FACULTY OF CHEMICAL AND PROCESS ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

MPP1513
ENERGY MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT

ENERGY UTILIZATION AND

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS

BY

MOHD SHAHRUL NAIM BIN ZULKIFLI

KKP23002
 Palm oil is a versatile and widely used vegetable oil that is found in a variety of
products, from food items to cosmetics and cleaning products. However, the production of
palm oil has a significant impact on the environment, particularly in terms of greenhouse gas
emissions. The palm oil industry is responsible for a large portion of global greenhouse gas
emissions, making it a major contributor to climate change. The main source of greenhouse gas
emissions in the palm oil industry is the conversion of forests and peatlands into palm oil
plantations. This process involves the clearing of land through burning, which releases large
amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In addition, the cultivation and processing of
palm oil also contribute to emissions, as it requires the use of fossil fuels for transportation,
machinery, and processing. The palm oil industry is also a major source of methane emissions,
as the decomposition of organic waste from palm oil mills releases this potent greenhouse gas.

The manufacturing industry is accountable for around 33% of global carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions caused by energy use. According to one interpretation of current energy
consumption trends, global energy usage is expected to increase by 75% by 2025 (Moomaw,
1996). In addition, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has predicted that
by the year 2100, the environment may produce up to 570 parts per million of CO2, which
would result in an increase in the average global temperature of around 1.9 degrees Celsius in
addition to a rise in the average sea level of 3.8 metres (Takht Ravanchi & Sahebdelfar, 2014).
Carbon dioxide, which is produced when fossil fuels are used for primary energy consumption
and, indirectly, for electricity. Nevertheless, important amounts of greenhouse gases, including
CO2, methane, halocarbons and NOx, are also being derived from unique industrial
manufacturing practises such as vegetable oil-based biofuels or palm oil.

Over the past 20 years, there has been an increase in demand for palm oil globally.
Plantations growing oil palm have resulted in a rise in palm oil production, particularly in South
East Asia. Furthermore, palm oil is one of the most extensively used vegetable oil products
worldwide and provides 28% of the world's annual supply of vegetable oils (Hosseini & Wahid,
2015). Along with its many positive qualities, the production of palm oil has a number of
drawbacks. Most notably, it produces greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming
and other environmental problems.
 Figure 1: GHG emissions in different stages of palm oil production (Walker et al., 2018)

The manufacturing of palm oil involves several steps that result in GHG emissions ,
and each step has the opportunity to increase GHG efficiency. Figure 1 shows the production
stages of site preparation, plantation management, production of agricultural inputs,
transportation of fresh fruit bunches, and mill processing of fruit bunches are investigated in
terms of GHG sources and sinks at both the plantation and the mill. The palm oil mill is the
source of the second-largest greenhouse gas emissions, primarily from biogas emissions. This
is because the anaerobic process at the palm oil mill releases methane emissions, or POME
(Malaysian & Subramaniam, 2016). Despite the fact that the scenario selected is the biogas
capture scenario, the study conducted by Vijaya et al. (2010b) assumed a capture efficiency of
just 85%, which led to a residual biogas emission of 87.48 kg CO2 eq/t Crude Palm Oil Kernel
(CPKO).
 Figure 1: Typical palm oil milling process flow (Onn Hong, 2022)

Fresh fruit bunch (FFB) harvests from plantations are then transported to palm oil mills,
where they undergo milling and refinery processes that result in the production of crude palm
oil and palm kernel oil, as well as GHG emissions. The schematic overview of palm oil milling
is displayed in Figure 2. The fresh fruit bunch (FFB) is subjected to a number of procedures at
palm oil mills, including sterilisation, stripping, oil extraction, confirmation, splitting nuts and
kernel extraction, and drying, in order to produce palm oil. Steam from a boiler is employed in
the sterilisation process, where incomplete fuel combustion results in dark smoke, CO and CO2
emissions, and the carryover of soot and partially carbonised particles (Hanafi et al., 2016).

Sludge or POME generation during the clarifying process is one of the additional
outflows, in addition to the main product, which consists of CPO and palm kernel. Due to
anaerobic decomposition in the open wastewater pond, which produces biogas mostly linked
to CH4, SO2, NH3, and halogens, POME, or wastewater, and EFB waste, are the main sources
of non-CO2 greenhouse gas emissions (Trisakti et al., 2012). Additionally, according to
Hosseini and Wahid (2015), these emissions of CH4 make up 49–88% of all non-CO2
greenhouse gas emissions, making them 23 times more substantial than the contribution of
CO2 to climate change. In addition, POME needs to be treated before being released because
it is heavily contaminated with biodegradable organic waste, typically up to 80,000 mg/l of
COD.
 REFERENCES

Malaysian, *, & Subramaniam, V. (2016). QUANTIFICATION OF GREENHOUSE

GAS EMISSIONS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF CRUDE PALM KERNEL OIL-
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of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) in a Thermophilic Anaerobic Reactor.
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