Step-by-Step Process of Palm Oil Production in Ghana (West Africa).
Step-by-Step Process of Palm Oil Production in Ghana (West Africa).
Palm oil is a widely consumed oil in Ghana.
It is used in cooking, making soaps and many more.
It is also used by many when eating ‘gobe’ (beans and gari) with plantain, a food loved by many.
However, palm oil is produced by many, either in large quantities for commercial purposes or small quantities for domestic use only.
When it comes to large quantities (commercial), parts of the Central region, the western region, and parts of the Ashanti region are noted for that.
In this article, we explained how palm oil is extracted locally in Ghana.
Steps used in extracting palm oil
- Bunches of the matured ripe palm fruit are harvested and then cut into chunks of nuts.
- The chunks are sprinkled with water to enhance detachment from their stalks.
- They are then kept for 4-5 days to ferment.
- Fruits or nuts are removed from chunks and may be dried in the sun to prevent the formation of moulds.
- Fruits are then washed and boiled in pots/drums for a few hours.
- The boiled nuts are then pounded in a mortar with a pestle to grind or mash to separate the fibrous part from the hard palm kernel.
- The pounded or mashed mixture is put into a basin, and water is added.
There are two methods used in extracting the oil.
Hot method
- Hot water is poured or added to the mashed mixture and stirred well.
- The mixture is then sieved into another container to get a slurry which is made up of palm oil, water and other particles.
- The slurry is then boiled until red palm oil appears and collects on top of the mixture due to its lower density.
- The palm oil is then skimmed off, heated to boil and then collected into a suitable container.
Cold method
- Cold water is added to the pounded mixture.
- The mixture is hand-rubbed well in an open pan or container until palm oil collects at the top.
- Palm oil is skimmed off, heated to boil and collected into suitable containers.
It should be noted that
- Boiling in both methods removes water and enhances the taste and shelf life of the oil.
- Further heating with selected additives produces dzomi, a tastier and longer shelf-life palm oil.
The main disadvantages of the traditional extraction of palm oil are;
- The small quantity of palm fruit that a mortar can hold and pound.
- Tiresome pounding processes.
- The inefficient squeezing of the fibre containing the oil, and the sieving of the slurry; these are done without any applied pressure, which would increase the efficiency of the oil extraction.
These disadvantages have been greatly addressed by the intermediate technologies to improve traditional methods.
Large-capacity palm fruit boiling tank:
- This has a capacity of 5% times that of the traditional container. It steams the palm fruits in a separate container, ready for pounding.
Motor-driven pounding machine:
- This takes the place of the tiresome mechanical labour in the traditional methods.
- The pounding by the machine is more thorough, and virtually no human energy is used.
Screw-turn oil press:
- This is operated manually to squeeze out the oil from the boiling (steamed) palm fruit and fibre.
- The pressing technology reduces the time taken for the extraction process and saves fuel for heating in the hot method.
Clarifying tank:
- This uses a valve system and heating to reduce the water content of the pressed oil.
