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Malaysians look beyond palm oil commodity

10 January 2008

Malaysians are more prepared to develop new, cheaper, alternative fuels other than palm oil, after prices leapt to record highs.

Crude palm oil futures hit a record 3,166 ring-git (£489) a tonne on Monday, further undermining the view that palm oil is a cheap raw material for producing biofuels.

Chow Mee Chin, head of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board's Energy and Environment Unit, said members on the board were working to develop cheaper biofuels from alternative sources such as palm kernel cake, empty fruit bunches, palm fiber and palm shells.

Crude palm oil (CPO) are increasingly viable to use as an energy source given the backdrop of record $100-a-barrel oil prices, dwindling supplies, and because they are seen as an alternative to fossil fuels, blamed as a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

Scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama said biofuels have higher costs in terms of biodiversity loss and destruction of farmland despite emitting fewer greenhouse gases, however.

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