Palm Biodiesel Pilot Plant

The construction of MPOB/PETRONAS palm biodiesel pilot plant commenced in 1984 and was launched by the then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Mahathir in 1985. The pilot plant is  capable of producing palm biodiesel from various feedstock with free fatty acids (FFA) content up to 30%. The plant comprises esterification, transesterification, methanol recovery, neutralization and drying sections. Palm biodiesel produced was subjected to exhaustive field trials in collaboration with Mercedes Benz, Germany using commercial diesel vehicles from 1986 to 1994. To date, MPOB palm biodiesel technology has been successfully commercialized in Malaysia and several other countries with plants’ capacity ranging from 60,000 to 120,000 tonnes per annum.