Sustainable Approaches to Palm Oil Fractionation
Palm oil is the most widely produced, consumed, and globally traded vegetable oil. It is extracted from the fruit of Elaeis Guineensis, a crop cultivated primarily in tropical regions, particularly in Southeast Asia, West Africa, and parts of Latin America. Its unique chemical properties, cost-effectiveness, and high yield have made it essential across a wide array of industries, including food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and renewable energy. In the food industry, palm oil is valued for its semi-solid consistency, long shelf life, and neutral flavor, making it a common ingredient in baked goods, confectioneries, margarines, and more.
Approximately 50% of all packaged consumer products worldwide contain fractionated palm oil or its derivatives. Its prevalence is similarly substantial in the cosmetics and personal care industries, with palm-derived ingredients found in an estimated 70% of products, including skincare formulations, hair care items, and other cosmetics due to its stabilizing and texturizing qualities.
Beyond everyday consumer goods, palm oil has become increasingly important in the renewable energy sector, particularly in biodiesel production. Indonesia and Malaysia, which together account for over 80% of global palm oil production, have formally integrated palm-based biofuels into their national energy strategies. Indonesia has planned to introduce a B40 mandate, requiring a 40% palm oil blend in biodiesel, while Malaysia has implemented B10 and B7 mandates for transportation and industrial use, respectively. Keep reading to explore how this vital global commodity is produced, its potential future development, and how it can be more sustainably accessible.
Palm Oil Leads Global Market with Highest Yield
Palm oil represents the largest share of the global vegetable oil market, driven by its exceptional yield efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and broad industrial applicability. It is the most economically- and land-efficient oil crop, supplying 40% of the world’s vegetable oil demand while occupying less than 6% of the land used to produce all vegetable oils. It is also the most productive oil crop, producing approximately 3.30 tonnes of oil per hectare, significantly outperforming alternatives such as soybean (0.46 tonnes/hectare), sunflower (0.66 tonnes/hectare), and rapeseed (1.33 tonnes/hectare). This high productivity underpins its widespread cultivation and integration into global supply chains. Additionally, beyond its high yield, further key characteristics contribute to its dominance in the global market, such as its versatility and its range of desirable products. For instance, it is semi-solid at room temperature, making it ideal for spreads; it resists oxidation, thereby extending product shelf life; it maintains stability at high temperature, lending fried products to a desirable texture; and it is naturally odourless and colourless, which allows it to blend seamlessly into formulations without altering their appearance or flavour. Looking ahead, the global palm oil market is projected to increasingly grow and expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.3% from 2025 to 2030. This anticipated growth is supported by increasing demand in emerging economies, advancements in sustainable cultivation and processing technologies, and a growing shift toward renewable and bio-based alternatives.
Palm Oils and Their Derivatives
The palm fruit is remarkably versatile, giving rise to a range of oil derivatives. At the primary stage of processing, two distinct crude oils are extracted:
Crude Palm Oil (CPO) - derived from the mesocarp, the fleshy outer layer of the fruit.
Crude Palm Kernel Oil (CPKO) - obtained from the kernel, or the seed inside the fruit’s shell.
Each of the oils has unique chemical compositions and profiles, influencing their downstream applications. In general, crude palm oil is primarily used for edible purposes, while crude palm kernel oil mostly has applications in the oleochemical industry. Following is a broader overview:
Crude Palm Oil (CPO)
Crude Palm Oil is the unrefined oil extracted from the mesocarp of the oil palm fruit. It has a reddish-orange hue due to its high carotenoid content and is semi-solid at room temperature. Rich in saturated and mono-saturated fatty acids, CPO serves as a raw material for a wide range of refined products. Due to its strong aroma and natural impurities, CPO is rarely used directly in consumer products. Instead, it undergoes refining and fractionation to produce more stable, functional ingredients. These refined products find applications in cooking oils, margarines, food additives, and non-food uses, including in biodiesel, lubricants, detergents, and more.
Crude Palm Kernel Oil (CPKO)
Unlike crude palm oil, crude palm kernel oil is extracted from the kernel, the seed, of the palm fruit and exhibits a composition distinct from that of CPO. It is lighter in color and firmer at room temperature, with a significantly higher concentration of lauric acid. This lends it superior foaming and cleansing properties, therefore making CPKO particularly suitable for personal care products including soaps, shampoos, creams, and detergents. However, it is still refined and fractionated to tailor its properties to particular foods and industrial applications.
