Tropicultura (Jan 2018)
Analyse des performances techniques des clarificateurs et déshydrateurs d'huile de palme au Bénin
Abstract
Analysis of the Technical Performances of Clarifiers and Palm Oil Dehydrators in Benin. Clarification and dehydration are two important operations in the palm fruit processing technology. Inefficient clarification and a poor dehydration can lead to significant losses of palm oil and damage of organoleptic and nutritive qualities. In Benin, palm oil processors use artisanal and semi-artisanal boilers, dehydrators, and clarifier-dehydrators. The aim of this study is to evaluate the technical performances of these equipments. The results showed that the artisanal, semi-artisanal boilers and clarifier-dehydrators had a hourly throughput respectively of 23.33 kg/h; 216.66 and 327 kg/h with palm variety Tenera. The moisture contain of the palm oil obtained with these equipments were respectively 1.2%; 1.05 and 1.3%. The clarification yields were respectively 92.9%; 82.4% and 79.8%. The artisanal, semi-artisanal dehydrator and clarifier-dehydrator reduced the moisture content of the boiler oil by nearly 3 to 4 times. However, the threshold of 0.1%, adopted for international standard offering good conservation of oil, was not reached in the majority of cases. To achieve this, the oil should be heated to a temperature of 128 °C.
