Fertilizer Savings in Palm Oil Plantations with Biochar and Compost from Biogas Waste

Although Indonesia is the largest CPO producer in the world with an area of ​​approximately 13 million hectares of palm oil plantations, but it is estimated that less than 10% have a biogas facility from POME (Palm oil mill effluent). Whereas by utilizing POME for biogas production, besides being able to be converted into electricity or heat, it also produces organic fertilizer in the form of compost and liquid organic fertilizer. The compost can be used as fertilizer in oil palm plantations, where the cost of fertilizer for palm oil operations is the highest cost component. It is estimated that every 10,000 hectares costs approximately Rp. 35.75 billion (around US$ 2.25 million) for fertilizer and for more details, you can read here. The use of compost will certainly reduce the need for fertilizer.

Palm oil utilization scheme for optimizing CPO production

Besides that, solid wastes such as palm oil empty fruit bunch, fiber and palm oil frond are also very potential for the production of energy (electricity and heat) and biochar. Energy production in the form of electricity and heat is by burning pyrolysis byproducts in the form of syngas and biooil into the furnace to heat the boiler. And because the syngas and liquid fuels used in the furnace, so that the combustion process is more perfect and clean emissions. Steam generated from the boiler will then drive the steam turbine and generator so as to produce electricity. Low pressure steam from steam turbine is then used for sterilization or boiling the fresh fruit bunches (FFB). While biochar will be used together with compost and chemical fertilizers to make fertilizer effective in the palm oil plantations so that it becomes a slow release fertilizer. Costs for fertilization are also expected to be significantly reduced, for example by up to 50% by this way. Although biochar is not a fertilizer, it has a function that makes fertilizer use effectively because it holds fertilizer nutrients from leaching, for example from rain water, also maintains moisture and so on.

PKS (palm kernel shell) can even be sold or exported. This is because previously or in general the palm kernel shells used to fuel boilers with fiber, have been substituted with products from the pyrolysis process namely syngas and biooil. The need for palm kernel shells for both the domestic / local and export markets continues to increase all the time. Palm kernel shells / PKS are environmentally friendly fuels because they come from biomass so they are carbon neutral fuels. The use of PKS as a fuel is widely used by a number of industries starting as a heat source for the drying process such as spray dryers in detergent and ceramic plants, boilers in food industries such as soy sauce factory, to power plants such as in Japan, can be read in more detail here. In the world of biomass fuel commodity trading, especially in the international market, PKS is the main competitor of wood pellets. Although the specifications are not much different, the price of PKS is also cheaper because it comes from palm oil mill waste and does not need complex processing units such as wood pellets. And basically with the scheme of utilizing palm oil mill wastes as above, it will maximize the profit from the palm oil mill or CPO mill.