Palm-based Oleochemicals in Non-Food Applications: Meeting the Environmental Regulatory Challenges

The oleochemical manufacturing is one of the industrial sectors that contributed significantly to the economic growth of the country. Palm oil (PO) and palm kernel oil (PKO) have been utilised as feedstocks for production of the five basic oleochemicals, namely fatty acid, methyl ester, fatty alcohol, fatty amine and glycerol. These basic oleochemicals could be used without further treatment or they could be processed further for the purpose of purification and improving functionality, and then formulated with other ingredients into finished products. The industries, however, are challenged with the growing concern on safety, toxicity and eco-toxicity level, biodegradability profile and hence marketability of the products and new technologies developed. While Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB)’s R & D focused on developing various oleochemicals derivatives, the method to assess the environmental impact of the production of these products are also being looked into together with process feasibility and technology viability study. With a complete entity comprises of laboratories, facilities and expertise, MPOB can now assist Malaysian manufacturers/exporters to establish a complete dataset on biodegradation, ecotoxicity and life cycle assessment (LCA) to facilitate the market access of their products and ensure conformation to regulation set by importing countries.