Palm Oil Production In Malaysia Research Articles

Impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the quality and quantity of Malaysia's palm oil production: A time series analysis.

This study investigates the effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the quality and quantity of Malaysia's palm oil production through a time series analysis. The study uses three primary factors to evaluate palm oil production: the Monthly Oil Extraction Rate (OER), the Monthly Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) Yield, and the Monthly Oil Exports. The results indicate that the Russia-Ukraine conflict significantly impacted the quality and quantity of palm oil production in Malaysia. Marginal declines in both the quality and quantity of palm oil produced at the onset of the conflict indicate a slight but significant decline in palm oil production during the next four-year period.

Fats and Oils as Renewable Feedstock for the Chemical Industry

The 11th Workshop on Fats and Oils as Renewable Feedstock for the Chemical Industry was scheduled for March 2021. However, COVID-19 appeared, and the pandemic developed and soon had Europe and most parts of the world under control. Therefore, in November 2020, we decided to defer the Workshop by 1 year to March 2022. We thought that after 1 year, we could forget all problems with COVID-19. That was an error. In January 2022, we discussed the alternative of a real versus a virtual conference. After consultations with the invited speakers, we decided to favor an actual face-to-face workshop and another postponement in the summer because of the pandemic. And then Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, setting in motion a devastating European ground war. Nonetheless, the 11th Workshop eventually took place in Dortmund, Germany, from May 30 to June 01, 2022, organized by abiosus e.V. in cooperation with the Agency of Renewable Resources (FNR), Germany, and with financial support from the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture.[1] Some important contributions to the Workshop are compiled in this Special issue. COVID-19 had a tremendous impact on the global production and consumption of fats and oils. Overall, vegetable oil production was projected in 2020 in the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook to increase globally by about 1.4% p.a., mainly driven by food demand in developing countries as a result of population and income growth. Vegetable oil consumption was also projected to grow by about 1.4%.[2a] Though, it was already stated in this Outlook that the pandemic spread of COVID-19 has resulted in a reduction of mobility with substantial implications for away-from-home consumption. Hence, the demand for vegetable oil, widely used for deep-frying, may have been affected. In addition, the decline in economic activity and reduced crude oil price curb the demand for vegetable oil as biodiesel feedstock.[2b] In fact, global production of the major vegetable oils decreased by 0.64 Mt (0.3%) in 2020/21, followed by a lower-than-projected increase of 0.8% in 2021/22. In 2022/23, global production grew by 4.4%, close to the growth projected in summa.[3] The minor production is mainly due to the slow to negative growth in palm oil production in Malaysia and Indonesia due to weather issues and labor shortages linked partly to the COVID pandemic.[4a] The global vegetable oil consumption corresponded in 2019/20 and 2020/21 approximately the projection, whereas a decrease of about 0.3% occurred in 2021/22.[2, 3] Global exports, which were projected to increase by 1.2% p. a.,[2a] decreased by 1.9 Mt (2.2%) in 2020/21 and by 6.4 Mt (7.9%) in 2021/22.[3] For example, China's COVID-related restrictions, slowing economic growth, and higher global commodity prices have weakened the country's demand for vegetable oil consumption. For the marketing year 2021/22, China's imports of major vegetable oils declined by 6.13 Mt (46%) and domestic consumption by 3.8 Mt (9.4%).[3, 4b] On the other hand, the export of palm oil by Indonesia declined by 4.7 Mt for the marketing year 2021/22, followed by an increase in domestic consumption of 2.45 Mt, primarily due to biodiesel production combined with an increased biodiesel blending mandate of up to 35%.[3, 4c] Moreover, the Russian invasion of Ukraine triggered a series of major impacts on the global oilseed market. Ukraine exported 0.8 Mt (15%) less sunflower seed oil in the marketing year 2021/22 than in the previous year.[3, 4d] Last but not least, we would like to invite you to the 12th Workshop on Fats and Oilsas Renewable Feedstock for the Chemical Industry from June 3 to 5, 2024. Hopefully, you will have the opportunity to participate. We are looking forward to an exciting and fruitful discussion with you, the fats and oils community. The program and additional information will be available in September 2023 (http://www.abiosus.org/meetings.html.de). The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Cattle-oil palm integration – a viable strategy to increase Malaysian beef self-sufficiency and palm oil sustainability

