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Journal of Food Process Engineering ISSN 1745-4530

STUDY ON RESIDUAL OIL RECOVERY FROM EMPTY FRUIT

BUNCH BY COMBINATION OF WATER AND STEAM PROCESS
JAVIER CHAVARRO GOMEZ1, MOHD NORIZNAN MOKHTAR1,4, ALAWI SULAIMAN2,
RABITAH ZAKARIA1, AZHARI SAMSU BAHARUDDIN1 and ZAINURI BUSU3
1
Department of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor 43400 UPM, Malaysia
2
Faculty of Plantation and Agrotechnology, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
3
Felda Global Ventures Plantation Malaysia Trolak Region, Sungkai, Perak, Malaysia

4
Corresponding author. ABSTRACT
TEL: +603-89466367;
FAX: +603-8946 4440; In this study, the recovery of residual oil from the spikelet of oil palm empty fruit
EMAIL: noriznan@upm.edu.my bunches (OPEFB) was conducted. Residual oil was present in the OPEFB due to
mechanical processes such as the loading of fruit into the sterilizer cage, steriliza-
Received for Publication July 10, 2014
tion and threshing, in which a certain portion of the oil from the fruitlet was
Accepted for Publication October 23, 2014
impregnated mainly on the surface of the spikelet rather than on the stalk of
doi:10.1111/jfpe.12169 OPEFB. The highest residual oil content was found mainly in the small OPEFB
(28.49 5.20% dry basis). The oil extraction process was introduced as hydro
solvent-assisted steam extraction, which comprises of four main steps, i.e., flood-
ing, injection, soaking and draining. The overall process resulted in above 83%
residual oil removal from the spikelet. The proposed method can be an option to
be implemented in the palm oil mill because it is a chemical-free, environment-
friendly and novel process.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
The implementation of aqueous extraction for the recovery of residual oil from oil
palm biomass is a viable process because water and steam are readily available in
palm oil mills. The high content of residual oil in OPEFB contributes to oil losses
and a recovery process is needed to increase the oil extraction rate. The aqueous
extraction process is safe and environment friendly compared to other chemical
extraction processes (e.g., n-hexane extraction).

The oil extraction rate (OER) has been used as a control-

INTRODUCTION
The worlds crude palm oil (CPO) production is being led
by Malaysia, Indonesia and some countries from Latin
America and Africa. Malaysia produced around 19 million
tons of CPO in 2012 (MPOB 2013a), establishing it as the
second world CPO producer, behind Indonesia (31 million
tons) (Oosterveer 2014). The worlds demand for CPO has
shown an increase in the last years with a continuous
growth. In Malaysia, the export of CPO was estimated at
15.41 and 17.58 million tons in 2008 and 2012, respectively
(MPOB 2013b). With this increasing demand and the limi-
tation to explore any new forest land that was imposed by
the Malaysian government (Basiron 2007), the CPO indus-
try has diverted its efforts to increasing oil production by
optimizing the process rather than focusing on agricultural
expansion.
ling and management instrument to evaluate the efficiency
of the mill and plantation by comparing the ratio of palm
oil produced per day with the total fresh fruit bunches pro-
cessed per day (Husain et al. 2003). The OER depends on
many factors such as the gender and the age of oil palm tree,
the weight of oil palm fresh fruit bunches (OPFFB) and the
total number of fruits (Haniff and Noor 2002). According to
the Palm Oil National Key Economic Area (Pemandu 2014),
the expectation is for Malaysia to increase its OER up to
23% by 2020 under the Entry Point Project 4. However,
according to the Economic and Development Division of
MPOB (2013c), 20.35% OER was obtained in 2012, indicat-
ing that current technologies in the mill have a low effi-
ciency compared to the proposed goal.
Among strategies on increasing the OER, one of them is
recovering the remaining CPO from oil palm wastes. The

