Palm Kernel Oil

About This Product

As an oleochemical feedstock, palm kernel oil is bought for one reason: chain length. It is pressed from the kernel of the fruit of Elaeis guineensis, and the distinction from palm oil, which comes from the surrounding mesocarp, is not a labelling detail but a different raw material with a different carbon distribution. Crude grade suits processes with their own refining; RBD where colour and free fatty acid must be controlled at the inlet.

The chain distribution is what the converter is buying. Roughly half the fatty acids are lauric at twelve carbons, with myristic at fourteen making up most of the remainder and only a small unsaturated fraction. Coconut oil is the only commodity substitute, and the two trade against each other. Low unsaturation gives a low iodine value, so the feed is stable in heated storage and consumes little hydrogen when hardened. The high saponification value reflects short chains: more carboxyl groups per tonne.

Conversion runs in three directions. Splitting gives lauric and myristic fatty acids for distillation into narrow cuts. Hydrogenation of the methyl esters gives C12 to C14 fatty alcohols, the precursors to sodium lauryl and laureth sulfate. Direct saponification gives lauric soap noodles. Alkanolamides, betaines and esterquats trace back to the same chains.

Bio Green Oleo supplies crude and RBD palm kernel oil in flexitanks, ISO tanks, drums and bulk parcels, with RSPO segregated, mass balance or book and claim certification available.