Month: February 2020

Recent research at PORIM has developed a new derivative from palm with great commercial potential. This product is dihydroxy fatty acid (DHFA). Hyroxy fatty acid has been shown to have numerous commercial use such as, additives in lubricants, starting material to make emulsifiers and surfactants, and polyol for polyurethanes.  Main Research: Roila Awang

Difficulty in getting skilled workers for handling manual cutting tools, and unavailability of an effective mechanical cutter have been common issue that needs a solution. The current method involves the use if a chisel or sickle, this requires manual labour and is tedious. This paper describes a newly innovated mechanical cutter which solves the above … Read more

Labour is an important input in oil palm cultivation. Short age in labour would lead to several problems such as low fruit recovery, low quality oil and high operating cost. Infield transporter and a mechanical loader (Grabber) for tall palms are already available in the market and have been widely used in oil palm estates. Virtually … Read more

Plantation roads provide the means of transporting fresh fruit bunches (FFB) to the mill and, bringing and sending fertilizer to the site as well as other field activities. Any slack in preparing or building the roads will effect the delivery time of farm products as well as the being in the farm needs. Plantation roads … Read more

Loose fruit collection is part of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) harvesting and evacuation process. The conventional methods used for loose fruit collection are by hand picking or by manually raking and scooping into a bag. The techniques are not only time-consuming but also laborious. The debris content in raking can be as high as 60% … Read more

Soils require high fertilizer inputs to replace the nutrients removed by cropping. The soil holds the applied nutrients or else, looses them through soil erosion, leaching or volatilization as a gas. Therefore, much attention is given to efficiency of fertilizer recovery, which is dependent on many factors, and the ,major ones being the weather, soil … Read more

Coronary heart disease (CHD) continues to be a major cause of mortality globally. Among the risk factors that can be modified are dietary habits of an individual. In this context, reduction of excess consumption of dietary fat and especially saturated fatty acids has been advocated as a tool to reduce CHD risk. Depending on the … Read more

Non-diary ice-cream is a frozen mixture of a combination of components of milk substitute, non-fat milk solid substitute, sweeteners, stabilizer, emulsifier and flavouring. Other ingredients such as egg products and colourings may be added. The mixture is estuerized and homogenized before freezing. Freezing involves rapid removal of heat while agitating vigorously to incorporate air, thus … Read more

Slip melting point is a widely used parameter in the specification of oils and fats. It is normally determined by visual observation of a thermometer placed alongside the sample immersed in a water bath. An automated instrument is now available for the rapid and accurate measurement of slip melting point of oil. The instrument automatically … Read more

Transparency Meter* is a tool for measuring the transparency, translucency and clarity of materials in the form of solids, liquids or gels. Measurement is based on a new method which is superior to the subjective visual observation or direct transmission methods. The method is based on light scattering effect through various media using a laser … Read more