Palm oil production in Malaysia contributes significantly to the national economy, but its production has adverse effects on the environment. A solution to mitigate environmental impacts and increase resource use efficiency is integrating palm oil and beef cattle production. This can reduce deforestation, needs for grazing land, and reduce herbicide use in plantations when cattle graze the weeds. Integration is more complex if the plantation and cattle are owned by different parties, as plantation owners indicate they perceive little or no benefit from integration. As a result, plantation managers consider the undergrowth as weeds and do not aim at improving the nutritional quality and biomass. This disinterest may explain why the potential of the undergrowth as forage has been understudied. The first objective of this study was, therefore, to assess the nutritional quality of the undergrowth in an integrated oil palm-cattle system where cattle are owned by smallholder farmers. The second objective was to estimate to what extent the nutritional requirements of cattle grazing the undergrowth are met. Plant species composition was determined and biomass was measured in an oil palm plantation in Peninsular Malaysia. Furthermore, the cattle diet was estimated from observations during grazing and interviews with five smallholder farmers were conducted. The species with the highest biomass in the undergrowth were Ottochloa nodosa, Axonopus compressus, Cyrtococcum oxyphyllum, Arthraxon hispidus, and Adiantum latifolium. Cattle selected for the more nutritious species within the available biomass. The grass A. compressus (64 %) and pruned oil palm fronds (18%) made up most of the cattle's diet, and the leguminous cover crop Pueraria phaseoloides was preferred if present. The diet contained 151 g crude protein (CP) kg−1 DM, and the ME content was 7.5 MJ ME kg−1 DM. The nutritional quality was estimated to cover energy requirements of cattle for maintenance by 1.6 times, whereas it provided ample CP. These results suggest that energy requirements may not always be fully met. Energy deficiency could be mitigated by feeding cattle with palm kernel meal, an energy-rich by-product from palm kernel oil production. Cattle were kept at or above the recommended stocking density for Malaysian plantations (0.11 TLU ha−1). Our observations suggest that the carrying capacity of the undergrowth is higher than the recommended stocking density, which implies scope to increase stocking densities and beef production, thereby reducing the need for further deforestation. In conclusion, integrating palm oil and cattle production is a viable strategy for both smallholders and plantation management to increase resource use efficiency in plantations and beef self-sufficiency in Malaysia.

Social life cycle assessment of crude palm oil production in Malaysia

Oil palm cultivation in Malaysia is known to be labour-intensive. Human rights issues primarily related to workers have always been contentious. This study performed social life cycle impact assessment using one of the type 1 impact assessment methods called Subcategory Assessment Method (SAM). It aimed to evaluate the social performance of some palm oil companies and identify the social hotspots of workers in crude palm oil production starting from nursery, plantation to palm oil mill, and test the applicability of SAM. The basic requirements of SAM were guided to classify the performance reference points, which were used as the threshold where the social inventory indicators were developed to collect the data. A qualitative research approach was used to acquire a better understanding of the issue highlights. Five companies located in Peninsular Malaysia were chosen in this study. The required data were collected via face-to-face interview with the workers and company representatives. The data analysis via SAM was found able to assess the social performance, and identify the social hotspots. The results obtained indicated that all companies involved were similar as the same laws and regulations were adhered to. The subcategory of working hours was found as the social hotspot requiring further improvement. The findings of this study become useful to serve as a guideline in mapping the social hotspots for workers in the palm oil supply chain, and in formulating effective strategies to overcome the resulted social impacts. However, further studies are required to fill the gaps that have not been solved in this study. These include more participation from other companies and inclusion of other stakeholders to explore and assess the industry's social performance more holistically.