Refined and Processed Palm-Based Oil Products
Following extraction, both CPO and CPKO undergo refining processes known as RBD (Refining, Bleaching, and Deodorizing). This process removes free fatty acids, odors, colors, and other impurities, resulting in a stable, shelf-ready oils. Subsequently, these refined oils may be fractionated — a controlled cooling and separation technique — to produce liquid and solid fractions with specific melting points and functional properties suited to various applications.
Refined Palm Oil (RBD Palm Oil)
This refined product of crude palm oil is neutral in flavor and semi-solid at ambient temperatures. Its excellent oxidative stability makes it ideal for frying, baking, and processed food manufacturing. It is one of the most commonly used edible oils worldwide, present in snacks, spreads, sauces, baked goods, and more.
Palm Olein
Palm olein is the liquid fraction obtained through fractionation of refined palm oil. Remaining fluid at room temperature, it is the most widely used form of palm oil for household and industrial food manufacturing applications. Its high oxidative stability and cost-effectiveness make it particularly suitable for deep-frying and large-scale food processing. In cooler climates, an additional fractionation step yields super olein, a variant that remains liquid at lower temperatures. Beyond culinary uses, palm olein also functions as a base ingredient in the production of emulsifiers, margarine blends, and various other functional food components.
Palm Stearin
Palm stearin is the solid fraction left after palm oil fractionation. It has a higher melting point and firmer texture, suitable for applications requiring structure and stability such as margarines, shortenings, bakery fats, confectionary products, and more. Beyond food, palm stearin is also used in candles, soaps, and lubricants. Its high saturated fat content and oxidation resistance contribute to its long shelf life. It can be further fractionated into mid-fractions and hard stearins for specialized applications including cocoa butter equivalents (CBE), processed cheese formulations, and more.
Refined Palm Kernel Oil (RBD Palm Kernel Oil)
Obtained via RBD processing of crude palm kernel oil, this product is clean, odorless, and highly saturated with a creamy texture and long shelf life. While present in some food products, it is predominantly used in cosmetics and personal care formulations such as creams, shampoos, soaps, and more.
Palm Kernel Olein
The liquid fraction from refined palm kernel oil fractionation, palm kernel olein is lighter than palm olein and richer in medium-chain fatty acids like lauric and myristic acids, properties that impart excellent oxidative stability. It is used in specialty cooking fats, coating fats, cosmetic formulations, and can be customized for whipped toppings, confectionary fats, and personal care emulsions.
Palm Kernel Stearin
This solid fraction of refined palm kernel oil is a waxy fat that remains solid at room temperature. Known for its high melting point and stability, it is widely used in soap production, industrial lubricants, and as a structuring fat in baked goods. It can also be further modified or fractionated for specialized uses in coatings, molded chocolates, and certain pharmaceutical formulations.
In general, while the initial extraction, refining, and fractionation stages produce a wide range of valuable palm-derived products, it is the advanced fractionation processes that enable the development of highly specialized derivatives tailored to meet the needs of diverse industrial applications. To explore this further, let’s examine the process of palm oil fractionation.
Palm Oil Fractionation Methods
Palm oil fractionation is a thermo-mechanical separation technique applied after the refining stage to split fully refined oils, such as RBD palm oil and RBD palm kernel oil, into distinct liquid and solid fractions. This separation is based on the oils’ varying melting points and crystallization behaviors. The resulting fractions — fractionated palm oil, palm olein, palm stearin, fractionated palm kernel oil, palm kernel olein, and palm kernel stearin each possess unique physicochemical properties that determine their function roles across different industries, as outlined earlier. However, initial products such as palm olein and palm stearin can undergo additional fractionation steps, yielding further specialized derivatives including super olein, soft olein (MPF), super stearin, soft stearin, and more. These fractions further expand the utility of palm oil and palm kernel oil, offering refined solutions for a wide range of industrial applications. There are three common methods of palm oil fractionation.
Dry Fractionation
Dry fractionation typically involves pre-heating, cooling, crystallization, and filtration.
