Good Milling Practices

To performed diligently :-

1. FFB grading as per MPOB Grading Manual & company policy.
2. 100% grading at least on one load per week from each contributing estates to analyze loose fruit and debris content.
3. Triple peak sterilization is strictly practiced and all charts are examined by the relevant staff and mill management and these be kept filed for reference.
4. That double threshing is practiced throughout milling.
5. USB recovery is strictly monitored and USB recovery practiced throughout milling processing hours.
6. That all digesters are operated full at all time and temperature maintained above 90 degree C with maximum possible oil drainage prior to digested mesh entry to press.
7. Oil to NOS in press ideally to be consistently below 7% to NOS. This would require mills to consider (depending on location) cast steel worm screw / reconditioned at 450 hours and mild steel press cage renewal every 900 hours respectively. This would not only ensure consistent / better losses but also ensure a more stable throughput.
8. Vibrating screen are to be cleaned daily and screen tension and magnitude of vibration must be ideal such that tailing are dry at the discharge. In some mills the spread of load on vibrating screen is uneven and thus one screen is overloaded. This should be avoided.
9. Size of screen is preferably as follow :- i) 20 mesh crude oil ii) 30 mesh sludge. In mills where dilution is required percentage of moisture in crude oil tank should be monitored daily and be approximately 35%. This would require constant of dilution. Installation of an orifice plate of suitable size in water line and control of water valve in the solution. This must be monitored daily by Laboratory and Supervisor. 2 hours dilution test may be performed.
10. Crude oil, vertical clarifier tank, pure oil tank and oil recovery tank must be heated to achieve temperature ranging in the region of 90 - 98 degree C.
11. Hot water tank more often than does not have float valve and often overflows into the drain. This must be stopped in view of the acute water storage currently faced the world over and unnecessary heating wastage.
12. Sludge separators should be fitted with 1.7mm diameter nozzle to achieve maximum recovery and oil loss to NOS be in the range of 10 - 12%.
13. Kernel loss in winnower and fibre cyclone and hydrocyclone trucking should preferably be below 1.2%. Mill must check if destoner and winnowing system and fibre cyclone trunking are at all times sealed and leak if any must be arrested immediately.
14. All buffer / effluent ponds must be cleared off any oil traces immediately and be oil free. This can be maintained if recycling of liquor is done in buffering ponds to achieve low inflow temperature and higher pH values in buffer ponds.
15. Sterilization and threshing is performed efficiently.
16. Oil leaks if any must be arrested immediately and all sludge pits be checked by both staff and managers for tell tale sign of oil loss from the plant.
17. All losses must be well within the Industry Standards and corrective action must be immediately instituted when any deviation from the norm is noticed.
18. Cleanliness / Safety aspects be continuously monitored and implemented.
19. Ramp management i.e turnaround of vehicles and loose fruit spillage must be recovered as quickly as possible to prevent crushing and loss at the ramp area.
20. Management and staff must be aware of the definition in regards to all matters pertaining to FFB Quality, EFB, USB, PSB and Company Standards with regards to losses as all stages of the milling process.
21. All managers are to ensure that reporting of Laboratory data is as accurate as possible and managers should send out their samples on an add hoc basis to outside Laboratory to cross check their own analysis/results. Timely, the managers must check on the sampling procedures, analysis methods and ensure Laboratory personnel are truthful in their reporting.

9th April 2010.
Miri, Sarawak.