Palm Oil-Based Chemicals For Sustainable Development Of Petrochemical Industries In Malaysia: Progress, Prospect, And Challenges

The Malaysia petrochemical industry has continued to grow due to its dominance in the global chemical market. The consequential adverse impact on environmental aspects and resource depletion have urged the petrochemical industries to commit to sustainability-driven initiatives such as substitution with renewables and natural processes using biobased feedstock. Nevertheless, many petrochemical industries shy way from investing in such a complex and capital-intensive production process. It is anticipated that capital cost and energy cost can be reduced significantly if the functional group of biobased feedstock matches well with the composition and energy content of the end product. This perspective reviews the technical aspects of the processes for converting vegetable oil-based raw materials into the respective biobased smart drop-in and dedicated chemicals, 1,3-propanediol (1,3-PDO) and lubricant, attributed to the notable market position of Malaysia petrochemical industries for these products. Vegetable oil-based glycerol is a potential bioderived feedstock for the synthesis of 1,3-PDO. Hitherto, the biotechnological conversion process has been commercialized even though its complexity and capital cost can be further reduced by using microbial consortia, which are highly adaptable to the less stringent continuous glycerol fermentation. The comparatively simple chemical conversion process is yet to be commercialized because of impractical catalyst selectivity and stability under severe operating conditions. On another note, vegetable oils have been proven as a promising feedstock for the production of biolubricants. Despite numerous research efforts, setbacks like process complexity and unrecyclable catalysts are still restricting an economically viable large-scale production of biolubricants from vegetable oil. Palm oil which is abundantly available in Malaysia could continue to be the feasible biobased feedstock for the production of 1,3-PDO and biolubricant, provided sustainable agronomic and manufacturing practices were developed for the cultivation of oil palm and production of palm oil, respectively. With an abundant supply of biobased feedstock, the petrochemical industries, with their market position for chemical products, and the palm oil and oleochemical industries should work hand in hand to green Malaysia's economy through the acceleration of the development of sustainable business in biobased chemicals. The mutually beneficial partnership could only be promoted by the realization of relevant government policies.