Winter-grade palm oil-based biodiesel

Only three of Malaysia’s dozens of planned biodiesel plants has been licensed by the government to produce fuel that can withstand winter temperatures in Europe and North Asia, a Malaysian government official said in November. Plants producing about 180,000 tons a year of special “Winter Grade” biodiesel, which remains in liquid form as low as minus 21º Celsius, will be in operation by mid-2007, Michael Dosim Lunjew, secretary general for the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities, said. But analysts say failure to upgrade more of Malaysia’s 52 planned palm oil-based biodiesel plants to meet sub-zero standards may dampen producers’ hopes of breaking into the big consuming markets in Europe, Japan and North America. (November 3, 2006)