Forecasting on the crude palm oil production in Malaysia using SARIMA Model

Today, accurate prediction on the seasonal trend of the crude palm oil production is critical for the government and agriculturist management to aid in decision-making. The study aims to forecast the Malaysia crude palm oil production by using the Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average model. The monthly data of Malaysia crude palm oil production were obtained from Malaysian Palm Oil Board, from January 2014 until September 2019. The Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average model was applied to the data by using the Box-Jenkins approach. Based on the adequacy checking and accuracy testing, SARIMA(1,0,0)(0,1,1)12 is the best fitted model for the Malaysia crude palm oil production. As a result of the findings, the SARIMA(1,0,0)(0,1,1)12 model appears to be the best choice for decision makers to make reliable and accurate long-term forecasts on Malaysia crude palm oil production.

Characteristics of calcined palm oil pastes for biosilica extraction as a function of calcination temperatures

Palm oil production in Malaysia has increased over the years. As the consequence of high production of palm oil, surplus quantities of palm oil biomass wastes such as empty fruit bunches (EFB), palm kernel shell (PKS), and oil palm decanter cake (DC) are generated. Generally, these wastes are used as fuel to generate steam for boilers, which end up as ash. As several agricultural wastes are well-known to be rich in silica content, this study aims to investigate the bio-silica content of EFB, PKS and DC and their characteristics when calcined at various calcination temperatures from 400°C to 800°C. Several analyses were conducted such as weight loss, color, BET, SEM and FTIR. The results have shown that all samples favorably exhibited silica at higher temperatures, i.e., 800°C. Color analysis depicted that combustible elements were mostly removed at 800°C, leaving non-combusted silica in the waste ash. Weight loss analysis presented that EFB achieved the highest weight loss at 99.05%, followed by PKS at 95.65% and DC at 83.95%. This led to a relatively high amount or purity of silica in the sample. BET analysis showed highest surface area, 20.087m2/g (PKS) and the lowest is 9.492m2/g (DC) at 800°C which verified the high porosity of samples for further absorption applications. The presence of silica was also significantly observed in 800°C FTIR spectra for all waste samples. Overall, it is concluded that EFB, PKS, and DC are highly potential wastes to contribute to the production of bio-silica, which thus can be an option to overcome waste disposal issues in palm oil industries.

Overview of trends in crude palm oil production and economic impact in Malaysia

Palm oil has become a major edible and economic commodity with applications in various domestic and industrial processes. Malaysia is the second largest producer and exporter of crude palm oil (CPO). The oil palm industry in Malaysia significantly expanded and has become a major economic sector. The global demand of this precious commodity as food and fuel has caused a significant upsurge in production of oil palm. A tremendous increase of CPO production has been witnessed in the Malaysian oil palm industry over a decade now. The CPO production in 2011 was about 11.8 million tonnes but skyrocketed to 19.92 million tonnes in 2017. Beyond the revenue generation from the oil palm industry in Malaysia, there is significant investment in research and development that has resulted in the discovery of more sustainable ways to manage oil palm waste. This overview therefore seeks to evaluate the trend in crude palm oil production in Malaysia and its economic contribution to the nation from 2007-2017. Various indices associated with crude palm oil production such as planted land area, volume of exported CPO, revenue generated from the exported CPO, average annual price of exported CPO, fresh fruit yield and oil extraction rate was discussed. This overview is limited to crude palm oil production within 2007-2017 and seeks to discuss the trend within the context of the timeframe.

Achieving High Soil Fertility, Efficient Fruit Harvesting and Low Carbon Footprint Palm Oil Production in Malaysia

The current palm oil harvesting process removes the whole fruit bunch from the palm with most of the fruit unripe, and takes the whole fruit bunch from the plantation to a processing mill. There are two consequences. This robs the symbiotic palm/soil eco-system of important nutrients and steadily reduces soil fertility. Poor soil fertility is now the limit to palm oil production in peninsular Malaysia despite much use of expensive fertiliser, and weak palms in unhealthy soil are prone to the fungus Ganoderma. Secondly, it takes much energy to remove the fruit from the bunch and the quantity and quality of the oil is less than that of ripe fruit. All this is because ripe fruit—which naturally becomes loose—has been defined as “a problem” in harvesting. This paper proposes covering the fruit bunch in a mesh sack whilst ripening, which prevents ripe fruit naturally becoming loose from being a problem and transforms the whole harvesting process. This allows efficient fruit separation and fruit pressing to be done at the foot of the palm tree with only the oil being removed from the plantation, both simplifying and improving the harvesting process and maintaining the organic fertility cycle, adding value in every respect.

