There are many types of industrial cleaning agents available in the market. For example, degreasers, cleaners, ink removers, paint strippers and numerous other industrial solventbased products. However, most of theconventional cleaning agents are derived from petroleum. They posed environment and safety problems in the course of their applications. Since the enactment of the Clean Air Act 1990 (Environmental Protection Agency, USA), many conventional chlorinated, fluorocarbon and petroleum industrial solvents have been regulated out of market applications. Thus, there is a need and demand for an environment friendly cleaning agent, which is biodegradable and safe to be used in short-and long-term. In this respect, research efforts to expand palm oil utilization as well as to find new uses of palm oil and palm oil products have brought to the development of palm-based cleaning agent.

Main Research: Dr Choo Yuen May