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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.