Journal of Food Process Engineering 38 (2015) 385394 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 385
RESIDUAL OIL RECOVERY FROM EMPTY FRUIT BUNCH
wastes include oil palm press fiber (OPPF) or mesocarp
fiber, palm oil mill effluent (POME) and oil palm empty
fruit bunches (OPEFB) (Prasertsan and Prasertsan 1996).
Several technologies to improve the CPO recovery from
OPPF and POME have been explored. For example,
supercritical extraction was used to reduce the oil lost in
OPPF (Egger 1996; Lik et al. 2006). Another example is
solvent extraction (Ahmad et al. 2008), which shows good
results in reducing the oil losses in POME. However, very
limited information is found about the residual CPO recov-
ery from OPEFB.
OPEFB is the major solid waste produced by palm oil
mills and constitutes 23% of the total weight of OPFFB
(Kassim et al. 2011; Kheang et al. 2011). A huge amount of
OPEFB of about 4.43 million tons on a dry basis was pro-
duced annually (Joseph and Chandran 2002). According to
Husain et al. (2003), the residual oil in the OPEFB was esti-
mated at 34% (wet basis) and it was located mostly on the
spikelet rather than in the stalk (Ma 2005). However, this
estimation neglected the effects of bunch size variation.
In principle, the extraction of residual oil using organic
solvent (e.g., n-hexane) may be used for the recovery of oil
from OPEFB. Currently, solvent extraction of palm-pressed
fiber (OPPF) is well established in the Malaysian palm oil
mills, with currently 1015 pressed fiber solvent extraction
plants established with monthly production capacity of
1,5002,000 tons of crude fiber oil (Harrison et al. 2013).
However, during the extraction process, evaporated hexane
is high potential to release into the atmosphere contributing
to the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and
the formation of photochemical oxidants. These oxidants
and VOCs are shown to be hazardous to human health and
can be carcinogenic (Fehsenfeld et al. 2012). These short-
comings can be overcome by applying an aqueous extrac-
tion process, which is a preferable process for oil recovery
and is commonly applied in the petroleum industry.
According to Bari et al. (2002), petroleum oil can be
recovered from deep pond due to its low viscosity at high
temperature, which makes it easy to be drained out to the
ground. Therefore, several methods have been implemented
to recover petroleum using steam (e.g., steam-assisted
gravity drainage (Deutsch and McLennan 2005) and cyclic
steam method (Stephens 1986)). In cyclic steam method,
steam was first injected into the pond to heat the heavy oil.
Once the pond was filled with steam, it was closed to allow
the steam to further penetrate the rock pores to release the
oil (this process usually takes place for a few days). The oil
was then recovered by natural flow due to the pressure
inside the chamber. Once the pressure decreases, artificial
lift was used (e.g., mechanical pumping). Finally, when
the production rate starts to fall, the process (i.e., inject-
ion, soaking, production) was repeated to enhance the oil
recovery.
386
J.C. GOMEZ ET AL.
The basic idea of steam process can be implemented,
modified and combined with water extraction for residual
oil recovery in OPEFB. The proposed method is preferred
because sources are available in the palm oil mill. In this
work, an integrated water-steam process was proposed and
termed as hydro solvent-assisted steam extraction
(HYSASE). The aim of this study is to recover the oil in
OPEFB using HYSASE, which is a simple, cheap and
environment-friendly process.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Materials
The fresh OPEFB were collected from Besout Palm Oil Mill
located in Perak, Malaysia. The OPEFB were categorized
into three groups, namely as large bunch (length: >40 cm,
weight: 710 kg), medium bunch (length: 2040 cm, weight:
46.9 kg) and small bunch (length: <20 cm, weight:
13.9 kg). For the solvent extraction, n-hexane was pur-
chased from Fisher Chemical, Leicester, U.K. A 0.7% solu-
tion of Black Sudan dye (Sigma Aldrich, Missouri) was
dissolved in 75% ethyl alcohol (Fisher Chemical) for further
use in oil detection according to Bene (1964). N-Methyl-N-
(trimethylsilyl)trifluoroacetamide (MSTFA) was purchased
from ACROS, New Jersey (NJ). Tricaprin (1,2,3-
tricaprinoylglycero) was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich
Chemicals Co. (Steinheim, Germany). Pyridine was pur-
chased from QREC, Selangor (Malaysia).
Sample Preparation
Spikelet was separated manually from the stalk by manual
cutting (e.g., knife), then the size was reduced by using scis-
sors to obtain 5 0.5 cm length and stored in the freezer
(3C) for further use in the extraction process. The amount
of spikelet from small, medium and large OPEFB used in
the HYSASE process was 34.93 4.56 g, 35.05 3.80 g and
36.66 6.41 g, respectively (each experiment was carried
out in triplicate).
Extraction Chamber Description
The oil recovery process was carried out in a carbon steel
chamber of 500 mL, constituting a cylindrical column with
a fixed bottom cover and a top removable cover (Fig. 1). On
the top cover, a pipeline controls the gas ventilation and the
