Coconut Oil Processing Business

Coconut Oil Processing Business

Following the article by Temi on how to make Virgin Coconut oil (adi agbon) for personal use, here is another way to process coconut oil. The method described here can actually be used to process coconut oil on a commercial scale.

Firstly the coconuts is grated, the grated material is poured into clean water and washed thoroughly. If the copra is thoroughly dried before grating, the oil will float on the water. The oil is then carefully removed, though with little water and transferred into a pot to boil for about ten minutes. After ten minutes, the remaining water would have evaporated, leaving the clear coconut oil. After collecting the oil, the sludge left can be seasoned with sugar and heated to form a paste. The paste is then package into a popular sweet called baba dudu.

Commercial Scale Coconut Oil Production
The industrial production involve drying the copra to the maximum level with industrial dryer, it is then passed into the toaster to heat it slightly. The heating will allow the oil to spill out easily when the copra enters the crusher. The dry, warm copra is then passed into the crusher otherwise called oil expeller.

An efficient crusher will expel 60% oil and 40% cake. The residue after removing the oil is called cake. The cake is good for animal feed for it is rich in oil and crude protein.
The oil collected in a tank is passed through a series of filter to purify it .The sludge obtained after filtering is also a good material for fattening pigs. The clear oil is edible cooking oil, as we know, it’s also use for a variety of beauty care.

Seed Crushers
Seed crushers are available in various capacities; from 1 ton to 10 tons per day. There are locally fabricated crusher but the Indian made crusher are well rated above local ones .
The price of Indian seed crusher with capacity for crushing up to 5 tons per day is 2.5 million Naira excluding installation. The above method of coconut oil production tends to be use along the coast of West Africa from Badagry in Nigeria through Republic of Benin, Togo up to Accra in Ghana.