KEDIRI — Behind soap, cosmetics, margarine and many industrial chemicals there is often one shared raw material: coconut oil. Before it becomes a finished product, the oil is traded in crude form, known as Crude Coconut Oil, or CNO/CCNO.
How is CNO made?
CNO is obtained by pressing copra, the dried meat of the coconut. Copra is fed into an expeller press, which squeezes out the oil. The oil is then filtered to reduce impurities before it is stored in tanks.
The by-product is coconut expeller meal, which is rich in protein and widely used as an animal-feed ingredient.
The distinctive character of coconut oil
Coconut oil is a lauric oil because of its high lauric acid content. This is why the oleochemical industry values it for producing fatty acids, fatty alcohols and the active ingredients of soaps and detergents.
One thing that often surprises new buyers: coconut oil solidifies at cool room temperature, below about 24°C. That is why long-distance CNO shipments usually need heating facilities at discharge.
Quality parameters to watch
When buying CNO, buyers usually agree on several key parameters. CV ECHOTECH's commercial CNO specification includes:
- Free fatty acid (FFA): max. 5.0%
- Moisture and impurities: max. 1.0%
- Iodine value: 7.5 – 11.0
- Colour: 5.5 Yellow / 0.6 Red
FFA is the most discussed parameter because it relates directly to raw-material freshness and refining costs.
Who uses CNO?
The main users of CNO are refineries, which turn it into RBD (refined, bleached, deodorized) coconut oil, and the oleochemical industry. Once refined, coconut oil can also be used in the food industry under the applicable standards.
With steady global demand, CNO remains one of Indonesia's most strategic coconut commodities.
