Coconuts

Oil Direct From Coconuts Philippines Claim New Process

AN article in Food Engineering (an American journal) of October. 1952, entitled “Simple, Direct Extraction of Coconut Oil”, describing a new process now in operation in the Philippines, opens up rather startling possibilities in the coconut planting-copra-coconut oil industries.

The process was invented by a Spanish chemist, Pablo Robledano, and a Filipino, Eduardo Duiz de Luzuriaga; protected by them under Philippines Patent No. 1 of 1948; and bought from them by Coconut Processes Inc., of Manila. It is called the R-L Process.

The physico-chemical principle underlying the new process is the breaking up of the intractable protein envelope enclosing the oil globule in the fresh meat (1) by carefully con trolled enzymatic action, then (2) by rupturing the envelope by chilling. Previous attempts to achieve this have revolved about treatment by high temperature, but this resulted in’ deterioration of the oil.

At a cost of 125,000 dollars (over £50,000 Aust.), a pilot plant was erected at Calamba, Luguna, and it has been producing five tons of oil per day, for some time. It can produce 10 tons per day, and that is called its “economic capacity”.

The company (C-P) claims that the correct way to operate the system is to install one of these plants in a place handy to a group of plantations producing a certain minimum of nuts.

C-P works with a Los Angeles concern called Southwest Engineering, which specialises in the form of equipment required. Steps have been taken by the latter to establish 10ton units in a number of Philippines districts. Production of the oil is not a straight-line procedure, but requires several branch operations.

At present, the coconuts are halved and the kernels removed by hand labour. The water in the nut runs to waste—but C-P says that re search on this liquid is going on, with a view to recovering valuable products therefrom. Nothing is said about the fibre. The shells are burned as fuel, providing all the power that is required by the unit.

Following is the technical description

of what then takes place:— “The meat is grated in a comminute!* and pre-pressed, yielding about even pro portions of coconut milk (not to be con fused with the liquid enclosed in the kernel) and a semi cake. Flaking and pressing of this cake yields additional milk, which is processed, together with that obtained from the fresh grated meat.

“Centrifugal separation of the milk yields a cream, some skim milk and a small amount of protein. The cream is pumped into maturing tanks, and sub jected to enzymatic action under close temperature and pH control, then chilled in a continuous freezing machine.

Chilling is followed immediately by melt ing. The cream is now ready for cen trifugal separation, which removes most of the oil. After filtering, it is ready for storage.

“The balance of the cream is again chilled, melted, and sent through a cen trifugal classifier, which removes the re maining oil and separates that which is left into water and proteins. Additional protein is obtained by heating and then centrifuging the ‘skim milk’. In the meantime, the process continues in a branch production line on the flaked and pressed semi-cake. It is dehydrated in a drying unit, and an expeller then strips it of the remaining oil.

“The oil contains only a negligible quantity of free fatty acids and is claimed to be substantially identical in com position and flavour with the unextracted primary coconut oil. This is said to be due to the fact that it is not subject to bacterial and mould action, as coco nut oil is in copra.”

Compared with the method of drying the meat to copra, and crush ing the copra, the loss of oil under this new method appears to be about 1 per cent. But in the copra method there are substantial losses through chemical deterioration, and also in refining (no refining is needed in this new method). The article says; “The overall recovery rate, in terms of fresh nut meat, is reported to be 0.21 per cent, higher.” Whatever that means. It is not clear whether the new method gives an actual net recovery rate of oil over the copra method.

It is proposed, in due course, to extract the meat from the nuts by machine; to find new outlets for the protein constituents of the nut (the proteins are lost in the copra method): and that the meal result ing from the R-L process is of so much higher value (compared with copra cake) that it may be used as ci cereal EDITOR’S NOTE: To displace the present method of collecting,

drying, transporting and milling coco

nuts the new process would have to show very definite advantages. But, for a long time, thoughful men in the coconut industry have argued that there is too great a waste of time, effort and substance in the copra method, and have been seek ing some much quicker way of getting the pure oil direct from the

nut. Any cheapening of the proo would allow coconut oil to compi more successfully against the varic other vegetable oils.