Feature Food processing & packaging Automation is the ethical solution
Palm oil production may be a huge industry, but it is only just beginning to automate. A palm oil producer in Jakarta is using hydraulic and electronic components from Eaton to help automate processing equipment
he world produces about 150 mil- lion tonnes of vegetable oil a year, one-third of which is palm oil. The majority of this comes from the tropics, where there has been little incentive to automate due to the abun- dance of cheap labour. However, attitudes are changing. Consumers increasingly insist on ethi- cal production and sourcing and improved product quality. Also, most governments are improving workplace health and safety legislation. PT Hutan Sawit Lestari based in Jakarta, is leading the way in automat- ing palm oil production, and is using hydraulic and electronic components from Eaton to achieve this. Around 50% of the world’s palm oil production comes from Indonesia, which has around 6 million hectares, i.e. almost twice the area of Belgium, covered with palm oil plantations. The yield from oil palms is high: compared to soybean, rape seed or peanut, only about one-tenth the cultivation area is required per ton of vegetable oil. The production of palm oil involves a multi-stage process. Freshly har- vested fruit bunches are supplied to the process plant, sterilised with steam and then threshed into pulp. The crude palm oil is then produced in a screw press. Further processing separates the palm oil from water and fibre waste, it is then put into an intermediate store and later refined. The organic waste is used for fertiliser or heating once dried. In refineries, the crude oil is split into several components in order to obtain as wide a product range as possi- ble. Around 90% of the palm oil pro- duced is used in the food industry in the manufacture of spreads and deep-
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frying fat for example. The remaining share is processed in cleaning agents, in the cosmetic and oleochemical indus- try and for biofuel.
A large palm oil plant processes up to 45 tons of fruit an hour. Hydraulic and electrical components are installed in mechanically, thermally and, in part, chemically demanding environments. Robustness is a key issue here: “We use VMQ V25 vacuum pumps and ADU41 piston pumps from Eaton, which com- bine robustness with high flow rates and pressure resistance," said Jasper Lim at system integrators PT in Jakarta. The company is building several dif- ferent palm oil processing plants in
Local control pan- els each contain Eaton’s MFD multi- function displays and several func- tion elements that guide the user
Indonesia in collaboration with Eaton. “For us this means that we are working with a single partner, so that the engi- neering requirements are considerably less,” explained Lim. “We see ourselves as full-range suppliers for systems that combine electrical engineering, power distribution, automation and hydraulics. In this way we help to pro- vide competent solutions for the wide range of automation requirements for industrial plants.”
The automation of the palm oil facto- ries is decentralised. Local control panels are installed at the units, each containing Eaton’s MFD multi-function displays and several function elements that guide the user. The control is brought together in central control panels on elevated working platforms. These are made up of Eaton XV102 touch display PLCs at the core, each consisting an integrated HMI and PLC. The local and central control panels consist of several pushbutton actuators and indicator lights.
One benefit of the control panels is their compactness
The system uses SmartWire-DT, the Eaton panel man- agement solution which reduces wiring complexity
Process & Control SEPTEMBER 2012
The panels are assembled at Eaton in Singapore. George Hendro is from the company. He said: “We have built the entire system using SmartWire-DT our panel management solution which reduces wiring complexity by replacing the myriad of wires in a conventional system with a single daisy chain or fieldbus cable. This saves space, improves system reliability and cuts installation time. This decentralises the intelligence thus increasing perfor- mance and improving reliability. The reduction of error sources and greater flexibility with modular machine con- cepts are additional benefits.” Hendro further explains that all motor starters are directly integrated in the same way: Conventional I/O mod- ules are unnecessary since with SmartWire-DT, the I/O level is directly integrated in the switchgear. Further, the hydraulic valves used have integral servo amplifiers which increases safety, reduces the wiring and commis- sioning effort and thus saves costs. "The highly dynamic properties of the Eaton valves enable us to use directly closed-loop control circuits," PT’s hydraulic specialist Andrew Aung explained. “For us, Eaton is synony- mous with competence in industrial automation. We receive the support for hydraulics and electrical engineering from a single source, and the world- wide service also provides security for the future. This is a guarantee for effi- cient work.”
Eaton T: 0121 685 2100
www.eaton.com/uk
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