Palm Oil as Raw Material for Biodiesel

Malaysia has 4917 million hectares of oil palm plantation with an average of 1,765,000 tons of palm oil production per month.

To stabilize the crude palm oil price and its stock, Malaysia was forced to delve into biodiesel production using palm oil. Biodiesel production is an emerging industry in Malaysia.

Use of palm oil as biodiesel or biofuel has advantages. It reduce the dependency on fossil fuel on earth and give rise to greener environment.

However, biodiesel production using palm oil has its constraints too. Crude palm oil is exported to overseas especially to European Union as substitute of rapeseed for biofuel production. Its price is therefore subject to fluctuation. When the price is high, it is not expedient to use palm oil for biodiesel production locally. The Malaysian government has to subsidize the biodiesel production. Palm oil as cooking oil also poses competition to its use as biofuel raw material.

Posted by Chai Yong of http://www.powerzone-biodiesel.com