Palm Fatty Acid Distillate (PFAD)

Refinery by-product bought on FFA, moisture and impurities

Palm fatty acid distillate is what a palm refinery strips off crude palm oil in the deodoriser, and it is bought on the number that makes it a by-product: free fatty acid. A typical PFAD runs 70–95% FFA (as palmitic acid, with an acid value of 150–190 mg KOH/g), moisture and impurities at or below 1%, unsaponifiable matter at 1–3%, an iodine value of 45–58 g I₂/100 g and a saponification value of 195–210 mg KOH/g. It is a semi-solid at ambient temperature, with a melting point around 45–50°C, so it is shipped heated and pumped like a stearin. The buyer's sheet then depends on the plant. A biodiesel producer running esterification-then-transesterification wants the high-FFA end and cares about moisture (water kills the acid catalyst) and unsaponifiables (they carry through into the glycerine and the ester); an HVO or renewable-diesel hydrotreater cares about total contaminants, phosphorus, metals (Na, K, Ca, Mg, Fe) and chlorides, and will put a ceiling on each; a soap plant wants a consistent fatty-acid profile and a pale colour; a feed miller wants a low peroxide value and no residual solvent. UN Comtrade 2025 export declarations under HS 3823 — which bundles PFAD, stearic acid and other industrial fatty acids — put Indonesia at 5.77 million MT at an average USD 1,313/MT and Malaysia at 2.92 million MT at USD 1,311/MT, with Argentina (0.28 million MT at USD 609, a soy-based book) and the USA (0.27 million MT) far behind across 21 reporting origins. Malaysia's own 2025 destination list shows where the acid grades go: the Netherlands 587k MT at USD 1,385/MT, China 444k MT, Singapore 268k MT, Korea 251k MT at USD 616 (the low-value end that is largely PFAD), India 244k MT and Italy 130k MT.

PFAD prices off crude palm oil at a discount that widens when the refineries are running hard and narrows when European renewable-diesel demand pulls on it, and since it is classified as a residue rather than a crop under the EU Renewable Energy Directive it earns a double-counting credit that the CPO it came from does not — which is why a Rotterdam hydrotreater will pay more for it than a Jakarta soap plant. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers PFAD from Indonesian and Malaysian refiners and trader positions against SGS or Intertek certification of FFA, moisture and impurities, unsaponifiable matter, iodine value, saponification value, colour and, for hydrotreating buyers, phosphorus, metals and chlorides, with an ISCC EU or ISCC PLUS sustainability declaration and a proof of sustainability where the buyer's scheme requires it. Parcels move as heated liquid bulk in 2,000–10,000 MT chemical and product-tanker parcels, in flexitanks (20–22 MT per container) and in heated ISO tanks on FOB, CFR and CIF terms, and because CBIL also runs a chartering desk (LaycanDesk) that works product and chemical tankers, the freight leg is quoted with the cargo. Send your FFA band, your contaminant ceilings and the sustainability scheme you certify under and we will work the origin to it.

Need the ship as well? Our chartering desk prices chemical and vegetable oil tanker chartering on LaycanDesk.