N. Abdullah and F. Sulaiman

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter http://dx. doi. org/10.5772/55302

1. Introduction

Oil palm is the most important product from Malaysia that has helped to change the scenario of it’s agriculture and economy. Lignocellulosic biomass which is produced from the oil palm industries include oil palm trunks (OPT), oil palm fronds (OPF), empty fruit bunches (EFB) and palm pressed fibres (PPF), palm shells and palm oil mill effluent palm (POME). However, the presence of these oil palm wastes has created a major disposal problem. The fundamental principles of waste management are to minimise and recycle the waste, recover the energy and finally dispose the waste. These principals apply to agro­industrial wastes such as palm oil residues as they do to municipal waste. We can simply no longer afford to dispose the residues when there is an economically useful alternative. We must first consider the current uses and disposal of mill residues in order to address the potential for recovery of energy in the palm oil industry. One of the unique aspects of Malaysian renewable energy sources is that the palm oil mill is self-sufficient in energy, using PPF, EFB and shell as fuel to generate steam in waste-fuel boilers for processing, and power-generation with steam turbines as described in Section 2.2.

World palm oil production in 1990 doubled to 11.0 million tonnes from 5.0 million tonnes in 1980, and by the year 2000, the production doubled to 21.8 million tonnes. Malaysia produced about half of the world palm oil production (10.8 million tonnes), thus, making Malaysia as world’s largest producer and exporter of palm oil during this period [1]. In 2008, even though Malaysia had produced 17.7 million tonnes of palm oil based on 4,500,000 hectares of land used for its plantation, Indonesia became the world’s largest producer and exporter of palm oil, replacing Malaysia as a chief producer [2,3] Palm oil has made impressive and sustained growth in the global market over the past four decades, and it is projected in the period 2016 — 2020, the average annual production of palm oil in Malaysia will reach 15.4 million tonnes [4]. In 1999, the land area under oil palm plantation is about 3.31 million hectares, and it has been projected that Sarawak will have about one million tonnes hectares of oil palm by the year 2010 [5].

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The oil palm industry has always been linked to the environment because it is a land intensive industry. Any unplanned development will lead to the degradation of the forest systems, loss of habitats including plants and animals, extreme land degradation and pollution (water and airborne) due to the use of large quantities of pesticides and herbicides required to maintain the plantation. The Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was established in recent years with the support from the government and Malaysia Palm Oil Council (MPOC). RSPO consists of palm oil producers, processors, traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and they will develop the principles and criteria of a sustainable palm oil industry, and facilitate the development of sustainable palm oil production. The proposed guidelines include commitment to transparency, compliance with all applicable local, national and ratified international regulations, adoption of sustainable cultivation practices (including water management, pesticide control and soil erosion), conservation of resources and biodiversity and community development [6]. The oil palm industry has long avoided the openings of virgin forest land, which thus minimize environment degradation and enhance the sustainability of oil palm growing. As initiatives, the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities (MPIC) had announced in 2006, the RM20 million Malaysian Palm Oil Conservation Fund (MPOCF) with aims to help protect affected wildlife (including orang utan and other protected species) and to sustain biodiversity conservation programmes that are expected to be beneficial to both the industry and society.

Oil palm is the most important product of Malaysia that has helped to change the scenario of its agriculture and economy. Despite the obvious benefits, oil palm mill also significantly contributes to environmental degradation, both at the input and the output sides of its activities. On the input side, crude palm oil mills use large quantities of water and energy in the production processes, and on the output side, manufacturing processes generate large quantities of solid waste, wastewater and air pollution. The solid wastes may consist of empty fruit bunches (EFB), mesocarp fruit fibers (MF) and palm kernel shells (PKS). The liquid waste is generated from an extraction of palm oil of a wet process in a decanter. This liquid waste combined with the wastes from cooling water and sterilizer is called palm oil mill effluent (POME). During POME digestion, odor released into surrounding air, thus, reduces air quality in the surrounding lagoons area. Disposal of EFB into oil palm plantation without recovering remnant oil in the EFB contributes to oil spills. Incineration of EFB means wasting renewable energy source and heat which actually could be provided for boiler in palm oil mill. At present, PKS and MF wastes are used extensively as fuel for steam production in palm-oil mills. EFB is a resource which has huge potential to be used for power generation, currently not being utilized. The application of shells for road hardening has no impact to the environment, however, current practice is actually wasting potential renewable energy source. Methane gas is one among other green house gases which can cause ozone depletion. However, at present, methane in biogas generates during POME digestion is not being utilized or captured and it just escapes into the atmosphere. Palm oil mill residues are currently underutilised; therefore, maximizing energy recovery from the wastes is desirable for both economic and environmental reasons.

All economic activity begins with physical materials and energy carriers such as fuels and electric power. Without materials, there might be no food and shelter technology; without energy, there might be no work, thus, no economic activity. The reliable sustainable resource is important to fulfill the need of energy. Oil palm waste is a reliable resource because of its availability, continuity and capacity for renewable energy solution. Furthermore, in current situation the presence of oil palm wastes has created a major disposal problem, thus, affect the environmental. The technological, economic, energy balance, and environmental considerations must be kept at a balance to meet the best solution of utilization oil palm wastes. There is abundance of raw materials available of the palm tree consisting of around 90% of biomass wastes and only around 10% of oil. About 90 million tonnes of oil palm fruit production was recorded in 1998; however, 43-45% of this was mill residues in the form of EFB, shell and fibre. Palm fronds and stems are currently underutilised, and the presence of these oil palm wastes has created a major disposal problem. Therefore, maximising energy recovery from the wastes is desirable for both the environmental and economic reasons. Direct combustion, gasification, pyrolysis, liquefaction, fermentation and anaerobic digestion are alternate conversion technologies available to maximise energy recovery. Therefore, sustainable development can be promoted by encouraging energy projects for the long term, utilising local skills and creating employment.