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Pilot Project to Convert Palm Oil Waste into Biofuel
This story originally appeared on the Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) website on August 29, 2009. We are reposting here for the benefit of our readers.
A pilot project in Aceh, Indonesia recently won approval to collect the waste byproducts generated at a palm oil production site and use them as feedstock for making biodiesel.
The project, proposed in a paper by DAI consultant Thomas B. Fricke, will create a prototype for developing biofuel feedstocks for local and international biodiesel markets. Indonesia’s palm oil industry is a significant provider of livelihoods, but also a prolific polluter. The project’s significance lies in the fact that it goes beyond merely using the oil from oil palm fruit: it converts the entire captured biomass into renewable energy resources.
Eventually, according to Fricke, the project — which will expand an existing small-scale processing plant for palm oil byproducts — could help turn a notoriously dirty industry into a relatively green one.
“By using both the biomass from the plantation as well as the processing residues from palm oil production (fibers, kernel shells, palm oil mill effluent, residual oil, etc.), bioenergy from palm plantations can have an effect on reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Fricke writes, noting that bioenergy is a clean-energy alternative to traditional carbon-based fuel sources such as coal.
An initiative of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Environmental Services Program (ESP), the pilot project is directly tied to Governor Irwandi Yusuf’s Aceh Green Economic Development and Investment Strategy, commonly known as “Aceh Green.” The governor launched Aceh Green in December 2007 with the support of local and international advisors, including Mr. Fricke. ESP supports Aceh Green’s efforts especially related to job creation for ex-combatants in this previously war-torn region.
According to the Aceh Green summary document, “biofuels will be based initially on palm oil and branch out to include other products such as jatropha, sago palm, and sugarcane. A framework for Aceh’s biofuels industry — based on avoided deforestation, carbon credits, and strict sustainability standards — will be set up. This will serve to distinguish Aceh from other parts of Indonesia and regions of the world and boost investor and consumer confidence in the province.”
In recent years, biofuel mandates have spurred the development in Indonesia of palm oil and jatropha for biodiesel, and cassava and sugarcane for bioethanol, but these products are making uneven progress and facing criticism for using food crops as fuels. But non-food-grade byproducts of palm fruit and palm oil production are relatively abundant in Aceh, Fricke writes, and could contribute to sustainable biofuel production for Aceh’s household energy, rural industrial fuel, and power generation needs.
Fricke recommends the following core principles and practices be applied in developing sustainable biofuel feedstocks in Indonesia and Aceh:
- Give priority to non-food-grade feedstocks over food-grade materials;
- Maximize the collection and utilization of waste materials with positive impacts on smallholders, cooperatives, and small and medium-sized enterprises;
- Optimize the use of existing facilities and established production bases to avoid destructive palm industry expansion in forested areas and peatlands;
- Select strategic locations to collect feedstocks and develop infrastructure;
Install proven, cost-effective technologies that can use multiple feedstocks; and - Create viable financial incentives for feedstock production and subsidies for biofuel utilization at household, rural industry, power generation, and vehicle fuel distribution levels, applicable for private as well as public companies.
