In 2009, Malaysian mills produced 27 000 t of PSO. The PSO collected from local palm oil mills has a high free fatty acid (FFA) content of up to 80% wt. PSO is normally sold at a discounted price relative to CPO and is exported to Third World countries for making soap. The typical properties of PSO are its dark colour, bad odour and solid form at 25C. MPOB has developed a refining technology to deodorize and decolourize PSO in order to upgrade this material. Figure 1 shows a sample of the (a) crude slufe oil, (b) refined PSO oil and (c) PSO distillate. The refined PSO can also be used as an alternative boiler fuel and as a cheaper raw material for biodiesel production. The very short-chain acids recovered from the refining process of PSO can even be esteried to produce high-grade perfume.

Main Research: Nur Sulihatimarsyila Abd Wafti