Maximizing Crude Palm Oil Production in Malaysia: A Search for an Optimal Policy Using System Dynamics and Genetic Algorithm Approach

Palm oil industry in Malaysia is experiencing a stagnant crude palm oil (CPO) production and has been lagging as compared to Indonesia. This situation can jeopardize Malaysia’s position in world palm oil marker since Malaysia needed to secure its export revenue and fulfilling increasing demand of palm oil both locally and globally in the future. The factors that influence the CPO production are many. Among others are the scarcity of plantation area, labour shortage, and demand from palm-based biodiesel industry. This study presents an integrated of system dynamics (SD) and genetic algorithm (GA) (SD-GA) model to find the optimal policy to improve CPO production in Malaysian palm oil industry. SD offers the platform to evaluate and to test policy while GA facilitate the process of searching the best solutions to achieve the maximum CPO production in 2050. The proposed model has produced five optimal values for five policy variables namely average replanting rate, mechanization adoption rate, and biodiesel mandate in transportation, industrial and other sectors respectively. The best solution suggested that CPO replanting rate need to be increased to 251743.5 hectares per year to decrease the accumulation of ageing area by optimizing all these policy variables. This study is expected to help policy makers in designing related policies and drawing the road map towards improving CPO production in Malaysian palm oil industry.

MS 157: AN EVOLVING STORY

MS 157, the Malaysian standard for commercial oil palm seed, first came out in 1973. There have been four revisions since and the current fifth standard is MS 157:2017. The standard has greatly contributed to the massive expansion in palm oil production in Malaysia from the 1970s to the present, setting the benchmark for quality planting materials. Compiled without any legal power for enforcement, its clout derives from it being the pre-requisite quality for the seeds to be sold in Malaysia. The standard, essentially, specifies the quality for oil palm seeds to be planted commercially. Anyone can sell / plant any seed, but to set up shop to sell seeds, the sellers have to be licenced and the licensing requires that only seeds satisfying MS 157 standard be sold. Seedlings, including clonal ramets, are not covered. During the 45 years of its evolution, keywords have been defined and the definitions honed, and performance criteria revised for the different types of genetic stocks used to produce the seeds. The shift in emphasis from parental performance, particularly of dura mother palms, to that of DxP progenies mirrors the shift from dura as planting material at the dawn of oil palm growing in Malaysia to DxP from the 1960s. Clonal seeds are gradually increasing in market share but there are no specific provisions in MS 157 yet. The 2017 revision missed recent developments in oil palm genomics which could have strengthened the standard further, but this can be done in its next iteration. Keywords: D x P, seeds, standard.

Sustainability assessment for crude palm oil production in Malaysia using the palm oil sustainability assessment framework

AbstractThe sustainability of production is one of the greatest challenges experienced by the Malaysian palm oil industry. Palm oil products consistently receive negative press and criticism, for causing deforestation, land use changes, peat land conversion, species loss, greenhouse gas emissions, biomass waste generation, violation of indigenous people's rights and limited local employment. This paper evaluates the sustainability of the most common crude palm oil supply chain in Malaysia, located in Sarawak, using the Palm Oil Sustainability Assessment (POSA) framework. The results show that the overall sustainability score for a typical crude palm oil supply chain in Malaysia is 3.47/5, which is below the sustainability target of 5/5. Hotspots identified include smallholder inequity, lack of biomass waste recycling and recovery, improper plantation practices, lower average wages and local employment. The site‐specific application of the POSA framework in the current study demonstrates its potential to be used universally across Malaysia.

