MPOB has carried out research on refining of the pressed fibre oil into high value phytonutrients rich oil and will collaborate with the industry to explore ways to expand the market. In the refining process, FFA is removed using high vacuum distillation system for the preservation of heat-sensitive components such as carotenes. The final refined red fibre oil is fractionated into red palm fibre olein and stearin for further product applications.

 

MPOB will also look into the technical parameters in order to re-categorize the pressed fibre oil which is currently under the sludge oil category.

 

Crude fibre oil in its raw form has very limited applications. It is normally used as ingredient for animal feed formulations and not suitable for human consumption without further processing. The crude fibre oil needs to be refined for the removal of unwanted impurities such as gum, waxes and trace metals.  For the economics of scale, the refining and carotenes production shall be centralised to cater for fibre oil produced from 5 to 10 palm oil mills.