The Chemical Route
When the crude oil is refined according to the chemical route, free fatty acids and phosphatides are removed by alkali neutralization (Gibon et al., 2007). The nonhydratable phosphatides are first activated with acid and further washed out together with the free fatty acids during alkali neutralization with caustic soda. This acidic pre-treatment is necessary for crude palm oil which contains higher quantities of non hydratable phospholipids; most of the time, acidic pre-treatment can be skipped for
crude palm kernel oil due its very low phosphatide content. It is assumed that caustic