Palm Oil-Based Chemicals for Sustainable Development of Petrochemical Industries in Malaysia: Progress, Prospect, and Challenges

Abstract

The Malaysia petrochemical industry has continued to grow due to its dominance in the global chemical market. The consequential adverse impact on environmental aspects and resource depletion have urged the petrochemical industries to commit to sustainability-driven initiatives such as substitution with renewables and natural processes using biobased feedstock. Nevertheless, many petrochemical industries shy way from investing in such a complex and capital-intensive production process. It is anticipated that capital cost and energy cost can be reduced significantly if the functional group of biobased feedstock matches well with the composition and energy content of the end product. This perspective reviews the technical aspects of the processes for converting vegetable oil-based raw materials into the respective biobased smart drop-in and dedicated chemicals, 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO) and lubricant, attributed to the notable market position of Malaysia petrochemical industries for these products. Vegetable oil-based glycerol is a potential bioderived feedstock for the synthesis of 1,3-PDO. Hitherto, the biotechnological conversion process has been commercialized even though its complexity and capital cost can be further reduced by using microbial consortia, which are highly adaptable to the less stringent continuous glycerol fermentation. The comparatively simple chemical conversion process is yet to be commercialized because of impractical catalyst selectivity and stability under severe operating conditions. On another note, vegetable oils have been proven as a promising feedstock for the production of biolubricants. Despite numerous research efforts, setbacks like process complexity and unrecyclable catalysts are still restricting an economically viable large-scale production of biolubricants from vegetable oil. Palm oil which is abundantly available in Malaysia could continue to be the feasible biobased feedstock for the production of 1,3-PDO and biolubricant, provided sustainable agronomic and manufacturing practices were developed for the cultivation of oil palm and production of palm oil, respectively. With an abundant supply of biobased feedstock, the petrochemical industries, with their market position for chemical products, and the palm oil and oleochemical industries should work hand in hand to green Malaysia's economy through the acceleration of the development of sustainable business in biobased chemicals. The mutually beneficial partnership could only be promoted by the realization of relevant government policies.

Catalytic Conversion of Epoxidized Palm Fatty Acids through Oxirane Ring Opening Combined with Esterification and the Properties of Palm Oil-Based Biolubricants

“…These effects result in less energy loss, reduced friction, and minimized fuel waste. As shown in Table 2, all the biolubricant samples in this work had a kinematic viscosity (KV) of below 100 cSt at 40 °C, which is common for ester-based biolubricants reported in the literature, 4,7,19,26 and thus, these biolubricants could be applied for some ISO viscosity grades (VGs), such as ISO VG 32, VG 46, or VG 68. The decrease in the KV observed in the BL1 (80 cSt) to BL5 (37 cSt) series seemed noticeable as the amount of dihydroxy stearyl ester decreased from 29% in BL1 to a complete absence in BL5.…”

A critical look at challenges and future scopes of bioactive compounds and their incorporations in the food, energy, and pharmaceutical sector

“…Bioactive compounds have applications in various chemical industries, including but not limited to polymers and biomaterials (Nogueira et al 2020), dyes and textiles (Agnhage et al 2017), leather processing (Das et al 2020), perfumes, and cosmetics (Sharmeen et al 2021). Certain bioactive compounds (oils, fatty acids) have traditionally been used (in the oil and soap industries) (Ng et al 2021), whereas the toxicity and unsustainability of conventional chemicals, processes, or end-products have recently accelerated the usage of bio-based substitutes in novel materials, catalysts, as and certain raw materials in the industry (Chin et al 2021;Basak et al 2021). Spiridon et al (2020) developed a biomaterial with cellulose, collagen, and polyurethane as its constituents, to facilitate the controlled release of antioxidants such as tannin and lipoic acid, with a potential for biomedical and cosmetic applications.…”

“…The industrial extraction of oils (palm, coconut, and castor oils) is another important sector of the chemical industry, due to a wide range of applications, ranging from edible oils and hair care products (Ng et al 2021 ) to the manufacture of soaps and grease (Patel et al 2016 ). Moreover, several petrochemical industries in Malaysia are looking into the possibility of using palm oil as well as glycerol sourced from vegetable oil as feedstocks in the manufacture of lubricants (Chin et al 2021 ), shifting resources from fossil fuels to bioactive compounds. Similarly, castor oils are used in the manufacture of biodegradable polyesters as well as lubricants and paints (Patel et al 2016 ).…”

A Short Review on Catalyst, Feedstock, Modernised Process, Current State and Challenges on Biodiesel Production

“…The use of heterogeneous solid base catalysts (single metal oxides [145], mixed metal oxides [146], supported alkali metal/metal ion [147], clay mineral (hydrotalcites) [148] and organic solid bases [149,150] in the synthesis of biodiesel from vegetable oil-based feedstock has received a lot of attention. These included the metal oxides La 2 O 3 , MgO, ZnO, and CaO.…”