chamber pressure. At the bottom cover, two inlets (water
and steam) and one outlet (product drain) were controlled
by valves to manage the steps of the process. Finally, a ther-
mometer was directly placed inside the chamber to measure
the temperature of the process.
Journal of Food Process Engineering 38 (2015) 385394 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
J.C. GOMEZ ET AL.
FIG. 1. SCHEME OF THE EXTRACTION CHAMBER USED FOR HYSASE
Oil Extraction Process by HYSASE
The spikelet was loaded into the chamber and the top cover
was closed. In the flooding step, approximately 200 mL of
water (30C) was filled through the bottom of the chamber
until the spikelet was fully submerged. After that, the injec-
tion step was carried out using saturated steam at a flow
rate of 7 mL/min by opening the steam valve, allowing the
steam to bubble and heat the water until the suspension
reached the temperature of 100C. In order to allow the heat
to further penetrate into the spikelet, the soaking step was
carried out by continuing the steam injection and bubbling
for an extra 5 min. Finally, the water with oil was drained
out and the sample was collected for the analysis of oil
content. The process was repeated for three cycles as
described above.
The oil content in the water-oil mixture was analyzed for
oil recovery using gravimetric method according to EPA
Method 1664 (Environmental Protection Agency 1999). Ini-
tially, the water-oil mixture was placed in a funnel flask.
Then the pH was measured and the solution was adjusted to
below 2 by applying sulfuric acid. After that, hexane 1:10
(v/v) was added into the funnel flask and the mixture was
vigorously mixed for 5 min. Finally, the mixture was left
standing. The method resulted in two immiscible liquid
layers; the top layer contains hexane with oil whereas the
bottom layer consists of water and inert matters (e.g., par-
ticulate matter and ash). The top layer was collected and
Journal of Food Process Engineering 38 (2015) 385394 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
RESIDUAL OIL RECOVERY FROM EMPTY FRUIT BUNCH
subjected to evaporation to remove hexane. The resultant
dried oil was weighted and the oil recovery was calculated
(Eq. 1).
Initial oil content in solid
Recovered oil content in water
Oil recovery (%) = 100%(1)
Initial oil content in solid
Oil Detection
The detection of oil droplets in the water was accomplished
using Sudan Black solution. The oil (including emulsified
oil) before and after gravimetric method was visualized and
the droplet size was measured by means of Dino-Lite por-
table digital microscopes, model AM-413ZT and model AM
4113T5X (AnMo E.C., New Taipei City, Taiwan) at 40 and
470 magnificent, respectively. Measurements were taken
from several different droplets size and the average of these
values was calculated.
Analysis of Oil Removal
For the oil content analysis, the spikelet was dried in an
oven at 105C for 24 h. After that, soxhlet extraction was
carried out for 6 h according to AOCS Official Method AM
2-93 (American Oil Chemists Society 1998a). The mixture
of hexane and oil was separated using a rotary vacuum
evaporator (IKA RV10 Digital V, Staufen, Germany) at 50C
and 2.85 psi, and then it was further dried (in oven) and
weighed for the analysis. Finally, this procedure was
repeated with the spikelet after the HYSASE process and the
oil removal was calculated from the oil content analysis
(Eq. 2).
Initial oil content in solid
Final oil content in solid
Oil removal (%) = 100% (2)
Initial oil content in solid
Quality Analysis
In the analysis of free fatty acids (FFA) content, deteriora-
tion of bleachability index (DOBI) and peroxide value (PV)
of residual oil before the process, the fresh OPEFB spikelet
(100 g wet basis) was initially immersed in hexane at room
temperature (30C) and was left to rest for 24 h. After that,
the spikelet was removed from the hexane and the mixture
of hexane with oil was evaporated using rotary vacuum
evaporator at 50C and 2.85 psi. The extracted oil was
weighed and placed in the oven at 60C to remove the
residual hexane. The weight of sample was constantly mea-
sured and the process was carried out until the weight dif-
ference was below 0.02 g. Finally, the analysis of FFA, DOBI
387
RESIDUAL OIL RECOVERY FROM EMPTY FRUIT BUNCH
and PV in the oil sample before and after HYSASE was con-
ducted using Metalab Palm Oil Tester (225001/0006, CDR,
Florence, Italy) based on its standard procedure.
Analysis of Mono- and Diglycerides by
Gas Chromatography
The sample preparation was done by adapting Method Cd
11b-91 (American Oil Chemists Society 1998b). About
0.3 mL of MSTFA was added to the sample of oil (50 mg) in
a 2.5 mL screw-cap vial. Then 100 L of internal standard
solution (250 mg tricaprin [1,2,3-tricaprinoylglycero] in
25 mL of pyridine) was added to the solution. The gas chro-
matography (GC) analysis was performed using a capillary
column, HT5 (12 m 0.32 mm, i.d. 0.1 m, SGE, Mel-
bourne, Australia). The temperatures of the detector Flame
Ionization Detector (FID) and injector were set at 370 and
320C, respectively. The oven was set initially at 80C, held for
1 min, and then increased from 10C/min to 360C followed
