MPOB INFORMATION SERIES • ISSN 1511-7871 • JUNE 2009 MPOB TT No. 428
VALUE ADDITION FROM CRUDE PALM OIL – INTEGRATED
PRODUCTION OF PALM BIODIESEL, PHYTONUTRIENTS AND
OTHER VALUE-ADDED PRODUCTS
469
S
Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Malaysia
P. O. Box 10620, 50720 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Tel: 03-87694400 Website: www.mpob.gov.my Telefax: 03-89259446
CHOO YUEN MAY; HARRISON LAU, L N; YUNG CHEE LIANG; NG MEI HAN;
PUAH CHIEw wEI; RUSNANI ABD MAjID; MA AH NGAN; YAHAYA HAwARI
and ANDREw YAP KIAN CHUNG
ince the 1980s, MPOB (then PORIM) has
been in the forefront of R&D in palm
biodiesel and its downstream product
applications. The MPOB palm biodiesel
technology has since been successfully
tested on a pilot scale and commercialized by
transfer of technology. To date, 18 palm biodiesel
plants have been built in Malaysia and eight are
currently in operation.
With the declaration of the National Biofuel Policy
in March 2006, the Malaysian Government has
announced that starting from February 2009,
usage of a mandatory B5 biodiesel blend (5% palm
biodiesel + 95% petroleum diesel) by all sectors in
selected government agencies will take effect. This
will be followed by nationwide implementation by
2010. The implementation of mandatory blending
of B5 biodiesel has called for a higher supply of
palm biodiesel.
Palm biodiesel producers have always faced
the issue of price destabilization of palm oil, the
starting material for palm biodiesel. This is related
to the hike in crude oil prices and, to some extent,
has prompted the industry to diversify their
business through integration. With this in mind,
MPOB has developed a full range of downstream
products derived from biodiesel production. This
integrated process is now ready to be offered to the
industry.
INTEGRATED PALM BIODIESEL PILOT
PLANTS
Integrated palm biodiesel pilot plants have
been developed with new technologies with the
aim of diversifying the downstream biodiesel
activities, thus, making palm biodiesel production
economically viable and able to stand alone.
The integrated process starts with the production
of palm biodiesel (palm oil methyl esters) from
crude palm oil or palm oil products through an
esterification or transesterification process. The
mild conditions used in the production of palm
Figure 1. Integrated process for the production of palm biodiesel,
phytonutrients and other value-added products.
Esterification
Transesterification
Crude Methyl Esters
C18 mixed – low pour point biodiesel
Vitamin E, sterols and squalene e.g.
C16:0 – a-SME
g-Tocotrienol >90%
d-Tocotrienol >90%
a-Tocotrienol >90%
• Fine Chemicals

biodiesel enable the phytonutrients (carotenes,
vitamin E, squalene, sterols, co-enzyme Q and
phospholipids) to remain intact in the palm
biodiesel. This becomes a good source for the
recovery of phytonutrients before the palm
biodiesel is burnt as fuel.
Through fractional distillation and an integrated
process which involves a total of nine pilot plants,
downstream products from palm biodiesel have
been successfully produced. The said nine pilot
plants are as follows:
• a supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC)
pilot plant;
• a supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) pilot
plant;
• a short-path distillation pilot plant;
• a reaction pilot plant;
• a dry and solvent fractionation pilot plant;
• a hydrogenation pilot plant;
• a pre-treatment pilot plant;
• an esterification pilot plant; and
• a fractional distillation pilot plant.
Figure 2. Pre-treatment pilot plant.
Figure 3. Short-path distillation plant.
Figure 4. Reaction pilot plant.
Figure 5. Dry and solvent fractionation pilot plant.
Figure 6. Supercritical fluid extraction pilot plant.