ROTTERDAM (Commodity Online) : Nearly 35,000 German homes in and around Rotterdam gets heat, to keep their rooms warm during winter, from a palm oil powered plant near the city.

A combined heat and power plant operated by Vattenhall Europe at Weigandufer, near here, has been running on natural gas, coal and a portion of palm oil supplied by Malaysia's IOI Group refinery in Rotterdam.

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According to Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) there is an estimated 40 miles of piping to various homes. The certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) is doing a humble effort in keeping the German and European families warm at an affordable rate.

MPOC said the plant could not use local seed oil as it was expensive and does not burn as fuel.

As such, palm oil clearly had all the positive attributes in being not only a renewable fuel at an affordable price but the oil could also work in any situation, whether hot or cold.

Palm oil's contribution has been tremendous in not only providing income for the farmers in Malaysia but also in providing heat to the community in Germany, it said.

However, the pressures exerted by NGOs had affected European consumer’s perception of palm oil.

It is unfortunate. Palm oil is a good product which provides a good service, but it was denied a fair mention, MPOC added.

The irony of the matter is that, other competing products which were not certified, not sustainable and not functioning well as a fuel, did not face such problems.



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