Pre-heating: This is the initial step where fully refined palm oil is brought to a uniform elevated temperature. In this stage, the goal is to ensure that all fat components are fully melted and the oil is homogenous, eliminating any residual crystals from previous processing or storage. This uniformity is essential to achieve controlled and reducible crystallization in the subsequent stages.
Cooling: Following pre-heating, this step involves gradually lowering the temperature of the oil under controlled conditions. This controlled cooling is critical to initiate the selective crystallization of higher-melting-point triglycerides without causing thermal shock or irregular crystal formation. The rate and final temperature of cooling are carefully regulated to influence the type and size of crystals formed, which in turn, affects the separation efficiency and quality of the resulting oil fractions.
Crystallization: In this stage, the solid fat components begin to separate from the liquid as the temperature continues to drop. During this period, the oil is typically held at a specific crystallization temperature for a defined duration to allow the high-melting-point-triglycerides, such as those found in stearin, to form well-defined crystals. Agitation is often applied to control the nucleation and growth of these crystals, ensuring that they are of a suitable size and structure for effective separation during filtration.
Filtration: Filtration is the final step where the crystallized mixture is separated into solid and liquid fractions. The mixture is passed through a filtration system, retaining the solid stearin while allowing the liquid olein to pass through. The efficiency of this separation determines the purity and yield of each fraction, and the parameters of the filtration process, such as pressure, temperature, and filtration type, are adjusted to optimize performance based on the product requirements.
Solvent Fractionation
This method involves dissolving the oil in an organic solvent, typically acetone, to selectively separate its components based on differential solubility. The mixture is cooled under controlled conditions, prompting high-melting-point triglycerides (solids) to crystallize and separate from the liquid phase. This approach allows for precise separation of hard and soft fractions, yielding pure stearin and olein components.
Surfactant Fractionation
This technique employs surfactants, surface-active agents, to influence the crystallization behavior of triglycerides during fractionation. Surfactants modify the interfacial tension and promote selective nucleation or crystal growth of specific triglyceride types, enabling better control over the formation of solid and liquid phases. This method is generally used to fine-tune the properties of the final fractions without the use of organic solvents, making it a clear alternative. However, it is less commonly used at industrial scale compared to dry or solvent fractionation due to more complex formulation and control requirements.
While the methods explained above primarily highlight methods of palm oil fractionation, it is important to note that the fractionation of palm kernel oil (PKO) similarly relies on crystallization and filtration. Palm kernel oil fractionation typically yields palm kernel olein, a softer fat, and palm kernel stearin, a solid fat.
Toward a More Sustainable Palm Oil
Fractionation Process
While palm-based oils are widely valued for their versatility and high productivity, the processes involved in their production and refining remain highly energy-intensive. Despite the crop’s inherent efficiency, yielding significantly more oil per unit of land compared to other oilseed crops, the environmental concerns associated with palm oil persist, primarily due to the carbon-intensive nature of its processing and the ongoing deforestation linked to plantation expansion. As global demand continues to rise, so too do the environmental stakes.
Palm oil refining emissions are substantial and arise across multiple stages of the product lifecycle, from land clearing and cultivation to milling, refining, and distribution. These emissions play a significant role in exacerbating climate change and are generally categorized into three types: direct (Scope 1), indirect (Scope 2), and value chain-related (Scope 3) emissions. The industrial phase of palm oil processing, particularly the conversion of fresh fruit bunches into crude palm oil and its subsequent refining generates a spectrum of pollutants. These include key greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide (N₂O), as well as other emissions like carbon monoxide (CO) and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs). Methane, in particular, is a potent GHG often released from palm oil mill effluent (POME) when not adequately captured or treated. On a broader scale, agriculture is the second-largest contributor to global GHG emissions after the energy sector, accounting for approximately 18% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide, to which palm oil contributes a significant amount. Therefore, the industry is under increasing pressure to adopt sustainable practices. This includes process optimization, transition to more energy-efficient processes, the use of more efficient separation technologies during the refining and fractionation processes, and more.
