Crude Soybean Oil — Frequently Asked Questions

It is crude soybean oil that has been water-degummed after extraction to remove most hydratable phospholipids, which are recovered as lecithin. Degumming lowers phosphorus and improves stability in storage and transport. It is the usual traded form of crude soybean oil, although further degumming or refining is still needed before most fuel processes.

Its low FFA makes it suitable for alkaline transesterification, but residual phosphorus and water should be reduced first by further degumming and drying, and many plants also neutralise or bleach it. The finished ester usually needs antioxidant, and often blending, to meet the EN 14214 limits on iodine value and oxidation stability.

Soybean oil is extracted with hexane. A flash point below the contract minimum suggests residual solvent, which is a safety issue in storage and transport and a quality issue for processors. Degummed grades are typically sold with a minimum flash point of around 121 °C.

It is a food and feed crop oil, not listed in Annex IX. Fuels made from it count only within each Member State's crop cap, do not count towards the ReFuelEU Aviation SAF obligation and face further restrictions in some markets. Confirm the treatment in your destination and the certificate scope with your certification body before contracting.

It is a clean, consistent feed with low FFA, but its phosphorus must be reduced to low mg/kg levels to protect the hydrotreating catalyst, and its high unsaturation increases hydrogen consumption compared with palm oil or animal fats. In many markets its regulatory value is also lower than that of waste feedstocks.

State whether you need degummed or non-degummed crude, your FFA, moisture and volatile matter, phosphorus, iodine value and flash point limits, the conversion route, volume, packaging, delivery point and Incoterm, and the sustainability documents you require, including any deforestation-related evidence your market expects.