Dear Mr Swanepoel, I am not sure I understand your question properly. With palm you have two options. Either PO which is solid at room temperature, like butter, lard, etc, or palm olein which is semi-liquid. Both need heating to melt them completely and pump them around the factory. In any case, for biodiesel production all oils have to be heated before reaction with methanol and catalyst. But if you have not used PO before please bear in mind that the biodiesel from it will have a much higher cloud point, CFPP etc. Regards, FP (08.09.2009)

Dear Mr Stalone, I am sorry I could not decipher your abbreviation MOQ and neither is it given in this site's very extensive list of abbreviations. Please also note we are not sellers of any oil and I cannot understand how you got that impression. Regards, FP (31.08.2009)

Dear Mr Ganesh, These values are not recorded any where and are not normally measured. In fact I do not think you would get a meaningful reading from them because FA do not ionise and are not good conductors of electricity. But your question implies you have a pH meter, and so why not try it? Regards, FP (31.08.2009)

Dear Mr Rao, It is a very common mistake buyers make, but it is not good practice to give a long specification of an oil to a supplier and ask him to tailor make it specially for you. Specialities cost too much. You should instead tell the supplier the purpose of the oil and ask him to supply his best standard quality for it. Many oils and blends are suitable You should test them in your laboratory and plant to see which one you prefer. Regards, FP (31.08.2009)

Dear Mr Anand, The operating conditions and design of the fractionation plant do affect the olein yield. Experienced plant constructors know the best conditions for their plants and guarantee their yields. But there is no formula for predicting yields from engineering variables. Regards, FP (31.08.2009)

Dear Ms Joan, PO is available in many quality grades. The usual edible grade is RBDPO i.e. refined, bleached and deodorised. It has virtually no acidity, no odour and very little colour. Bleached PO (BPO) has only been bleached (partially) and so contains all the acidity, the odour and most of the colour of the CPO. The colour is mostly beta carotene, a vitamin A precursor. Note hoever, that few people in the developed countries have vitamin A deficiency and too much of it can be harmful. But some tribes in Africa are very deficient. Regards, FP (28.08.2009)

Dear Mr Azhar, The easiest way to remember these things is that when a molecule of triglyceride is hydrolysed it gives 3 molecules of fatty acids and one molecule of glycerol. But glycerol is a trihydric alcohol and needs 3 molecules of water to form. This is your answer. Regards, FP (28.08.2009)

Dear Mr Ganesh The viscosity of lecithin lies in a very wide range of 100 to 500 poises at 30C, depending on its source, FFA, oil content, temperature etc As for gum, there are dozens of different ones and you have not mentioned which one you mean. Regards, FP (27.08.2009)

Dear Mr Patil, The heat of crystallisation of PO is about 30 cal/g. and you cannot calculate it. You can determine it e.g. by differential scanning calorimetry. I do not understand your last question as you have not given me any information on the size of crystalliser you have in mind and what exactly you want to do with it. Regards, FP (27.08.2009)

Dear Mr Iboi, I would suggest that the first thing your brother would have to do is to calculate if he has enough capital to establish the plantation, buy the required equipment and then live for 3-4 years until he gets any crop to sell.Then he would be well advised to get a job in a small plantation and work there long enough to learn all aspects of the job. Regards, FP (23.08.2009)

Dear Mr Kiran, Basically price forecasting of a particular oil depends on supply/demand dynamics. The supply depends on opening stocks and production while the demand depends primarily on the supply of competing oils, world population, GDP per ca, economic activity etc. In recent years the price of petroleum and subsidies to the biofuel industry have also become very important. Many organisations such as the MPOB and universities employ economists and powerful computer programs to do some mind boggling calculations, but their record has been very poor. Some so called experts rely on nothing more than hunch. For PO I have developed my own simple mathematical equations which I have back tested over the last 17 years with quite good results, but of course past success is no guarantee of future success. Regards, FP (26.08.2009)

Dear Mr Shankar, To covert the FFA of CPO (as palmitic) to acid value, multiply by 2.2. For other oils the factor is differebt. Regards, FP (26.08.2009)

Dear Mr Kiran, Palm Stearin (PS) is the harder fraction of PO and it is usually available in two grades: Crude (CPS) and refined, bleached, deodorised (RBDPS) The colour of CPS is not normally specified but it is deep orange/red. The colour of RBDPS is usually max 3Red in 51/4 inch Lovibond cell (PORAM standard). Regards, FP (18.08.2009)

Dear Mr Ngassa, I can only advise you further on a private consultation basis. If you are interested please contact me at: frankpantzaris@yahoo.co.uk. Regards, FP (26.08.2009)

Dear Mr Mukesh, It is best to chose fat products after practical tests and not from specifications. For croissants what is mostly used is puff pastry margarine which gives high volume but leaves a waxy taste in the mouth. Terrible when eaten cold. Cake margarine gives lower volume but much better taste. Best tasting of all is butter. I suggest you find a margarine brand you like and get its specification from its manufacturers. Regards, FP (26.08.2009)

Dear Mr Kumar, I understand you want to know about oil palm cultivation, but you have not asked any specific question. If you have no knowledge of the subject I advise you to read one or two simple practical books on it and then spend some time at an oil palm farm to see how things are done. Regards, FP (25.08.2009)

Dear Mr Antony, The principle of the method is that you split the soap with acid, wash it, dry it and weigh what is left. For the details you must consult a book on soap analysis or buy a copy of the method from AOCS. But everything from AOCS is expensive. Regards, FP (24.08.2009)

Dear Mr Afiq, I am surprised that a student could think that questions such as yours could be answered here in a few lines. I suggest you contact MPOB in Selangor, or one of your large refiners. Regards, FP (24.08.2009)

Dear Mr Reed, Thank you for your offer but I have now reached retirement age and part time consultancies is all I can consider. Regards, FP (24.08.2009)

Dear Mr Alsubai, Please read the notes at the top of this page. Regards, FP (24.08.2009)