Dear Mr Ghazali, Palm srearin is produced by fractionation of PO and its IV is hardly ever below 28. To produce IV below that, the stearin is hydrogenated. And IV1 is used to poduce so called bypass fats for cows. They are claimed to enhance milk yields. Regards, FP (29.01.2011)

Dear Mr Banik, For the reasons for the high PO prices, please see Q&A 1033. Re your other 2 questions: 1) I have no experience of shipping, but I expect the voyage time Malaysia/India will be about 1 week.2) Forecasting prices is impossible, but I do not think veg.oil prices will come down much again, except for occasional short periods. The trend will be strongly upwards. A very high- powered study just completed by the UK government, involving hundreds of top economists, has concluded that the era of cheap food is over and in the next 40 years prices will rise by another 50%- 100% in real terms, ie before we allow for inflation.There are only 31mln sq.km of arable land on the Earth and there is a limit to the number of people it will feed, especially when we keep destroying it as well. Reards, FP (26.01.2011)

Dear Mr Lau, I see you are a person of few words, but as you will appreciate, the less information you give me the less information I am able to give you.1) Assuming you will judge the shelf life by taste, and you mean the time from packing the oil to the time it reaches the end user, I would say 6- 12 months for PO and 3- 6 months for SBO, in full, sealed, containers in the dark. But it depends hugely on the initial quality of the oil, packaging, storage conditions and the standard of acceptability you set. 2) You can determine storage life by testing a few batches at 3 month intervals Regards, FP (26.01.2011)

Dear Mr Rubanga, It is true that the price of PO has been going up steeply since July last year, like all the other oils and fats and agricultural commodities, wheat,corn etc. Unlike you, I have been wondering why it took them so long. World population is rising, the amount of arable land is falling, increases in yields are slowing down, we have had the effects El Nina, floods in SE Asia and droughts in S.America and we are burning ever more food for fuel. Added to that is the rapid economic progress of the developing countries with consequent greater consumption of food, especially meat, which needs much more land to produce. But I think what gave it the final kick start has been the printing of dollars in the US by the trillion. Internationally, commodities are traded in dollars and this is the effect. Regards, FP (21.01.2011)

Dear Mr Deepak, The latest estimates are that Nigeria uses about 1.3mln. tonnes of PO annually, of which about 1/3rd is imported and the tend is rising. This is a strange situation, when we remember there was a time when she exported more PO than Malaysia. Regards, FP (19.01.2011)

Dear Mr Farkhan, Your question is about speciality fats, a very sensitive subject and most things connected with them are protected by patents. But my answer to you is yes, you can use a solvent. Regards, FP (19.01.2011)

Dear Mr Noor, There are many PO producing countries and they have different regulations. Only a mill manager or perhaps a commercial lawyer in a particular country can tell you for sure. But I have never head of any country where a fee enterprise factory cannot buy its raw materials from any willing seller. Of course they may well prefer, for convenience, to buy from intermediaries but that is a different matter. Regards, FP . (19.01.2011)

Dear Mr Gardemann, This is a quite common question and unfortunately the answer is "no". I have tested this for Malaysian prices over a 12-yr period with proper statistical tests and could find no significant difference. The outlook for the other oils and changes in imports from some big countries interfere too much. Also the peak and trough seasons are known and taken into account and the sellers are rich experienced plantations which can store the oil and play the market very well. Regards, FP (17.01.2011)

Dear Mr Dennis, You are quite correct, the price of PKO is usually much higher than that of PO and like most things about prices this has to do with supply and demand. Lauric oils have some unique properties for confectionery, soap and oleochemicals impossible to replace by any of the other oils. And yet there are only two of them. viz PKO and CNO with a combined output of only 9 mln.tonnes, while PO alone stands at 49 mln.tonnes. The price relationship between PKO and CNO some times reverses and it is a good idea for manufacturers to have alternative formulas ready to take advantage of it. Regards, FP (16.01.2011)

Dear Mr Nilesh, Your questions require too much space to answer. Briefly, the palm tree produces palm fruit which is pressed to give CPO. The CPO is then fractionated to give olein and stearin, and these are then refined to give the RBD oils, with PFAD as by-product. The specification values you mentioned are as agreed between buyers and sellers and there is no international law fixing them. You must ask your supplier to give you his. Regards, FP (13.01.2011)

Dear Mr Fathiah, The big enemies of oil are temperature, time and air and sunlight.. Minimise your oil exposure to them and you will be OK. Regards, FP (13.01.2011)

Dear Mr Amir, If you are superfatting the neat soap with fatty acids before extruding it as noodles, then that is your answer. Other wise, all I can think of is that it must be something else of acidic nature you are adding. Regards, FP (13.01.2011)

Dear Mr Suraya, For the MW of PO, please see Q1021. It is the same for both crude and RBD. As regards the need for blending, diesel engines have been designed to use petro diesel and their tolerance of biodiesel varies with type, size, hoses, filters etc. No doubt engines can be designed to run on 100% biodiesel but at present, most engine manufacturers say their guarantees are only valid for up to 5% biodiesel, others go to 10%. The MPOB say they have had taxis running on pure biodiesel for many years. The problem in Malaysia is that CPO is more expensive than petroleum and also petro diesel receives a government subsidy, which increases the price difference at the pump.. That is why the companies that have applied and got licences to build some very big biodiesel plants have not done so. Regards, FP (13.01.2011)

Dear Mr Aizu, Palm oil is a mixture of triglycerides and strictly speaking we should be referring to its average molecular weight which will be different from one batch to another and the possible range is quite wide. You can calculate it accurately for your own stock from its fatty acid composition. With the above caution, the best average figure I can give you is 842. The MW is related to the Sap Value which is important in soap making and accounts for many of the problems they have. Regards FP (13.01.2011)

Dear Mr Suraj, We do not advise people how to start their business or where to find supplies. Please read what it says at the top of this page. Regards, FP (10.01.2011)

Dear Amir, A proper answer to your question would require me to have an accurate analysis of your soap. Most important is how much excess sodium hydroxide is present and how much superfatting agent you add. But in theory, and assuming you do it correctly, lauric acid will have the best lathering properties but be the most irritating to sensitive skins too, if you overdo it. Regards, FP (09.01.2011)

Dear Mr Hooe, This is a very specialised question related to the profitability of your process and I can only advise you on a private consultation basis. Regards, FP (08.01.2011)

Dear Mr Yennan, I hope you are not a chemist, because you are using some terribly lose language. The correct term is iodine value (IV) and not iodine content (biscuits do not contain any iodine). Then I suppose what you want to find is the IV of the fat in the biscuit and not that of the biscuit itself. If so, you first have to extract the fat from the biscuits and then determine its IV. For both operations you better follow recognised international methods such as those of the American Oil Chemists Society. Regards, FP (07.01.2011)

Dear Mr Ogwo, Storage temperature will have a very strong effect on the PV, very small effect on the FFA, and AV (acid value) and none on the IV. and sap. value.I do not know if by AV you mean acid value or anisidine value and now you see that when you write you must imagine yourself in the position of the person you are addressing. Regards, FP (06.01.2011)

Dear Mr Banerjee, Yields vary in different countries, in small farms and big plantations, with different varieties of palm etc. Unfortunately, the data I have are not for disclosure freely to the whole world. Regards, FP (05.01.2011)