Effect of Ripe Level on Palm Fruit Threshing Efficiency

Abstract

The processing of palm fruit bunches (FFB) into crude palm oil (Crude Palm Oil) has been around for decades, requiring innovations in technology and methods that are based on time efficiency, costs, and environmental friendliness. One of them is the development of processing FFB into Crude Palm Oil (CPO) without boiling. The process stages include threshing the FFB using a thresher, separating the mesocarp, pressing, filtering, and evaporating the water in the CPO. The research aimed to determine the effect of FFB ripening level on the efficiency of palm fruit harvesting. The research method included testing the efficiency of the thresher machine separating palm fruit at various levels of FFB ripening (F1=fraction 1, F2=fraction 2, F3=fraction 3) and rest level. FFB (R1=1 day, R2=2 days, R3=3 days). Based on the research results, the success of the process of separating the fruit from the fruit (threshing) in ripe FFB fractions F2 - F3 and restan R2 gave good results, namely being able to separate around 80% of the palm fruit and the level of damage was minimal.