Palm kernel oil

Palm kernel oil is an edible plant oil derived from the kernel of the oil palm Elaeis guineensis. It should not be confused with the other two edible oils derived from palm fruits: coconut oil, extracted from the kernel of the coconut, and palm oil, extracted from the pulp of the oil palm fruit.

Palm kernel oil, coconut oil, and palm oil are three of the few highly saturated vegetable fats. Palm kernel oil, which is semi-solid at room temperature, is more saturated than palm oil and comparable to coconut oil. Like all vegetable oils, these three palm-derived oils do not contain cholesterol (found in unrefined animal fats), although saturated fat intake increases both LDL and HDL cholesterol.

Palm kernel oil is a common cooking ingredient; its increasing use in the commercial food industry throughout the world is buoyed by its lower cost, the high oxidative stability (saturation) of the refined product when used for frying, and its lack of cholesterol and trans fatty acids, both viewed as being heart-healthy attributes.

History

Oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis)

Oil from the African oil palm Elaeis guineensis has long been recognized in West African countries. European merchants trading with West Africa occasionally purchased palm kernel oil for use in Europe, but since the oil was bulky and cheap, palm kernel oil remained rare outside West Africa. In the Asante Confederacy, state-owned slaves built large plantations of oil palm trees, while in the neighbouring Kingdom of Dahomey, King Ghezo passed a law in 1856 forbidding his subjects from cutting down oil palms.

Palm kernel oil became a highly sought-after commodity by British traders, for use as an industrial lubricant for machinery during Britain's Industrial Revolution. Oil from the oil palm formed the basis of soap products, such as Lever Brothers' (now Unilever) "Sunlight soap", and the American Palmolive brand. By c. 1870, palm kernel oil constituted the primary export of some West African countries such as Ghana and Nigeria, although this was overtaken by cocoa in the 1880s.

In December 2006, the Malaysian government initiated merger of Sime Darby Berhad, Golden Hope Plantations Berhad and Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad to create the world’s largest listed oil palm plantation player. In a landmark deal valued at RM31 billion, the merger involved the businesses of eight listed companies controlled by Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF). A special purpose vehicle, Synergy Drive Sdn Bhd, offered to acquire all the businesses including assets and liabilities of the eight listed companies. With 543,000 hectares of plantation landbank, the merger resulted in the new oil palm plantation entity that could produce 2.5 million tonnes of palm oil or 5% of global production in 2006. A year later, the merger completed and the entity was renamed Sime Darby Berhad.

The USDA has published historical production figures for palm kernel oil for years beginning October 1 and ending September 30:

Year	Production, Million Tonne
2005/06	4.40
2006/07	4.48
2007/08	4.90
2008/09	5.00

Research

In the 1960s, research and development (R&D) in oil palm breeding began to expand after Malaysia's Department of Agriculture established an exchange program with West African economies and four private plantations formed the Oil Palm Genetics Laboratory. The government also established Kolej Serdang, which became the Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM) in the 1970s to train agricultural and agro-industrial engineers and agro-business graduates to conduct research in the field.

In 1979, following strong lobbying from oil palm planters and support from the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) and UPM, the government set up the Palm Oil Research Institute of Malaysia (Porim). B.C. Sekhar was instrumental in Porim's recruitment and training of scientists to undertake R&D in oil palm tree breeding, oil palm nutrition and potential oleochemical use. Sekhar, as founder and chairman, strategised Porim to be a public-and-private-coordinated institution. As a result, Porim (renamed Malaysian Palm Oil Board in 2000) became Malaysia's top research entity with the highest technology commercialisation rate of 20% compared to 5% among local universities. While MPOB has gained international prominence, its relevance is dependent on it churning out breakthrough findings in the world's fast-changing oil crop genetics, dietary fat nutrition and process engineering landscape.

Nutrition

Many processed foods contain palm kernel oil as an ingredient.

Palm kernel oil is composed of fatty acids, esterified with glycerol just like any ordinary fat. It is high in saturated fatty acids, about 80%. The oil palm gives its name to the 16-carbon saturated fatty acid palmitic acid found in palm kernel oil, palm oil, and coconut oil.

Further information: [[:palmitic acid]]

The approximate concentration of fatty acids (FAs) in palm kernel oil is as follows:

Fatty acid content of palm kernel oil Type of fatty acid pct Lauric saturated C12   48.2% Myristic saturated C14   16.2% Palmitic saturated C16   8.4% Capric saturated C10   3.4% Caprylic saturated C8   3.3% Stearic saturated C18   2.5% Oleic monounsaturated C18   15.3% Linoleic polyunsaturated C18   2.3% Other/Unknown   0.4% red: Saturated; orange: Monounsaturated; blue: Polyunsaturated

Uses

Splitting of oils and fats by hydrolysis, or under basic conditions saponification, yields fatty acids, with glycerin (glycerol) as a byproduct. The split-off fatty acids are a mixture ranging from C4 to C18, depending on the type of oil/fat.

Resembling coconut oil, palm kernel oil is packed with myristic and lauric fatty acids and therefore suitable for the manufacture of soaps, washing powders and personal care products. Lauric acid is very important in soap making. A good soap must contain at least 15 per cent laurate for quick lathering, while soap made for use in sea water is based on virtually 100 per cent laurate.

Derivatives of palmitic acid were used in combination with naphtha during World War II to produce napalm (aluminum naphthenate and aluminum palmitate).

Biodiesel, biomass and biogas

Palm kernel oil, like other vegetable oils, can be used to create biodiesel for internal combustion engines. Biodiesel has been promoted as a renewable energy source to reduce net emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Therefore, biodiesel is seen as a way to decrease the impact of the greenhouse effect and as a way of diversifying energy supplies to assist national energy security plans.