Palm Oil Production in Malaysia: An Analytical Systems Model for Balancing Economic Prosperity, Forest Conservation and Social Welfare

Since the late 1950’s, the Malaysian human population has nearly quadrupled, increasing pressure on natural resource exploitation to meet domestic needs and to earn foreign exchange from exports. Global demand for Malaysian palm oil in particular had steeply increased since the mid-1970s and by 2013, the commodity was the leading foreign exchange earner. To fulfill and sustain this demand, the country’s economy has steadily shifted bias towards production and associated value addition of palm oil products for export. However, as a consequence, many of Malaysia’s natural tropical forests have been converted to palm oil farming resulting in loss of approximately 10,000 km2 of forest cover over the past twenty-five years, and biodiversity has been displaced or lost. To provide a deeper insight into the interplay amongst key interrelated environmental and socio-economic variables, and a forecast of possible future balance, we used a systems dynamism modeling tool, STELLAR (structural thinking, experiential learning laboratory with animation), to simulate and project how Malaysia could achieve a medium-term sustainable balance or optimization between palm oil production and forest conservation without compromising on human social welfare. The model consisted of four main modules (environmental, economic, social development and human welfare) each with component parameters, and interconnected by input and output loops. Model calibrations, testing and preruns involved existing official 30-year time-series datasets. Subsequently, four scenarios: Environmental conservation; Economic growth under increased global palm oil demand; Economy decline under decreased palm oil demand; and Control condition with little or no change, were selected for simulated projections of future possibilities. Simulation results showed that scenarios and variable interactions that reduce environmental damage would offer the best chance for optimizing the palm oil economy while also minimizing forest loss and promoting citizen social welfare.

An Evaluation of Holistic Sustainability Assessment Framework for Palm Oil Production in Malaysia

Palm oil based biodiesel offers an alternative energy source that can reduce current dependence on conventional fossil fuels and may reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions depending on the type of feedstock and processes used. In the Malaysian context, the palm oil industry not only provides high-yield, renewable feedstock to the world, it brings socio-economic development to the Malaysian rural community and contributes to the national income. However, the sustainability of palm oil remains controversial, due to deforestation, pollution and social conflicts associated with its production. Sustainability assessment is vital for the palm oil industry to identify weaknesses, improve its sustainability performance and improve consumer confidence. This paper proposes a holistic sustainability assessment framework for palm oil production with the aim to address the weaknesses of existing palm oil sustainability assessment methods. It identifies environmental, social and economic Headline Performance Indicators, Key Performance Indicators and their Performance Measures in crude palm oil production in a structured framework. Each quantitative/semi-quantitative performance measure is translated into Likert Scale of 1–5, where 3 is the threshold value, 5 is the ideal condition, and 1 is the worst case scenario. Calculation methods were established for the framework to provide quantitative assessment results. The framework was tested using a hypothetical example with data from existing studies. The results suggest that crude palm oil production in Malaysia is below the sustainability threshold. Evaluations of this sustainability assessment framework also demonstrate that it is a comprehensive assessment method for assessing sustainability of feedstock for biofuel production.

Review of Existing Sustainability Assessment Methods for Malaysian Palm Oil Production

Malaysia is the second largest palm oil producer in the world. Palm oil production contributes to 6.4% of its gross national income and is important to the socio-economic growth of the country. Palm oil is cheap, high-yield and versatile in various applications. However, the Malaysian palm oil industries are facing enormous challenges due to environmental criticism from pressure groups, green consumerism and increasingly stringent sustainability criterion of importing countries. As a result, various assessment methods have been applied to assess the sustainability performance of palm oil production in Malaysia. This paper reviews how the stakeholders define sustainable palm oil, the effectiveness of existing sustainability assessment through tools (e.g. LCA), standards (e.g. ISPO, ISCC) and legislative requirements (RFS2, REDcert) to identify gaps and barriers to achieve environmental, economic and social objectives of sustainable palm oil production. The gaps and barriers identified would be the basis for developing a holistic framework to attain sustainable palm oil production in Malaysia.