by 15 min at 360C. Hydrogen was used as a carrier gas at a
flow rate of 30 mL/min. For the GC analysis, the split ratio
1:10 was set and a 1 L of sample solution was injected into
the GC system (Shimadzu, Japan).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Oil Extraction Process
Table 1 shows the result of oil content for OPEFB spikelet
fiber from small, middle and large OPEFB. As expected, the
small OPEFB spikelet contains the highest amount of initial
oil of 28.49 5.20% dry weight basis, followed by medium
and large spikelets. This is probably that the exposed surface
area per volume of small OPEFB is higher than medium
and large OPEFB. Hence, more free CPO was impregnated
during the mechanical processes such as the loading of
OPEFB into the sterilizer cage, sterilization and threshing as
shown in Fig. 2. After applying HYSASE, the residual oil
content reduced significantly in which spikelet from large
OPEFB shows the lowest oil content (1.67%), while spikelet
from small OPEFB shows the highest oil content (3.99%).
The HYSASE method is able to reach over 83% oil
removal from the spikelet, which is comparable to the
Oil analysis
OPEFB spikelet Initial content (%)* Final content (%)*
Small OPEFB 28.49 5.20 3.99 1.98
Medium OPEFB 19.70 1.82 3.35 0.25
Large OPEFB 15.21 0.61 1.67 1.71
* Dry weight basis of spikelet.
HYSASE, hydro solvent-assisted steam extraction; OPEFB, oil palm empty fruit bunches.
388
J.C. GOMEZ ET AL.
residual oil recovery system (RORS) proposed by
Subramaniam et al. (2013), although the authors used
mesocarp fiber containing residual oil. According to the
authors, the biomass was loaded into a digester and then
washed with hot water. Later, the fiber was subjected to
screw pressing to release the mixture of water-oil. Initially,
the oil content was 11% and it reduced to 2% (dry basis),
which is equivalent to 82% oil removal. The use of screw
pressing in RORS to release the oil may require extra energy
that will contribute to extra operational cost.
In HYSASE, the use of water heated by saturated steam
until the temperature reached 100C is able to detach the oil
from the spikelet surface mainly due to the reduction of the
oil viscosity, which is almost close to the viscosity of water
at the same temperature. The function of steam is to supply
energy to the system and to provide agitation by bubbling
the water, whereas water is the medium for oil extraction
from the solid (Stephens 1986). The steam was not only
used to increase the water temperature, but also to enhance
the creation of macro-turbulence by bubbling the water,
resulting in high-velocity interparticle collisions and pertur-
bation of micropores within the biomass (Vilkhu et al.
2008). Therefore, residual oil removal from the spikelet was
enhanced.
Oil Recovery Analysis
A gravimetric method based on EPA method 1664A was
used to analyze the performance of HYSASE process among
different OPEFB sizes via oil recovery from the resultant
water-oil mixture. Spikelet from different OPEFB sizes
resulted in different residual oil content as discussed previ-
ously. Therefore, the use of spikelet with different residual
oil was carried out in this study, resulting in about 4961%
of oil recovery when four cycles of HYSASE process were
employed (Fig. 3).
The highest oil recovery was found in the first cycle. The
amount of oil recovered in the subsequent cycles was lower
than the first cycle due to the reduction of residual oil on
the spikelet. Using the gravimetric method, about 2535%
of oil was lost due to the difficulty in recovering emulsified
and dissolved oil. According to Campbell et al. (2010), oil in
water emulsion was present in the aqueous extraction
TABLE 1. RESULTS OF OIL CONTENT BEFORE
AND AFTER REMOVAL USING HYSASE
Removal (%)
86.38 3.68
83.25 2.02
88.89 1.81
Journal of Food Process Engineering 38 (2015) 385394 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
J.C. GOMEZ ET AL.
FIG. 2. SCHEME OF THE CONVENTIONAL PALM OIL MILL PROCESS WITH HIGHLIGHTED PROCESSES THOSE CONTRIBUTED TO OIL LOSS ON THE
SURFACE OF EFB
process of soybean in which around 35% of the total
content was lost. In this process, emulsion was mainly stabi-
lized by the formation of cream due to the high protein
and phospholipid content of soybean.
In addition, during HYSASE, small droplets were
created because of the reduction of the interfacial tension
between oil and water due to the high temperature used
(Floury et al. 2000). Figure 4a shows oil droplets in the
water-oil mixture that was obtained after HYSASE process.
Journal of Food Process Engineering 38 (2015) 385394 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
RESIDUAL OIL RECOVERY FROM EMPTY FRUIT BUNCH
The free oil can be clearly seen as shown in Fig. 4a,b.
However, after recovery using the gravimetric method, oil
droplets were difficult to observe due to the emulsion of
oil and inert material (Fig. 4c). Black Sudan dye was
required to clearly visualize very small residual droplets of
oil that cannot be fully recovered from water (Fig. 4d).
Therefore, in order to improve the oil recovery from the
emulsion, further study on the separation process of oil is
required.
389
RESIDUAL OIL RECOVERY FROM EMPTY FRUIT BUNCH J.C. GOMEZ ET AL.

