Linear Programming Approach for the Determination of the Optimal Process Parameters in the Physically Refined Vegetable Oils

Abstract: In this work, the optimal process conditions in the physically refined vegetable oils have been determined. The oils involved in this analysis were Palm Oil (PO), and Palm Kernel Oil (PKO). The oils, obtained from a local market in Enugu, North – East province of Nigeria, were characterized with a view to finding the ordinary values of the variables that were optimized, especially in the degumming, bleaching, and deodorization sections, as well as the cost of refining and the revenue accruable from the sale of the products. The AOCS method of AOCS, [1], was used in the analysis. Graphical method of linear programming and Sinplex Alogrithm methods were also used in order to optimize the variables. The objectives and the constraints were formulated into standard models with temperature, pressure, chemical concentration and clay dosage as the variables. It was found that optimal values of phosphotide in the refined oils, measured as Phosphorous, were 0.0105 and 0.0047Ppm; Colour pigment, measured in Red Units, 1.92 and 1.35, for PO and PKO, respectively, and odour, measured as FFA, was 0.1 and 0.05%, accordingly. The optimal cost of refining which was analysed using Simplex Alogrithm, gave N583.95 and 676.24 per tones, each of the PO and PKO. Optimal revenue was obtained as N 106,400 and N128,700, per tone of the refined oils. Based on the optimized cost, while profit accruable per 100 tones of the refined raw oils, based on the sale of the products was N 1,399,344 and N2,106825 for PO and PKO respectively. The results confirmed the standard values from the literatures