Sustainable residue use
The objective of the topic ‘sustainable residue use’ is to increase use of palm oil mill- and field biomass residues, thereby adding value to products, create new job opportunities and ultimately reduce the need for expansion of land for oil palm plantations. The topic ‘sustainable residue use’ knows two main focus areas.
Mill residues use and circular palm oil mill
Palm oil mill effluent (POME), empty fruit bunches (EFB) and mesocarp fibers contain residual oil and fatty acids which can be extracted and have the potential to be used for the production of fuel, such as sustainable aircraft fuels (SAF) in the EU. The project aims to demonstrate the extraction of such residual oils for other uses such as SAF.
At the mill level, the project aims to demonstrate the viability of producing biogas from POME and EFB for running the mill and / or to release biomass for alternative uses, for instance as alternative for fossil fuels outside palm oil mills.
Circular management of field residue
Oil palm trees have the potential to offer other products than fresh fruit bunches (FFB). In palm oil production, common practice is to leave replanted tree trunks abandoned in the field as mulch. However, tree trunks contain starch an glucose which has the potential to be extracted for starch and sugar production, which can be used for food, feed, bioplastics and for fuels. Oil palm tree trunks can also be used for the production of veneer and lumber, a potential which is currently mostly unused. SustainPalm aims to address the bottlenecks, to explore and develop business models for use of field residues from palm oil production.
Activities will be implemented in the following locations :
- Riau Province
- Bengkulu Province
- Lampung Province
For more information please contact :
Wolter Elbersen – wolter.elbersen@wur.nl
Yessie Sari – yessie.sari@apps.ipb.ac.id
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