NON-FOOD VEG OIL USE TO CLIMD BY 70% BY 2010

ROTTERDAM, June 20 (Reuters) - The use of vegetable oils and fats outsidethe food industry is expected to soar by 70 percent this decade, mostlyspurred by environmental concerns, a Malaysian scientist said onWednesday.Demand for biodegradable chemicals used in cosmetics and biodiesel fuelwill help boost non-food uses of vegetable oils and fats to 28.3 milliontonnes by 2010, up from 16.8 million last year, said Ting-Kueh Soon,secretary of the Malaysian Oil Scientists and Technologists Association.The share taken by non-food uses will jump to a fifth of all vegetableoils and fats output by 2010 from 15 percent in 2000, Soon told theLipidex edible oils conference in Rotterdam.Vegetable oils such as palm oil are processed into oleochemicals andcompete with petrochemicals for use in paints, inks, plastics, soaps andcosmetics."Whatever you can get from petrochemicals you can derive fromoleochemicals," Soon said.With consumers increasingly favouring green products, the lack ofpollution from oleochemicals is a strong selling point.The use of surfactants derived from oleochemicals in cleaning productsclimbed by 35-95 percent from 1991-1998 in western Europe, Soon said.Switching to oleochemicals is even more attractive given current highpetroleum prices.Asia, already the world's largest producer of oleochemicals with a 36percent share, is due to increase its lead by 2010 and account for half ofall production, Soon said. Malaysia, by far the biggest producer, is seenaccounting for 30 percent of the market by 2010.

BIODIESELProduction of biodiesel from vegetable oils is also a burgeoningsector.Malaysia, burdened with huge stocks of palm oil that are helping topressure prices, is planning to open the world's largest biodiesel plantin 2002/2003.The factory would use 500,000 tonnes of palm oil per year, helping toreduce stocks, with the end product blended with diesel and mainlytargeted at heavy vehicles, Soon said.Malaysia also planned a short-term solution to reduce its massivestocks by burning crude palm oil in energy plants this year, but only100,000 tonnes were used. Palm oil prices rose above what the energyproducers were willing to pay, Soon said.