Application of environmental and hazard assessment methodologies towards the sustainable production of crude palm oil in North-Colombia

Abstract

Palm oil processing is one of the most dynamic economic activities in Colombia due to its high productivity for oil extraction. The crude palm oil (CPO) extraction from fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) requires processing stages (e.g. sterilization, threshing, digestion, pressing, clarification and drying) that may generate by-products or wastes impacting negatively the environment. In this work, the Tool for the Reduction and Assessment of Chemical and other Environmental Impacts (TRACI) was used for a better understanding of environment/human health-related issues during oil extraction. Besides, potential hazards were determined through Hazard Identification and Ranking (HIRA) methodology to identify the most critical units and propose relevant safety corrections. The environmental assessment revealed that pressed cake and empty fruit bunches (EFBs) most contributed to total freshwater ecotoxicity calculated in 2.66 × 10−1 CTUeco/kg CPO. The residual water from both clarification and sterilization stages caused significant impacts to water eutrophication (1.51 × 10−2 kg N eq/kg CPO). Process safety assessment showed risks of fire and explosion due to emissions of combustible dust and handling flammable materials. For most of the studied units, Fire & Explosion Damage Index (FEDI) achieved values above 400, which are classified in the categories of extremely or highly hazardous. Boiler reached the highest FEDI (790) due to the high temperature and pressure conditions during combustion and steam production. The novelty of this work lies in: i) detecting environmental and safety issues that need to be addressed, ii) providing insights for process improvements to move towards sustainable CPO production by incorporating safety and environmental aspects.