Keat Teong Lee and Cynthia Ofori-Boateng

Abstract Conversion of agricultural wastes into biofuel and other value-added bio-products has not only benefited the environment but also helped reduce the dependency on natural resources leading to improved lifestyle of humankind. Palm oil wastes (OPW) comprising both solid and liquid residues from the palm oil industry are among the most abundant agricultural wastes in the world. The ineffi­cient method of disposal and management of OPW has necessitated the need to recover value-added products from them. This study reviews the vital characteris­tics of OPW which present them suitable for the synthesis of value-added bio­products. Simultaneous production of palm oil fresh fruit bunches (FFB) and the utilisation of the plantation wastes for food and animal feed with integration of animal husbandry in the palm oil plantation are discussed. Moreover, the simulta­neous conversion of FFB into palm oil and the utilisation of the mill’s residues for value-added bio-products are also discussed.

Keywords Value-added bio-products • Palm oil wastes • Palm oil • Palm oil

5.1 Introduction

Due to uncontrollable global rise in population growth, there has been high demand for fuel, food, medicine, chemicals and other consumable products which have necessitated the growing interest in new technologies of transforming wastes into value-added bio-products. The conversion of agricultural residues such as palm oil wastes (OPW) into bio-products would help solve the issues of energy crisis, waste

K. T. Lee (*) • C. Ofori-Boateng

Lignocellulosic Research Group, School of Chemical Engineering, University Sains Malaysia, Seri Ampangan 14300 Penang, Malaysia e-mail: chktlee@eng. usm. my; cyndykote@yahoo. com

R. Pogaku and R. Hj. Sarbatly (eds.), Advances in Biofuels,

DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-6249-1_5, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 disposal and high phytochemical costs all over the world, hence achieving the holistic approach towards zero-waste strategy. This approach, for instance, has been adopted and applied by Haslenda and Jamaludin (2011) who have developed a framework called industry to industry by-product exchange network (I2IBEN) which is able to solve the problem of waste generation and management in the palm oil refinery. This framework is able to raise the palm oil refinery’s gross profit to MYR182, 893 when the by-product revenue, packaging cost, delivery cost and all the supply constraints are considered.

The palm oil (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is a single-stemmed tropical and agro-industrial tree which belongs to the palm family (Arecaceae) and whose fruits produce mainly palm oil as the most consumed edible oil in the world (Kelly-Yong et al. 2007). The huge demand for palm oil (with about 27% share of the total world’s oils and fats production) worldwide has caused an increase in oil palm production which has further facilitated the generation of large amount of OPW. These biomass residues are readily available and in urgent need of an efficient utilisation and effective means of disposal.

A hectare of palm oil plantation on dry weight basis generates about 50-70 tonnes of OPW annually (Salathong 2007). The main type of OPW includes empty fruit bunches (EFB), palm-pressed fibre (PPF), palm oil trunks (OPT), palm oil fronds (OPF) and palm oil mill effluent (POME), which are further discussed in this review. The world’s total annual production of OPW is estimated at about 184 million tonnes with about 5% annual increment (Global oils and fats business magazine 2007). The palm oil industry generates its wastes mainly in the form of lignocellu — losic materials from the plantation and the palm oil milling processes. The extrac­tion of 1 tonne of crude palm oil (CPO) requires about 5 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) which generates about 1.15 tonnes of EFB and 2.45 tonnes of palm oil mill effluents as residues (Corley and Tinker 2003). The processing of an FFB (weighing 20-30 kg) generates about 20% of CPO, about 25% nuts (comprising about 5% kernels, 13% fibre and 7% shell) and about 23% EFB (Yusoff 2006; Corley and Tinker 2003). These figures keep rising yearly as the demand for palm oil increases, and only about 10% of the generated OPW is utilised with the remaining 90% creat­ing environmental burdens as their current disposal methods are unsafe. The devel­opment of new bio-products from OPW has gained much attention recently, and the simultaneous production of these products within the palm oil industry would help boost the economy and maintain sound environment.

The potential applications of OPW as raw materials for the production of value-added products such as sugar (Rahman et al. 2006; Chin et al. 2011; Zahari et al. 2012), phytonutrients (Ahmad et al. 2009; Ng and Choo 2010; Sasidharan et al. 2012), bioplastics (Mumtaz et al. 2010), biochemicals (Misson et al. 2009; Burham et al. 2009), herbal medicines (Sasidharan et al. 2010; Rosalina Tan et al. 2011) and biofuel (Jung et al. 2011; O-Thong et al. 2012) have been reported.

This review objectively elaborates on the potentials of utilising wastes through modern technological methods in transforming OPW into value-added bio-products as a way of enhancing sustainable utilisation and management of wastes from the palm oil industry as well as increasing the financial viability of the palm oil.