Originally published October 16 2005
German consultant says palm oil biodiesel has more potential for longevity
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Wolgang Rupilius, a consultant from Germany, says that biodiesel based on palm oil is more likely to stand up to certain conditions than biodiesel based on canola oil, the Malaysian National News Agency reports, but opponents of the oil fear harvesting it could seriously damage the habitat of orangutans.
Biodiesel based on palm oil would have higher chances of survival under certain conditions compared with biodiesel based on canola oil or rapeseed, a consultant from Germany, Wolgang Rupilius said Wednesday.
He said that although currently canola oil based biodiesel is the fastest growing oleo chemicals product, this development is largely artificial, since it is based on the tax exemption for biodiesel.
He said that studies have shown that in order to produce one tonne of canola oil based biodiesel, 1.2 tonnes of fossil fuel had to be used but that is not the case for palm oil.
He pointed out that producing palm oil based biodiesel is much more cheaper, and "if you have a free economy, European biodiesel producers will stop buying canola oil and rape seed oil and instead start buying palm oil."
"Hence, I am sure some kind of restrictions will come or otherwise palm oil will take over completely the biodiesel market in Europe, which would not be accepted by the biodiesel producers and population in Europe," he said.
Rupilius said that the cost to produce one tonne of palm oil based biodiesel is between 150 to 200 euros but rape seed would cost between 500 and 600 euros.
The alternatives are either to look into cheaper raw materials or to produce methyl ester for the chemical industry using their current facility, he said.
He said that the production of methyl ester sulfonates (MES) has a large potential, since the alternative petrochemical raw material alkyl benzene is today more expensive at around US$1,300 (US$1 = RM3.76) per metric tonne than the palm based methyl ester.
The lowest cost raw material for the manufacture of MES is hydrogenated palm stearins methly ester, which is between US$500 and US$600 per metric tonne.
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