Palm Methyl Ester

About This Product

Palm methyl ester, PME, is made by reacting palm oil or palm fatty acids with methanol over a catalyst, which replaces the glycerol backbone of each triglyceride with three separate methyl esters and releases glycerine as a co-product. The result is a fuel of far lower viscosity than the parent oil, specified against EN 14214 or ASTM D6751. As a finished fuel it sits at one end of the FAME spectrum. Its high saturated content gives a cetane number of roughly 60 to 62, well above mineral diesel, so ignition delay is short, combustion is smooth and engine noise is lower. The same saturation means very few double bonds, which gives excellent oxidation stability and a long storage life without heavy antioxidant treatment, a real advantage in hot climates. The corresponding limitation is cold flow: saturated straight-chain esters crystallise readily, so PME has a cloud point around 13 to 16 degrees Celsius and cannot be used neat in temperate winters. It is therefore blended at low percentages into mineral diesel, blended with a lower-cloud-point ester, or treated with cold-flow improvers. It is used as B100 biodiesel and in blended diesel, as a bio-based solvent and degreaser, and as an oleochemical intermediate. Bio Green Fuels supplies palm methyl ester to specification on ester content, cetane number, cloud point and CFPP, oxidation stability, acid value, moisture and glycerol content.