Activated Carbon Fiber Derived from Pyrolysis of Palm Fiber

Palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) is an abundant by-product resulted from massive palm oil production in Malaysia as one of the world's largest exporter and second largest producer of palm oil. This agricultural waste is usually disposed in nature, burnt in opened atmospheres, or used as a fuel for boilers. Such conventional handlings of EFB have created environmental concerns to Malaysia such as air pollution and release of green house gases (CH4 and CO2). This study made use of such biomass in the production of cost effective nanoporous material, namely activated carbon fiber (ACF) which able to diminish the problem of waste disposal, and at the same time to turn waste into wealth. This is especially beneficial when the ACF is used for environmental friendly application such as adsorbed natural gas (ANG) technology. ACF was formed from carbonaceous materials via process of carbonisation and activation. Both chemical and physical activations were carried out by using H2SO4 and CO2, respectively. In pyrolysis, carbonisation was conducted at temperatures i.e. 400, 600, 800 and 1000 °C in nitrogen (N2) atmosphere. Surface morphologies, microstructures, pore structures and surface chemistry of these samples were investigated for the characterisation of EFB fiber-derived ACF. Above 80% of the total pore volumes for the samples were contributed by the micropore as the major pore components in the ACF produced. The samples exhibited an high BET surface area , dominant micropore volume up and narrow pore size distribution in micro range (< 1.5 nm).

Greenhouse gas emissions and energy balance of palm oil biofuel

The search for alternatives to fossil fuels is boosting interest in biodiesel production. Among the crops used to produce biodiesel, palm trees stand out due to their high productivity and positive energy balance. This work assesses life cycle emissions and the energy balance of biodiesel production from palm oil in Brazil. The results are compared through a meta-analysis to previous published studies: Wood and Corley (1991) [Wood BJ, Corley RH. The energy balance of oil palm cultivation. In: PORIM intl. palm oil conference – agriculture; 1991.], Malaysia; Yusoff and Hansen (2005) [Yusoff S, Hansen SB. Feasibility study of performing an life cycle assessment on crude palm oil production in Malaysia. International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment 2007;12:50–8], Malaysia; Angarita et al. (2009) [Angarita EE, Lora EE, Costa RE, Torres EA. The energy balance in the palm oil-derived methyl ester (PME) life cycle for the cases in Brazil and Colombia. Renewable Energy 2009;34:2905–13], Colombia; Pleanjai and Gheewala (2009) [Pleanjai S, Gheewala SH. Full chain energy analysis of biodiesel production from palm oil in Thailand. Applied Energy 2009;86:S209–14], Thailand; and Yee et al. (2009) [Yee KF, Tan KT, Abdullah AZ, Lee KT. Life cycle assessment of palm biodiesel: revealing facts and benefits for sustainability. Applied Energy 2009;86:S189–96], Malaysia. In our study, data for the agricultural phase, transport, and energy content of the products and co-products were obtained from previous assessments done in Brazil. The energy intensities and greenhouse gas emission factors were obtained from the Simapro 7.1.8. software and other authors. These factors were applied to the inputs and outputs listed in the selected studies to render them comparable. The energy balance for our study was 1:5.37. In comparison the range for the other studies is between 1:3.40 and 1:7.78. Life cycle emissions determined in our assessment resulted in 1437 kg CO 2e/ha, while our analysis based on the information provided by other authors resulted in 2406 kg CO 2e/ha, on average. The Angarita et al. (2009) [Angarita EE, Lora EE, Costa RE, Torres EA. The energy balance in the palm oil-derived methyl ester (PME) life cycle for the cases in Brazil and Colombia. Renewable Energy 2009;34:2905–13] study does not report emissions. When compared to diesel on a energy basis, avoided emissions due to the use of biodiesel account for 80 g CO 2e/MJ. Thus, avoided life cycle emissions associated with the use of biodiesel yield a net reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. We also assessed the carbon balance between a palm tree plantation, including displaced emissions from diesel, and a natural ecosystem. Considering the carbon balance outcome plus life cycle emissions the payback time for a tropical forest is 39 years. The result published by Gibbs et al. (2008) [Gibbs HK, Johnston M, Foley JA, Holloway T, Monfreda C, Ramankutty N, et al., Carbon payback times for crop-based biofuel expansion in the tropics: the effects of changing yield and technology. Environmental Research Letters 2008;3:10], which ignores life cycle emissions, determined a payback range for biodiesel production between 30 and 120 years.

