Correlation between the viscosity and quality of palm wine and palm oil

Abstract

The viscosities of various grades of two important local fluids, palm wine and palm oil, were investigated using a locally fabricated and standardised viscometer. The viscometer so fabricated is a Saybolt-type viscometer which is based on the difference in pressure heads for parallel flow, derived from the Navier-Stokes equation. The palm wine samples were allowed to undergo gradual fermentation, while the palm oil samples were subjected to some chemical analyses. Investigations revealed that the viscosity of palm wine slightly tails with fermentation to produce alcohol, while that of palm oil remains fairly independent of its free fatty acid content which is its index of quality.

Keywords: Viscometer, viscosity, fermentation and free fatty acid.