Crude Tall Oil (CTO), Tall Oil Fatty Acid (TOFA) & Tall Oil Rosin

Kraft-mill crude tall oil and its distilled fractions for alkyd resins, oilfield chemicals and renewable diesel feedstock

Crude tall oil is the by-product a kraft pulp mill recovers when it acidulates the soap skimmed off its black liquor, and a mill yields roughly 30-50 kg of it per tonne of pulp. Typical crude tall oil is 38-53% fatty acids, 38-53% rosin acids and 6.5-20% unsaponifiable neutrals, and the acid number tells you the wood: pure southern pine mills reach 160-165 mg KOH/g, mills pulping a mix of softwood and hardwood run 125-135, and the buyer's sheet prices the cargo on acid number, rosin content and unsaps. Fractional vacuum distillation splits it into heads, tall oil fatty acid, distilled tall oil, tall oil rosin and a pitch residue. TOFA is graded by how much rosin is left in it: Type I is 98% fatty acids minimum with 1% rosin acids maximum, Type II 96% and 2%, Type III 90% and 10%, and producers' grades are sold against those rosin ceilings (one US producer's grades at 1.0%, 1.6% and 2.0% maximum, one European grade at 2.1%). The fatty acid is oleic and linoleic, with a saponification number of about 190-210 and an iodine value of about 120-135, which is why it substitutes for soybean and other vegetable fatty acids in alkyd resins, dimer acids, metalworking fluids and oilfield emulsifiers and corrosion inhibitors. Tall oil rosin is sold on softening point, acid number and Gardner colour to adhesive, ink and rubber tackifier makers.

UN Comtrade 2024 export declarations put crude tall oil (HS 3803.00) at 412,000 MT worth USD 426 million: the USA 257,000 MT, Sweden 42,000 MT, Poland 30,000 MT, Finland 19,000 MT, Germany 17,000 MT, Latvia 11,000 MT, Spain 9,300 MT, Brazil 7,500 MT and Canada 6,700 MT. Tall oil fatty acids (HS 3823.13) added 174,000 MT worth USD 306 million, led by the Netherlands at 50,000 MT, Sweden 41,000 MT, the USA 41,000 MT and France 8,900 MT. The second buyer of crude tall oil is now the biofuel plant: UPM's Lappeenranta biorefinery produces about 130,000 MT a year of renewable diesel and naphtha from crude tall oil, and SunPine at Pitea has raised its crude tall diesel capacity to 150,000 m3 a year, and tall oil pitch is listed in Annex IX Part A of the EU Renewable Energy Directive as an advanced biofuel feedstock. In bulk, crude tall oil and TOFA are MARPOL Annex II cargoes carried in chemical tankers; smaller lots move in ISO tanks and drums. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers crude tall oil and its fractions from pulp mills and tall-oil distillers in these origins on FOB, CFR and CIF terms, against the mill's or distiller's certificate of analysis, an SGS or Intertek check of acid number, rosin acids, unsaponifiables and moisture at loading, and ISCC or equivalent sustainability documentation where the cargo is going to a biofuel plant. The buyer is a tall-oil distiller, an alkyd resin or dimer acid plant, an oilfield-chemical formulator, an adhesive or ink maker buying rosin, or a renewable-diesel refinery buying crude tall oil and pitch. Send the grade, acid number or rosin ceiling, volume, pack and discharge port.

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Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.