The Carbon Cost of Palm Oil Production in Malaysia

Agriculture, in common with other industries, is increasingly being required to account for its contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which are driving global warning, and climate change. In Malaysia, the dominant presence of oil pain, which now occupies some 13 per cent of the total land area (18% in the Peninsular; 2006 figures), justifies particular attention. This paper summarises the results of a recent study, which evaluates the balance between sequestration and emission of GHG resulting .fmm oil palm cultivation, associated land use change, and processing of products in the palm oil mill. The study, which covers the 25 years from 1981 to 2005, quantifies the major sinks and sources of C and evaluates the C balance, using a number of alternative options and assumptions. The main results are outlined here and probable future developments, likely to impact on the balance, are evaluated. Keywords: Oil palm, land use change, carbon sequestration, carbon emission, greenhouse gas.

Feasibility Study of Performing an Life Cycle Assessment on Crude Palm Oil Production in Malaysia (9 pp)

The palm oil industry is one of the leading industries in Malaysia. With a yearly production of more than 13 million tons of crude palm oil (CPO) and plantations covering 11% of the Malaysian land area it is an industry to be reckoned with, also when it comes to environmental impacts. One way to describe and present the environmental impacts is through a life cycle assessment, LCA. This assessment aims to introduce the concept of LCA and perform a screening LCA on crude palm oil production in Malaysia including the stages of plantation, transport and milling. The assessment is largely based on general data and is thus meant to function as an indication of the environmental threads posed by CPO production and as a guideline to CPO producers and local universities on how to perform an LCA on a palm oil scenario. Due to the general data background the results of this report should not be quoted directly for decision making. The Functional Unit, to which all masses and emissions in this assessment have been adjusted, is the production of 1000 kg of CPO in Malaysia. Initially an overview of palm oil production was obtained and the outlines and borders of the assessment were determined along with the specific goal and scope of the assessment. The data for the assessment was collected from three different sources: 1. Earlier studies and statistics on palm oil production in Malaysia 2. Studies on similar processes, when palm oil related processes were not available 3. General data from the SimaPro 5 database The European Eco-Indicator 99 method and European databases included in the LCA software SimaPro 5 have been used for the impact calculations. The impact processes related to the plantation are the on-site energy use (mainly diesel) and the production of artificial fertilizer. Pesticide use contributes a minor impact due to widely used integrated biological poet management. For transportation the only impact is from combustion of diesel and at the mill the boiler is the sole significant contributor – positively through electricity production and negatively by emissions from the boiler. Impacts from POME (Palm Oil Mill Effluent) are not dealt with in the main assessment, but touched upon in alternative scenarios. The results clearly show that fertilizer production is the most polluting process in the system followed by transportation and the boiler emissions at a tie. The most significant impacts from the system are respiratory inorganics and depletion of fossil fuels, of which the boiler emission is the main responsible for the prior and fertilizer production and transportation are responsible for the latter. It is also evident from the results that crude palm oil production is a significant environmental impact generator in Malaysia due to the vast production quantities. Alternative scenarios revealed that there are significant impact savings to be made by introduction of environmental investments, both regarding the overall impacts and in particularly regarding CO2 emissions. A screening LCA was successfully conducted on the Malaysian crude palm oil production thus promising potentials for the palm oil industry to conduct their own inventories and assessments using specific company data. Crude palm oil production in Malaysia is responsible for app. 3.5% of the total environmental impacts in the country and must thus be given attention to reduce impacts. Alternatives such as optimized use of organic fertilizer, environmentally friendlier artificial fertilizer production, rail transport, approved filters at the mill boiler stack and biogas harvest from POME digestion must thus be promoted in the industry. . The Malaysian palm oil industry should take steps towards introducing LCA. Exhaustive inventories are likely to open the eyes of many companies towards implementing environmental investments and improve the international competitiveness. In order to retrieve results with a greater accuracy in the future, databases must be created containing life cycle data from Malaysian scenarios and normalization and weighting factors must be designed to reflect Malaysian conditions. The Malaysian authorities must create incentives through increased tariffs on electricity and diesel and/or financial support for cleaner technology investments.