SME Carotech awarded for its innovative biodiesel process

Palm oil offers up prizes

15 October 2007 00:00  [Source: ICB]

An integrated approach to extracting specialty chemicals, as well as making biodiesel from palm oil, has proved rewarding for Carotech

Emma Chynoweth/London

Malaysia's Carotech has won the ICIS Innovation Award for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with its integrated process for the extraction and concentration of a range of phytonutrients and production of biodiesel from virgin crude palm oil.

The technology, coupled with strong marketing, has made Carotech the largest global producer of palm phytonutrient tocotrienol - described as a "super-vitamin E" - and a major biodiesel player.

Carotech now produces about 40,000 tonnes/year of biodiesel at its Chemor, Ipoh plant, in Malaysia, which has seen an investment of around ringgit (M$) 120m ($35m, €25m). It is also scheduled to bring a 120,000 tonne/year state-of-the art biodiesel plant onstream by the end of 2007. This unit, located at Lumut Port, Malaysia, will cost M$155m.

Carotech started to look at various technologies for the extraction of palm phytonutrients and production of biodiesel (methyl ester) in the late 1980s. At that time, its parent company, generic drug producer Hovid, launched a dietary supplement line of products based on imported vitamin E and beta-carotene. CEO David Ho saw the potential to develop commercial extraction of phytonutrients from the large volumes of virgin palm oil processed in Malaysia. Palm oil contains high levels of tocotrienol, a unique form of vitamin E, and mixed carotenes.

In 1992, the company was granted a US patent for an integrated process for the extraction of phytonutrients and production of methyl ester from virgin crude palm oil. Weng-Hoong Leong joined the company in 1993 as a process engineer - its first employee - and was given responsibility for commercializing the technology.

"We went into production in 1995 with a small capacity of 1,500 tonnes/year of crude palm oil. At that time, we were the only plant in the world commercially to extract tocotrienols, mixed carotene and phytosterols from palm oil," says Leong, now the company's vice president. In 1996, due to the high demand for the products in the US, Carotech set up a worldwide sales and marketing office in New Jersey, US.

He notes that when the company first started, lack of funds and seed capital was one of the main problems. "Plantation companies did not want to invest in Carotech, thinking that the technology was not viable. We went ahead with the financial support of Hovid and we proved the critics wrong. It is, in a sense, a vindication for Carotech, culminating in our IPO in April 2005."

The company encountered a number of other hurdles en route to commercialization.

Running the first molecular distillation plant in Malaysia required overcoming and mastering a number of production issues, such as achieving ultra-high vacuums in a large-scale commercial plant. "Molecular distillation is a unique distillation process that involves the generation of extremely high vacuum. With such high vacuum, we are able to distill and concentrate heat-sensitive phytonutrients, such as tocotrienol and mixed carotene, at temperatures below 100˚C [212˚F]."

Carotech also faced a lack of awareness of tocotrienols among consumers. "It was an uphill battle to convince dietary supplement companies and, most importantly, regular consumers that tocotrienol is a form of natural vitamin E, as opposed to the well-known tocopherols, and that it has unique health benefits not shown by the tocopherols.

"We embarked on a costly national PR campaign in the US to educate consumers about this new form of vitamin," says Leong. The benefits of the product include cholesterol reduction and reversal of arterial blockage in patients suffering from carotid stenosis. The products are also 40-60 times more potent as an antioxidant, inhibiting both oestrogen-negative and oestrogen-­positive breast cancer cells.

On the phytonutrients side, Carotech is currently trying to make the product more stable, especially for topical cosmetic applications. "We are also looking into various derivatives of the phytonutrients, either to make them more effective or efficacious," says Leong.

For biodiesel, the company is aiming to produce palm biodiesel with a low cold filter plugging point through the use of additives as well as physical processes.

For more information about Carotech's innovations, visit www.carotech.net

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