Palm oil, as a widely used vegetable oil, plays an important role in food, cosmetics and industry. However, the refining process of palm oil faces many technical and technological challenges. The following are some main difficulties in palm oil refining.

First of all, the impurity content in palm oil raw materials is high. Because palm fruit is easily polluted during picking and primary processing, crude oil usually contains a lot of free fatty acids, phospholipids, pigments and other impurities. These impurities not only affect the quality and taste of palm oil, but also shorten its shelf life. Therefore, in the refining process, how to effectively remove these impurities is a key issue.

Second, the decolorization and deodorization processes require high-precision control. Natural carotenoids in palm oil give it bright orange-yellow, but some food and industrial uses need colorless or light oil products. Activated clay and other adsorbents need to be used in the decoloration process, but excessive use may lead to oil loss. In addition, high-temperature steam treatment is needed in the deodorization stage to remove odor, but high temperature may cause oil oxidation or other chemical changes, thus affecting the quality of the final product.

Third, the environmental impact in the refining process is also a major difficulty. Palm oil refining will produce wastewater, waste gas and solid waste, some of which may contain substances harmful to the environment. How to reduce environmental pollution while ensuring production efficiency is a long-term problem that the industry needs to solve.

Last, cost control is an important challenge in palm oil refining. Chemical reagents, energy consumption and equipment maintenance costs used in refining process may significantly increase production costs. In the fierce market competition, how to balance product quality and cost input is a problem that every manufacturer must face.

To sum up, palm oil refining involves complex technical problems and various trade-offs. With the progress of science and technology and the enhancement of environmental awareness, the industry may develop more efficient and environmentally friendly processes in the future, bringing new breakthroughs to the palm oil industry.