration of fiber. Therefore, it is not possible to use for swine
nutrition, but they are used for ruminant nutrition. 

Now let's talk about the swine nutrition interest by-products. It is possible to use 4 by-products
from palm oil process: palm oil sludge and decanter cake from the fruit processing, and palm kernel
expeller and palm kernel meal from the kernel process.

Looking at the nutrient composition in dry matter basis of these by-products, palm oil sludge has a
low concentration of dry matter compared with the other 3 by-products. The concentration of crude
protein in palm oil sludge is higher, but it is due to the low concentration of dry matter. In
general, these 4 by-products have a concentration of protein that is good enough for swine diets. In
terms of the concentration of fat, we can see the difference between palm kernel expeller and palm
kernel meal due to the different oil extraction process. The concentration of ash is also good
enough for pigs. However, there are limited data about palm oil sludge composition. So let's talk
about the other 3 by-products.

In terms of the concentration of fiber, all of them have a concentration that is high and could be a
limitation for pigs. Palm oil sludge and decanter cake has been evaluated and used in ruminant
diets, but no data in pigs is available. Therefore palm kernel expeller and palm kernel meal are the
most important by-products in swine nutrition, and I will talk about the nutritional value of these
by-products in my next podcast.

So let's conclude. The oil palm is the most efficient vegetable oilseed crop in the world. There are
different palm oil by-products that can be used in animal nutrition, and some by-products can be
used in swine feeding, but more research is needed in all of them.

With this, I would like to thank you all for your attention, and all my labmates for their support.
And if you want to have more information about this topic, visit our website:
nutrition.ansci.illinois.edu.