Palm is also used to make biodiesel, as either a simply-processed palm kernel oil mixed with petrodiesel, or processed through transesterification to create a palm kernel oil methyl ester blend, which meets the international EN 14214 specification, with glycerin as a byproduct. The actual process used to make biodiesel around the world varies between countries, and the requirements of different export markets. Next-generation biofuel production processes are also being tested in relatively small trial quantities.

The IEA predicts that biofuels usage in Asian countries will remain modest. But as a major producer of palm kernel oil, the Malaysian government is encouraging the production of biofuel feedstock and the building of biodiesel plants that use palm kernel oil. Domestically, Malaysia is preparing to change from diesel to bio-fuels by 2008, including drafting legislation that will make the switch mandatory. From 2007, all diesel sold in Malaysia must contain 5% oil palm oil. Malaysia is emerging as one of the leading biofuel producers, with 91 plants approved and a handful now in operation, all based on oil palm oil.

On 16 December 2007, Malaysia opened its first biodiesel plant in the state of Pahang, which has an annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes, and also produces byproducts in the form of 4,000 tonnes of palm fatty acid distillate and 12,000 tonnes of pharmaceutical grade glycerine. Neste Oil of Finland plans to produce 800,000 tonnes of biodiesel per year from Malaysian palm oil in a new Singapore refinery from 2010, which will make it the largest biofuel plant in the world, and 170,000 tpa from its first second-generation plant in Finland from 2007-8, which can refine fuel from a variety of sources. Neste and the Finnish government are using this paraffinic fuel in some public buses in the Helsinki area as a small scale pilot.

Regardless of these new innovations, first generation biodiesel production from oil palm is still in demand globally. Oil palm producers are investing heavily in the refineries needed for biodiesel. In Malaysia, companies have been merging, buying others out and forming alliances to obtain the economies of scale needed to handle the high costs caused by increased feedstock prices. New refineries are being built across Asia and Europe.

As the food vs. fuel debate mounts, research direction is turning to biodiesel production from waste. In Malaysia, an estimated 50,000 tonnes of used frying oils, both vegetable oils and animal fats, are disposed of yearly without treatment as wastes. In a 2006 study, researchers found used frying oil (mainly palm olein), after pretreatment with silica gel, is a suitable feedstock for conversion to methyl esters by catalytic reaction using sodium hydroxide. The methyl esters produced have fuel properties comparable to those of petroleum diesel, and can be used in unmodified diesel engines.

Market

According to Hamburg-based Oil World trade journal, global production of oils and fats in 2008 stood at 160 million tonnes. Palm kernel oil and palm oil were jointly the largest contributor, accounting for 48 million tonnes or 30% of the total output. Soybean oil came in second with 37 million tonnes (23%). About 38% of the oils and fats produced in the world were shipped across oceans. Of the 60.3 million tonnes of oils and fats exported around the world, palm oil and palm kernel oil make up close to 60%; Malaysia, with 45% of the market share, dominates the palm oil trade.

Colombia

In the 1960s, about 18,000 hectares were planted with palm. Colombia has now become the largest palm oil producer in the Americas, and 35% of its product is exported as biofuel. In 2006, the Colombian plantation owners' association, Fedepalma, reported oil palm cultivation was expanding to a million hectares. This expansion is being funded, in part, by the United States Agency for International Development to resettle disarmed paramilitary members on arable land, and by the Colombian government, which proposes to expand land use for exportable cash crops to 7m hectares by 2020, including oil palms. However, while Fedepalma states that its members are following sustainable guidelines, there have been claims that some of these new plantations have been appropriated on land owned by Afro-Colombians driven away through poverty and civil war, while armed guards intimidate the remaining people to depopulate the land, while coca production and trafficking follows in their wake.

Other producers

Benin

Palm is native to the wetlands of western Africa, and south Benin already hosts many palm plantations. Its government's 'Agricultural Revival Programme' has identified many thousands of hectares of land as suitable for new oil palm plantations to be grown as an export crop. In spite of the economic benefits, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), such as Nature Tropicale, claim that this policy is flawed, because biofuels will be competing with domestic food production in some existing prime agricultural sites. Other areas comprise peat land, whose drainage would have a deleterious environmental impact. They are also concerned genetically-modified plants will be introduced for the first time into the region, jeopardizing the current premium paid for their non-GM crops.

Kenya

Kenya's domestic production of edible oils covers about a third of its annual demand, estimated at around 380,000 metric tonnes. The rest is imported at a cost of around US$140 million a year, making edible oil the country's second most important import after petroleum. Since 1993, a new hybrid variety of cold-tolerant, high-yielding oil palm has been promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in western Kenya. As well as alleviating the country's deficit of edible oils while providing an important cash crop, it is claimed to have environmental benefits in the region, as it does not compete against food crops or native vegetation, and it provides stabilisation for the soil.

Ghana

Ghana has a lot of palm nut vegetation, which can be built into a sector of its own within the agricultural sector of the Black Star region. Although Ghana has palm trees of different species, ranging from local palm nuts to other species locally called agric, it is only marketed within the nation locally and other neighbouring countries. Because of low funds and other economic constraints, the local farmers and traders are finding it hard to cope, but it is lucrative.

See also

• Tropical agriculture
• Food vs. fuel

External links

• Palm Oil - Production, Consumption, Exports, and Imports Statistics by Country
• Blood on the Palms: Afro-Colombians fight new plantations by David Bacon, July/August 2007 Dollars & Sense