50
45 Small OPEFB spikelet

40 Medium OPEFB spikelet

Oil Recovery Yield (%)

35 Large OPEFB spikelet

30
25
20
15
10
5 FIG. 3. OIL RECOVERY ANALYSIS BY
GRAVIMETRIC METHOD FOR FOUR CYCLES
0 OF HYSASE PROCESS USING SPIKELET FROM
1 2 3 4 DIFFERENT SIZES OF OPEFB. DATA WERE
No. Cycle OBTAINED BY TRIPLICATED EXPERIMENT

The gravimetric method involves several steps to recover
one or more solutes from polar matrix using n-hexane. In
order to destabilize the oil in water emulsion, several factors
(i.e., pH, dissolved salts, viscosity, specific gravity of both
phases, concentration and dielectric potential [zeta poten-
tial]) should be considered (Al-Shamrani et al. 2002;
Coca-Prados et al. 2009). The chemical composition of oil
also plays an important role in the formation of oil in water
emulsion (Gaonkar 1989). Therefore, any information
about the chemical composition of CPO that contributes to
the physical distribution of palm oil-water emulsion is very
important to perform an efficient separation process.
According to Fig. 4, the size distribution was identified in
four categories depending on the droplet size. For example,
free oil was identified on the surface of water with droplet
size over 1.5 mm. The dispersed oil was found in the water
as fine droplets with a size of 0.21.5 mm. A certain portion
of the dispersed oil was found as emulsified oil with a size
droplet below 0.2 mm. Finally, dissolved oil was found as
extremely fine droplets with droplet size below 0.05 mm.
This four-category oil was described in the study of
Coca-Prados et al. (2009). Hence, before the gravimetric
method, more oil was observed as free and dispersed oil,
and it could be recovered with an average oil recovery of
55.86 0.06%. However, after the gravimetric method,
small droplet size was identified as emulsified and dissolved
oil, indicating a high oil loss in these forms (30.31 4.98%).
Quality Analysis of Recovered Oil
The analysis of oil recovered after HYSASE reveals high FFA
content (10.54 0.5%) compared to the regular FFA value
of CPO (<5.0) and the value obtained from residual oil in
the OPEFB before the HYSASE process (Table 2). This indi-
cates that hydrolysis of the triglycerides has occurred during
the process due to the high temperature (>100C) encoun-
tered and the high water to oil ratio (Lascaray 1949;
Al-Zuhair et al. 2003). According to Ariffin (2006), the
triglycerides can be completely or partially hydrolyzed by
producing not only FFA, but also diglycerides and
monoglycerides as described in Fig. 5.

