The Traditional Industry of Coconut Oil

The Traditional Industry of Manufacturing Coconut Oil: Opportunities to increase productivity and enhance the product and process quality

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to discuss how an existing traditional/indigenous industry of the village can be made more competitive business to suit present context of business by introducing feasible technologies to increase productivity and enhance the product and process quality with the use of the entrepreneurial skills and knowledge on engineering & business. To accomplish this first of all it is necessary to identify such a traditional/indigenous industry of the village and study its indigenous technologies that are being used at the moment.

There the traditional coconut oil industry has been selected and discussed its existing technology and ways to increase productivity and enhance the product and process quality. However there are many more things await which can be used to the development of the industry. Therefore if certain actions are taken on behalf of development of this industry the traditional coconut oil industry will act a major role among the money spinning industries of Sri Lanka.

Table of Contents

Page

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………. 3

2. Raw materials and machines……………………………………………………………… 4

1. Tray type dryer…………………………………………………………………….. 4

2. Oil mill……………………………………………………………………………... 4

3. Process and techniques……………………………………………………………………. 5

4. Losses of energy…………………………………………………………………………... 5

5. Related environmental pollution………………………………………………………….. 5

1. Greenhouse gases and other emissions…………………………………………… 6

5. Improving energy efficiency, productivity, process quality and environmental friendliness……. 6

1. Energy efficiency options…………………………………………………………. 6

2. Use of coconut shells in industry…………………………………………………. 7

3. Uses of other byproducts………………………………………………………….. 8

4.

References: 1) Coconut Kernel Products: Coconut Oil - The Coconut Development Authority (CDA) of Sri Lanka 2) Types of Tray Dryer by Benjamin Arie, eHow Contributor 3) Desiccated coconut industry of Sri Lanka by S. Kumar, G. Senanayake, C. Visvanathan and B. Basu 4) Anaerobic wastewater treatment: Anaerobic wastewater treatment for industrial and domestic wastewater by Wim Wiegant PhD and Nico Groeneveld MSc 5) Water Quality Indicators: BOD and COD by Milton Beychok 6) Waste heat from coconut shell carbonization - DFID Project 6087, co-funded with the Common Fund for Commodities 9. Appendix ✓ BOD and COD - Both the BOD and COD tests are a measure of the relative oxygen-depletion effect of a waste contaminant. Both have been widely adopted as a measure of pollution effect. The BOD test measures the oxygen demand of biodegradable pollutants whereas the COD test measures the oxygen demand of bio gradable pollutants plus the oxygen demand of non-biodegradable oxidizable pollutants. ✓ Anaerobic digestion system of wastewater treatment - Anaerobic wastewater treatment differs from conventional aerobic treatment in that no aeration is applied. The absence of oxygen leads to controlled anaerobic conversions of organic pollutants to carbon dioxide and methane, the latter of which can be utilized as energy source. The main advantages of anaerobic treatment are the very high loading rates that can be applied (10 to 20 times as high as in conventional activated sludge treatment) and the very low operating costs. Anaerobic treatment often is very cost-effective in reducing discharge levies combined with the production of reusable energy in the form of biogas. ✓ Waste heat recovery unit (WHU) - The application of a coconut shell carbonization with waste heat recovery unit was developed to virtually eliminate the evolution of noxious smoke evolved during the charcoal-making operation and simultaneously enable the heat generated during the process – heat normally lost to the surroundings – to be used in the production of copra (dried coconut kernels).