Dear Mr Bhatt, It is not wise to abbreviate the names of plant equipment as they are rarely used and the meaning is doubtful. There is no correlation between the performance of an earth in one oil and its performane in another. Different earths perform differently and you must test such matters by experiment. If your filters are blocking quickly you must be leaving too much soap in your oil. Wash it better. Regards, FP (01.12.2009)

Dear Mr Putter, The dioxin levels in Malaysian PFAD have been erratic, some reasonable and some very high. As far as I know only MPOB have been doing any research on the problem and I have not yet seen any report from them. I doubt if the bleaching earth could be the cause because nearly all the refineries there are using the same Malaysian material. Regards, FP (27.11.2009)

Dear Mr Gunturi, The only way you can increase them is to mix the olein with mineral diesel or convert it to methyl ester. Regards, FP (25.11.2009)

Dear Mr Guntum, This page is for simple questions of general interest. Your question I can only answer on a private consultation basis. Regards, FP (25.11.2009)

Dear Mr Khetawat, I regret your question is inadmissible. Regards, FP (25.11.2009)

Dear Mr Pawar, For future price estimates I would have to do many calculations on supplies. demand, economic situation etc and I would charge you a fee. Here I can only give you historical prices for any major oil. Regards, FP (25.11.2009)

Dear Mr Sawy, Your plan seems good to me. The EU is a very good market for both PKO and PK meal (PKM). Her imports are standing at 680,000T PKO and 2.6 mill.T PKM annually. For finding buyers you either have to search all the trade publications you can find, ask around etc, Realistically the best way is to advertise, eg here, or pay a consultant to give you some addresses and possibly comments on those customers. Such costs will be trivial compared with your total investment. Regards, FP (25.11.2009)

Dear Mr Guntum, There are different processes for the production of biodiesel and to describe even one of them in detail would need several pages. As for costs and prices we do not discuss these subjects here. The only prices I can discuss are past average annual or monthly prices of oils and fats, as published in reputable trade journals. Regards, FP (25.11.2009)

Dear Mr Mehmood, The induction period of RBDPO is about 50 hrs at 100C (Rancimat), but it depends entirely on the quality of the CPO and the how well the refining processes have been carried out. Of course you can increase that value by adding antioxidants but the induction period at 100C does not translate well into shelf life at room temperature, which is mostly what is needed. Regards, FP (18.11.2009)

Dear Mr Fred, I think your idea is good, but here we deal with the technology and sometimes the economics of PO, not how a company can overcome its business problems. Regards, FP (19.11.2009)

Dear Mr Javiya, I note that you want to put up a small PO refinery and that you also want to import palm olein, but what is your question? You may like to learn how to spell olein before you import it and note that the word colobration is not English and I do not know what it means. `Regards FP (17.11.2009)

Dear Mr Jemal, Ethiopia's consumption of oils and fats is the lowest I have seen recorded for any country. Her own production is extremely small and she relies mostly on imported PO. Provided the country's GDP improves, PO imports should increase rapidly and your plans to enter this trade seem to be soundly based. As for how to do it, you should find the address of a Malaysian producer or trader and write to them. Be careful to give them all the information they will need, to sound business like and know what you want. . If you cannot find any addresses I can give you some privately and also check and improve your letter to them, for for a small fee. Regards, FP (16.11.2009)

Dear Ms Ivannova, Yes, it is possible to produce soya lecithin using just one reaction vessel and a centrifuge, the process is called degumming. The necessary plant is a cylindrical vessel with conical bottom, heating coil, provision for open steam input and a vertical stirrer. Then a centrifuge, a storage tank to receive the degummed oil and another one with conical or sloping bottom (preferably vertical cylindrical tank) and heating coil for the separated lecithin. Lecithin is very viscous. After degumming you can neutralise the oil using similar plant. But these are batch processes and unless your cvapacity is small, it would be better to install continuous processes, for which you better contact one of the experienced international designers/ installers. Regards FP (13.11.2009)

Dear Ms Melissa, It is more correct to say that the FFA is a measure of hydrolysis and the PV is a measure of oxidation that has taken place. Rancidity on the other hand is the unpleasant painty odour oils get after some oxidation. At that point oils will have higher PV values but the values will differ according to conditions and type of use. Thus fresh RBDPO from a refinery may be rejected at FFA 0.2% and PV 2 while CPO from a trader may be acceptable at FFA 5% and PV5. In brief, you should decide rancidity by smell and then produce the FFA and PV figures confirming that they are higher than the industry norm or use them guidancedane in the future. Regards, FP (12.11.2009)

Dear Mr Loong, In the oils and fats trade, impurities are called those tiny solid particles which are removed by filtration. If you produce FA by high pressure steam splitting, then any impurities in them can only have come from your feedstock. So either buy better feedstock or filter what you buy before splitting.it. Regards, FP (11.11.2009)

Dear Miss Roy, I have great sympathy with your cause but unfortunately I do not know anything in particular about the harm oil palm plantations have been doing to tigers. My involvement with plantations has been after the jungle had been cleared. To my knowledge tigers are mostly in the jungles of India a country producing very little PO. The animal most affected by PO has been the oragudang, but of course biodiversity is hugely damaged as millions of animals and thousands of species are wiped out. I suggest you contact the embassies of India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brazil in your country, the director of the Malaysian PO Promotion Council Dr Yussof Basiron and especially the Friends of the Earth Organisation. Bear in mind that except for the last one, all the others have vested interests and will fiercely defend the actions of their industries and countries. Best luck and regards, FP (19.11.2009)

Dear Mr Smith, Yes, there seems to be an unending demand for vegetable oils and most businesses are lucrative if you run them well and quick ways to bankruptcy if you run them badly. Regards, FP (19.11.2009)

Dear Mr Smith, A good way to find buyers would be to put an advertisement here, which will be seen by thousands of people interested in PO and tropical oils. Regards, FP (19.11.2009)

Dear Mr Ramkumar, It is still unclear to me what it is you want to do. If you want to produce biodiesel (ie methyl ester) from palm olein you have to employ the standard chemical process called esterification. If you want to use use the palm olein itself instead of biodiesel you just mix it with standard diesel fuel and the greater the proportion of this is in the the mixture the greater its flammability will be. However this is against the engine manufacturers advice and they know what they are talking about.You cannot make the flammability of olein equal to that of petrol and petrol is not used in diesel engines. Regards, FP (08.11.2009)

Dear Mr Som, Your question is too technical, too specialised and needs a complicated answer. I can only deal with it on a private consultation basis. Regards, FP (18.11.2009)