To address these challenges, it is vital for the industry to increasingly utilize clean technologies that not only improve operational efficiency, but also minimize environmental harm. Sustainable solutions that reduce energy consumption, eliminate waste streams, and lower emissions are increasingly critical in meeting global climate objectives and regulatory requirements. At SepPure Technologies, we are actively contributing to this transformation by developing and deploying advanced membrane solutions designed to replace energy- and chemical-intensive separation processes across the palm oil value chain. Our advanced membrane solutions are applicable at multiple critical stages of palm-based oil processing, enhancing efficiency, reducing energy demand, and supporting circular practices across extraction, refining, and downstream applications, including:
Solvent Recovery
Solvents are widely used in oil extraction, fractionation, and various downstream processes. These solvents are typically separated through distillation or evaporation—both of which require significant thermal energy. SepPure’s organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membranes can recover up to 90% of solvents without the use of heat, leaving only the final 10% to be handled by existing distillation units. This results in a substantial reduction in energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.
Fractionation
During the fractionation process of crude palm oil, a solvent — typically acetone — is used, producing two primary streams: (1) stearin and acetone, and (2) olein and acetone. Both streams contain high solvent contents, generally ranging between 70-90%, which must be efficiently removed. Conventional solvent recovery relies on evaporation, an energy-intensive and costly process. However, by integrating nanofiltration membranes into the process, we efficiently remove 80-90% of the bulk solvent without the use of heat. This results in a significantly reduced volume, around 10-20% of the original that is subsequently processed through evaporation for final solvent removal. This hybrid approach significantly reduces energy consumption and carbon emissions while maintaining the integrity and quality of the separated oil fractions.
Deacidification
Traditional deacidification relies on caustic neutralization and steam stripping, processes that are chemically intensive and generate substantial wastewater. Our membrane-based system not only removes free fatty acids (FFAs) at the molecular level, but also minimizes natural oil loss, eliminates the generation of significant waste water, and significantly reduces energy consumption.
And so much more!
Conclusion
The palm oil industry faces increasing pressure to balance rising global demand with urgent environmental and sustainability concerns. While the crop itself offers exceptional yield efficiency, the conventional methods used in its processing, from extraction and refining to fractionation, remain highly resource- and energy-intensive. These practices contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, and waste generation, underscoring the need for a transition toward more sustainable production models. At SepPure Technologies, we support this transition by introducing advanced membrane solutions that replace traditional, heat- and chemical-intensive separation processes. Our organic solvent nanofiltration (OSN) membranes enable highly efficient, low-energy alternatives for key stages such as solvent recovery, deacidification, and fractionation processes. This not only reduces the energy demand, but it also reduces cost, minimizes product loss, eliminates wastewater generation, and contributes to lower overall emissions - delivering both environmental and economic advantages.
By integrating clean, membrane-based technology into palm-based oil processing, we aim to enable a more sustainable, circular, and resilient industrial model. As the industry evolves to meet tightening regulatory requirements and increasing climate accountability, SepPure remains committed to driving innovations that support long-term environmental stewardship and operational excellence.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Palm & Palm Kernel Oil Fractionation
-
Palm oil fractionation is a process that separates palm oil and its fractions based on melting points, producing specialized oils like palm olein and palm stearin for different industrial applications.
-
Palm oil and palm kernel oil come from the same fruit but different parts. Palm oil is extracted from the flesh (mesocarp) of the fruit, while palm kernel oil comes from the seed (kernel) inside. Though they originate from the same plant, the two oils have distinct compositions. For instance, palm oil is richer in unsaturated fats, while palm kernel oil contains more saturated fats, making it more similar to coconut oil.
-
Both palm oil and palm kernel oil undergo fractionation in order to be separated into solid (stearin) and liquid (olein) components based on their melting points. However, because of their different fatty acid profiles, the cooling conditions and separation methods are tailored accordingly. Fractionated palm kernel oil is commonly used in confectionery and cosmetics, while fractionated palm oil is widely used in cooking oils and processed foods.
-
DE(SOLV)® is a transformative, energy-efficient desolvation process for the oil industry. It is a pressure-driven process designed to remove up to 90% of solvents from oils without the use of heat, not only leading to considerable reduction in energy consumption, but also making the process safer.
-
SepPure’s DE(SOLV)® solution can be utilized at multiple critical stages of palm-based oil processing, including extraction, refining, and downstream applications. Our technology not only delivers superior performance, but also supports sustainable and circular practices.