consulting services for a technical assessment of the stills at the ...

Technical difficulties have been experienced with the operationalisation of the still. These technical
difficulties need to be resolved and standard operating procedures need to be established to ensure
that essential oils of a standardized quality are produced. The Opuwo Processing Facility is targeted for
training support by the MCA-N INP Sub-activity (PPO number 1.1.12) in 2011 but before this can take
place the facility needs to be fully commissioned.
1.1 Scope of work
2. Inspect the installation of both the Commiphora and mopane still
3. Conduct small processing trials and rectify any problems immediately if possible
4. Advise as to possible solutions for problems that cannot be rectified immediately
5. Establish an outline and recommendations for standard operating procedures
Although not required in terms of the scope of work for these consultancy services the consultant was
requested by the IRDNC to manufacture trial components (baskets and seals) to make it possible for the
small processing trials outlined above in point 2 to be carried out.
In addition to the above work training of the staff on the operation and use of the equipment and the
distillation procedure was also conducted during the trials. A short training video was also made.
Through the above tasks it was expected that an assessment and identification of the technical
problems would be made and that recommendations as to how these might be practically solved in
order to get the processing facility fully functional would be addressed.
2. Methodology
On initial inspection of the processing facility it was decided to first clean the facility and equipment in
order to start with a fresh approach. This was done by physical means and by use of the boiler to steamclean
the plant, including the material pots, cooling condenser and oil/water separator of both the
mopane and Commiphora distillation units. After cleaning the layout of the equipment was rearranged
in a more permanent position to utilise the space more efficiently.
Two main processing trials were conducted, one on the Mopane steam still and the other on the
Commiphora hydro still. In the case of both trials the raw material to be distilled was weighed to
correlate the weight to oil percentage for the different trials, as this will also have an effect on the final
decision. All trials were conducted for a period of two hours.
The components of these trials are described below.
2.1 Pre-processing and steam distillation trials with the Mopane steam still
Three trials were done using different pre-processed material with a piece of hessian on the basket
using the same distillation process:
Report on the Technical Assessment of the Stills at the Opuwo Processing Facility (April 2011) Page 3