I have been offered a 44 gal drum of solidified Palm oil at 25c a litre. Is it worth picking up? Is it to hard to process? Stan

Hi Stan, I have never reacted palm oil before, unless it was included in generic vegetable oil blends, which i believe is usual. Palm oil is getting a bad wrap from ecologists because its grown in third world tropical countries that cut down vast regions of rain forest to grow it. The Orangutangs of Borneo are threatened for this very reason. So some say we should boycott palm oil. However at the end of the day the oil has been offered to you and its already there, so go for it. If it is solid at room temperature that sounds alarm bells for me. I dont know that palm oil is normally solid, so maybe its saturated with animal fats. All of the above will make biodiesel, but stuff that is solid is a real pain to move around and to use. You've got to scoop it out by hand or heat the whole container. For this reason Its not worth 25c per litre. Offer less than 10c per litre or walk away unless your really desperate for feedstock.
Cheers mate, Darren.

Hi all
This stuff sounds like coconut oil rather then palm or a mixture of those two or anything for that matter
If it is solid at room temperature than it is definitely not Palm oil
Cheers
Chris

Wasn't Richard adding palm oil into his soap mixture at the Melbourne clubs' J29 open day? That was a white soild, a bit similar to lard,

There are a number of variations of Palm oil. The one which is used as frying oil in Australia is Hydrogenated Palm oil which has a high Melting Point (MP). This means that the biodiesel will have a MP of around 5-15°C

Hydrogenation improves the life ot the oil when used in deep fryers as it adds a H atom to the carbon chain where a double bond would normally be located. This prevents oxidation of the oil at that point and minimises polymerisation (caused by the oxyidation).

Hydrogenated Palm oil is usually used in McD, KFC, Chicken Treat ,and many other franchised fast food outlets.

I hope this helps,
Tony

Dear Darren and Stan,

You may want to check out The Palm Oil Truth Foundation - Home. I've found it pretty interesting in addressing the palm oil and orangutan/ rainforest issue.

Cheers,
Eunice