Life cycle inventory of oil palm lumber production: A gate-to-gate case study

Abstract

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been applied in the Malaysian oil palm industry since 2010. It is important to ensure that this main industry is ready to meet the demands and expectations of European market on the environmental performance of the oil palm industry. In addition, oil palm biomass, especially oil palm trunk (OPT) are abundantly available after replanting every year. In order to maximize the usage of OPT as a green product, it can be converted to palm lumber as a value-added product. Palm lumber act as a basis product from OPT before it is converted to panel product such as plywood, sandwich board and so on. However, the LCA study on palm lumber production is still scarce in Malaysia. Hence, this paper aims to perform and collect the inventory data for palm lumber production, which is known as Life Cycle Inventory (LCI). A gate-to-gate system boundary and the functional unit of 1 m3 of palm lumber produced have been used in this study. This inventory data was collected from three batches of the production cycle. The inputs are mainly the raw materials which are the OPT and the energy from diesel and electricity from the grid. Generally, each consumption of input such as energy and fossil fuel were different at each stage of palm lumber production. Kiln-drying represents a prominent stage in terms of energy consumption, which electrical use in the dryer represents 94% of total electrical grid consumption as compared to another stage of palm lumber production. By adding the inventory information especially in the downstream sector of biomass industry, hopefully it can improve the sustainability of oil palm industry in Malaysia.Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been applied in the Malaysian oil palm industry since 2010. It is important to ensure that this main industry is ready to meet the demands and expectations of European market on the environmental performance of the oil palm industry. In addition, oil palm biomass, especially oil palm trunk (OPT) are abundantly available after replanting every year. In order to maximize the usage of OPT as a green product, it can be converted to palm lumber as a value-added product. Palm lumber act as a basis product from OPT before it is converted to panel product such as plywood, sandwich board and so on. However, the LCA study on palm lumber production is still scarce in Malaysia. Hence, this paper aims to perform and collect the inventory data for palm lumber production, which is known as Life Cycle Inventory (LCI). A gate-to-gate system boundary and the functional unit of 1 m3 of palm lumber produced have been used in this study. This inventory data was collected from three batches of t...