Biochar as Deforestation Solution in Palm Oil Plantations and EUDR

The development of the palm oil industry and its plantations in Indonesia is very rapid, especially in the last 10 years and currently the area of ​​Indonesian palm oil plantations is estimated to reach 17 million hectares. As the largest vegetable oil producing plant in the world and the largest palm oil plantation area in the world, of course palm oil has a strategic value in the Indonesian economy. The average speed of Indonesian palm oil plantation area is 6.5% per year or equivalent to around 1 million hectares per year for the last 5 years, while the increase in palm oil fruit production or FFB (fresh fruit bunches) is only 11% on average.

Even the largest land expansion occurred in 2017, which increased by 2.8 million hectares. From 2015 to 2019, the total area of ​​palm oil plantations increased by 3.7 million hectares. The extensification or expansion of palm oil plantations has been widely "accused" and has become the focus of the world as a result of the conversion of forest land, resulting in a lot of deforestation to be converted into palm oil plantations.

Pressure from the European Union in particular, due to these conditions, has worsened the image of Indonesian palm oil, which in turn has affected the selling price of palm oil products, both CPO and its derivative products. Improving this image is also not easy. One effective effort is to stop the extensification efforts so that forest land remains forest land and does not turn into oil palm plantations. The European Union on Deforestation-free Regulation (EUDR), which will come into effect on December 30, 2024, as an effort to prevent deforestation, is also an important consideration. The regulation requires consumers and producers along the supply chain of certain commodities to conduct due diligence and risk assessments to ensure that their products do not contribute to deforestation. The EUDR also applies a tiered inspection and penalty system based on the level of risk perceived in the country of origin.

With the extensification of oil palm land of more than 1 million per hectare each year but the increase in oil palm fruit production is only 11%, it is certainly less attractive and must be avoided, especially with the world's spotlight on the increasingly rapid deforestation. This also increasingly indicates the low productivity of palm oil plantations. In fact, by improving soil quality, palm oil fruit productivity can be increased significantly and the opening of new land for the creation of palm oil plantations can be avoided. Biomass waste in palm oil plantations and in palm oil mills can be used for biochar production as a solution to this problem.

With the increase in productivity of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) with the use of biochar, new palm oil plantations do not need to be opened again. Assuming an average increase in productivity of 20%, CPO production will also increase by 20% or equivalent to 2 million tons. This increase will be equivalent to opening new land covering an area of ​​more than 2 million hectares. Of course, it is not a small area of ​​land. With a 20% increase in production, it is very likely that national needs for CPO in particular have been met and so too for the export market. Another advantage of using biochar is as a climate solution as carbon sequestration/carbon sink. So the two main problems in the palm oil industry in the form of increasing productivity and climate change resilience can be overcome at once with the application of biochar.    

Mini Palm Oil Mill Solution to Maximize FFB Processing

It is estimated that around 40% of palm oil plantations in Indonesia are owned by the people, this means that with the current area of palm oil plantations reaching around 15 million hectares, smallholder palm oil plantations reach about 6 million hectares with a total of 16 million smallholders. Of course the amount is not small, so if the palm fruit produced (Fresh Fruit Bunch / FFB) from the plantation can be processed optimally, it will increase the national production of crude palm oil or CPO. The area of ​6 million hectares itself is larger than Malaysia's palm oil plantation, which is the second largest producer of palm oil in the world, after Indonesia.

A number of FFB production from smallholder palm oil plantations are often constrained to supply to palm oil mills related to infrastructure and distance. This makes it take a long time or even too late to supply to the nearest palm oil mill, thus reducing the quality of palm fruit / FFB, automatically producing the crude palm oil. Low quality makes FFB prices cheap and even rejected by palm oil mills because they do not meet the required quality standards. This is certainly detrimental to farmers so that efforts are needed to overcome them.

Palm oil mills usually have a capacity of between 30 tons of FFB/hour to 120 tons of FFB/hour or it can be said that the average capacity is 60 tons of FFB/hour. The palm oil mill is owned by a palm oil company and with this capacity is very large for smallholders with limited palm oil plantation area. A mini palm oil mill with a capacity of 1 - 4 tons of FFB/hour is likely to be suitable for these smallholders. With this capacity, besides being cheaper, it requires narrower land and simpler production techniques so that FFB production from remote locations can be processed easily.

The palm oil production process can also be simplified or simplified so that it can be safe and easy to operate, for example in a large factory that uses high pressure steam, it can be simplified to only use low pressure steam. In large factories, high pressure steam is used to drive a steam turbine which is connected to a generator so as to generate electricity for the palm oil mill operation itself and the steam output from a low-pressure steam turbine is used for FFB sterilization. Meanwhile, if the mini mill has low pressure steam or only atmospheric steam, the steam is directly used for FFB sterilization, while the electricity for the operation of the mini palm oil mill comes from outside (external). With this mini capacity, the need for electricity for these operations is also not big.

The high quality of the palm oil produced can be obtained due to the quality of the raw materials and processes carried out. Good equipment performance also makes the process carried out according to the desired operating conditions. With the capacity of small palm oil mills, the volume of products produced is also small, so to achieve large volumes, it must be collected from a number of these mini palm oil mills. With more and more mini palm oil mills scattered in various locations, less FFB is wasted and quality palm oil products can be maintained. Cheap or falling FFB prices at the farmer level can also be overcome by mini palm oil mills that have good market access for their palm oil products.