Traditionally the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) was grown in semi-wild groves in tropical Africa. It was first introduced to Malaysia for planting in the Botanical Gardens in Singapore in 1870 [7]. Germination takes around 3 months, after which the seedlings are planted in small plastic bags where they are left in a so-called pre-nursery for several months. They are transplanted into bigger plastic bags and grow in a nursery for several more months to a size of about 1 meter, before they are transplanted into a field at an age of around 1 year.

The new improved crosses begin to flower after less than one year of transplantation and produce their first bunches of fruit after less than 2 years. At this age, their leaves have a size of over 2 meters in height and diameter. During its young age, the trunk grows at a rate of about 35 to 75 cm per year and produces alternate rows of leaves, depending on its gene [8]. The base of the old leaves surround the stem and begin falling off at the age of 12 to 15 years [9]. By this time, growth and production have slowed down.

The number of leaves in an oil palm plant increase from 30 to 40 in a year at the age of 5 to 6 years. After that, the generation of leaves decreases to about 20 to 25 per year [9]. The average economic life-span of the oil palm is 25 years to 30 years [10]. A marked increase in the cultivation of oil palm began in 1960 [11], for which by the year 1990 onwards there was a peak in replanting. This provided a good opportunity to harness the by-products of the oil palm. During the re-plantation, the heights of the oil palm tree are in the range of 7 m to 13 m, with a width of between 45 cm to 65 cm, measuring 1.5 m from the surface of the soil. There are about 41 leaves in each frond of the mature oil palm tree. It is estimated that in the year 2000, the process of re-plantation would generate about 8.36 million tonnes dried biomass, consisting of 7.02 million tonnes of trunk and 1.34 million tonnes of leaves [5]. Due to the high moisture of about 70% fresh weight, the newly chopped tree trunk cannot be burnt in the plantation. To leave the old trunk for natural decomposition not only obstructs the re-plantation process but harbours insects that would harm the new trees as well. The tree trunk usually takes between five to six years to decompose [12].

Most crude palm oil mills harness the energy from the fibre and shell in their own low pressure boilers and normally, the EFB’s are burnt causing air pollution or returned to the plantation. A 60 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) per hour mill based within a 10,000 hectare plantation, can generate enough energy to be self sustaining and supply surplus electricity to the grid if it utilises all of its wastes. In order to provide a better understanding of the palm oil industry in Malaysia, the following sections give an overview of the oil palm industry in Malaysia including oil palm plantation and the mass balance of the oil palm industry as it is self-sufficient in energy.