Improving small-scale extraction of coconut oil

Partners:

Tanzania - Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute, Dar es Salaam
Côte d'Ivoire - Marc Delorme Coconut Research Station, Port Bouët
Ghana - Technology Consultancy Centre, University of Kumasi
India - Coconut Development Board, Kochi
Sri Lanka - Coconut Development Authority, Colombo.
Indonesia - Institute for Research and Development of Agro-based Industry, Bogor
African Oil Palm Development Association (AFOPDA)
Asian and Pacific Coconut Community (APCC)

Problem:

Processing of coconut at the small rural and domestic scale, for which traditional methods are arduous, is  time consuming and inefficient.  Household-level processing of coconuts for milk and oil is an important women's activity in some countries.

Achievements:

Five coconut processes were investigated, often in collaboration with SMEs and NGOs, in Tanzania, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India.  Pilot-scale processes were installed under normal field conditions and validated both by in-country collaborators, NRI staff and CFC-appointed independent monitoring personnel.  The validations were carried out from financial, technical and socio-economic perspectives. 

The research produced improved technical and economic knowledge of five coconut processing systems.  The main findings were

• aqueous processing – introduction of a rotary grater provided an increase in oil yield in excess of 30% over that given by the traditional grater, with improved nutritional value over milk obtained from coarse gratings;
  
  
• hot oil immersion drying – a more efficient process producing a better quality of oil;
  
  
• ram press – a suitable extraction process only for small-scale throughput but produced a high quality oil with 70% extraction efficiency;
  
  
• waste heat recovery technology – found to be a financially viable system for providing heat for processing;
  
  
• intermediate moisture method – showed that processing at a moisture content of 12% improved the quality and extraction of oil by traditional low pressure systems.

The findings were used to produce country processing manuals (produced by each country collaborator) for each method as applied in that collaborating country.  Additional processing manuals were produced amalgamating all country processing approaches for each process.