FIG. 4. (A) COLLECTED PRODUCT AFTER HYSASE PROCESS. (B) OIL DROPLET BEFORE GRAVIMETRIC METHOD (40 MAGNIFICENT). (C) OIL
DROPLET AFTER GRAVIMETRIC METHOD (470 MAGNIFICENT). (D) OIL DROPLET AFTER GRAVIMETRIC METHOD WITH BLACK SUDAN DYE
STAINING (470 MAGNIFICENT)

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J.C. GOMEZ ET AL. RESIDUAL OIL RECOVERY FROM EMPTY FRUIT BUNCH

TABLE 2. COMPARISON OF FFA, DOBI AND PV ANALYSIS FROM CPO, the formation of monoglycerides and diglycerides signifi-
INITIAL OIL IN OPEFB AND OIL OBTAINED AFTER HYSASE cantly affects the emulsification of oil and water, which was
Oil analysis also described by Gaonkar (1989).
Oil FFA (%) DOBI (%) PV (meq/kg oil) The GC analysis for oil that was obtained before and after
HYSASE is presented in Fig. 6. The results obtained are con-
CPO 4.41 0.06 2.96 2.20 3.18 0.98
Initial OPEFB 1.64 0.12 2.91 0.04 2.51 0.27
sistent with those presented by other studies (Goh and
HYSASE 10.54 0.50 1.40 0.31 8.67 1.51 Timms 1985) resulting in a typical chromatogram for the
analysis of CPO. The analysis reveals that the mass percent-
CPO, crude palm oil; DOBI, deterioration of bleachability index; FFA,
age of monoolein and diolein increased from 0.41 to 2.83%
free fatty acids; HYSASE, hydro solvent-assisted steam extraction;
OPEFB, oil palm empty fruit bunches; PV, peroxide value.
and from 7.70 to 14.53%, respectively. This indicates that
the deterioration of oil took place during the process, which
is also described by Siew and Ng (1995).
According to Gaonkar, FFA does not contribute to the In addition, Table 2 also shows the DOBI and PV of oil
reduction of interfacial tension between vegetable oil and recovered by HYSASE compared to oil found in fresh CPO
water. However, the formation of monoglycerides and and initial residual oil in OPEFB. It was found that DOBI in
diglycerides affects significantly this physicochemical prop- the recovered oil by HYSASE is of poor quality compared to
erty (Gaonkar 1989). The monoglycerides and diglycerides the oil that is obtained before the process. High PV indicates
are polar surface activity compounds with high that during HYSASE, oxidation occurred mainly due to
hydrophilicity due to their OH functional groups. Its high temperature and water used (Nawrocka and Lamorska
content was usually found to be low (<0.5%) in CPO (Goh 2013). Therefore, the recovered oil shows low quality and
and Timms 1985; Lau et al. 2005), partly preventing the for- probably is not suitable to be blended with CPO obtained
mation of emulsion. However, during the HYSASE process, from the main process at the palm oil mill.

FIG. 5. TRIGLYCERIDE HYDROLYSIS OF

THE VEGETABLE OIL: (A) PARTIAL AND
(B) COMPLETE

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RESIDUAL OIL RECOVERY FROM EMPTY FRUIT BUNCH
FIG. 6. CG ANALYSIS OF SAMPLE OBTAINED FROM (A) OIL RECOVERED BY HYSASE, (B) INITIAL OIL IN OPEFB
The HYSASE process shows the capacity to be developed
and improved to increase the revenue of the palm oil mill or
even to increase the OER due to the high oil removal, which
can be estimated as 0.61% of OPFFB. Nonetheless, it is rec-
ommended to conduct further studies on oil-water emul-
sion using micro separation technologies such as column
flotation (Li et al. 2007), dissolved air flotation (Cheung and
Henley 2000) and hydrophobic-oleophilic natural fibers fil-
tration (Huang and Lim 2006) to increase the oil recovery
obtained using the HYSASE process.
CONCLUSIONS
As a result of this work, the water-steam method (HYSASE)
can be an option for oil recovery from OPEFB. The spikelets
from different OPEFB sizes were analyzed (small, medium
and large) and all samples were able to obtain more than
83% oil removal. However, after the HYSASE process, the
formation of emulsified oil in water was observed. The
recovery of emulsified oil was difficult due to the chemical
characteristic of the oil (monoglycerides and diglycerides)
and its physical distribution (small oil droplets, <0.20 mm).
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This study was supported by Long Term Research Grant
Scheme from Ministry of Education Malaysia (600-RMI/
LRGS 5/3).
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