In the first stage of the palm oil extraction process, fruit bunches enter the sterilizer to undergo a cooking process. This consists of the application of low-pressure water steam thus achieving three purposes, stopping the ripening process, softening the oil tissues of the palm fruit pulp, and sterilizing the FFB.

After sterilization, the bunches enter the fruit remover to separate fruits from the rachis or husks. This first byproduct is reused in agricultural production to improve the soil texture of the plantation.

Subsequently, fruits enter the presses and digesters where they undergo a maceration process to detach the pulp from the nuts and have the oil contained in the pulp. The mass obtained undergoes a temperature of 95°C and becomes ready for the pressing where pulp, nuts and liquid phase that contains the oil, water, and slurries, are separated.

This liquid phase obtained from the press separation goes to the clarifier where a process of separation of sediments, water, and red oil begins; the flow continues towards the centrifuges where the oil and the water that has accompanied the whole process are finally separated. Crude palm oil is obtained this way.

 At REPSA we use all byproducts derived from the industrial process of oil extraction. Rachis or husks are used in the field, palm kernel oil and flour are obtained from the fruit nuts, the pulp fiber is used as biofuel that feeds the boilers, and the effluent, after treatment process, is reused in the fertigation system installed in one area of the plantation.

The effluent, the residual liquid from the industrial process, is made up of water, slurry, and fibre. By means of a special wastewater treatment system, this effluent is treated for it to acquire the necessary characteristics to be reused in fertigation. This process does not require any chemical, but it is achieved through a system of oxidation lagoons.

Our wastewater treatment systems consist of three phases; a primary phase for the reduction of organic load through bacterial digestion, a secondary oxidation phase, and a third phase of settleable solid separation, the refined water is directed to the fertigation reservoir for agricultural reuse. Meantime of hydraulic retention is 49 days. The entire system has an emergency lagoon designed to retain 33% more of the effluent in case of an eventuality.