Palm Kernel Oil

About This Product

Palm kernel oil is extracted from the kernel of the fruit of Elaeis guineensis. It is a different material from palm oil, which comes from the fleshy mesocarp surrounding that kernel, and the two are not interchangeable. It is traded crude and as RBD grade, melting at around 24 to 26 degrees Celsius, and carries CAS number 8023-79-8. It is a lauric oil, with lauric acid at roughly 45 to 52 percent and myristic at 14 to 18 percent, and in soap making that composition is decisive. Lather quality in a soap bar is a direct function of chain length: the twelve-carbon lauric chain produces a surfactant that migrates to the air-water interface fastest, giving the immediate, high, bubbly foam that consumers read as cleaning power. Long C16 and C18 chains from palm or tallow give a hard, long-wearing bar but almost no quick lather. Virtually every commercial soap is therefore a blend, and palm kernel oil is the standard lauric component, typically at 10 to 20 percent. The same sharp, narrow melting curve that suits soap also makes it the base for cocoa butter substitutes and confectionery coatings. It is used in soap and soap noodle manufacture, in cocoa butter substitutes and confectionery fats, in fatty alcohol and surfactant production and in cosmetics. Bio Green Wax supplies crude and RBD palm kernel oil to specification on free fatty acid, iodine value, moisture, colour and melting point, with RSPO certification available.