EFB Pellets: Indonesia and Malaysia's Huge Potential Ready to be Monetized

Empty oil palm fruit bunches (EFB) are the most abundant solid waste from palm oil mills. Efforts to utilize them have also attracted considerable attention. With hundreds of tons of waste produced daily, it certainly presents a challenge, but also an attractive opportunity. Considerations of investment size and potential profits are key. EFB pellet production is an attractive option given the need for biomass fuel for decarbonization, renewable fuels, and carbon-neutral fuels to achieve Indonesia's Net Zero Emissions (NZE) by 2060.

The global population of palm oil plantations, with Indonesia and Malaysia leading the way, makes processing this material highly attractive. Many machinery companies have focused on empty fruit bunch processing, particularly through size reduction and pressing, but few have focused on producing EFB pellets. This is because empty fruit bunches, with their high fiber content, are more difficult to process than wood materials like sawdust or other agricultural waste biomass. 

Selecting the right, reliable, and experienced production machinery supplier is key to success. Performance guarantees, such as agreed quality and quantity targets, as well as timely machine manufacturing, installation, commissioning, and production, are indicators of the supplier's reliability. A track record is also an important consideration. Furthermore, the high potassium content of empty fruit bunches (EFB) poses a challenge in producing boiler-friendly fuel, particularly for pulverized combustion, commonly used in power plants.

And with the increasing number of companies producing EFB pellets, there will be competition for the supply of empty fruit bunches raw materials, such as PLN EPI (Energi Primer Indonesia) which signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with PT Biomassa Energi Group (BEG) and G7 Group SP.Z.O.O from Poland which was developed jointly will start operating in February 2026, with an initial production target of 120 thousand tons per year, and will be followed by five additional factories with similar or larger capacities, more details read here. 

EFB Pellets with Low Potassium (K) and Chlorine (Cl) for Power Plants

Palm oil mills that have excess energy, especially electrical energy, will have more freedom to develop their business. The excess electrical energy could have come from the production of electricity from the use of biogas. Liquid waste (pome) from palm oil mills is the raw material for biogas production. A palm oil mill with a production capacity of 30 tons of FFB/hour will be able to generate 1 MW of electricity and so on. One of the products that can be processed from the utilization of palm oil solid waste as well as the development of this business by utilizing excess energy is EFB pellets production. With the high price of palm kernel shells or PKS and wood pellets, the driving force or need for EFB pellets is increasing. Global awareness regarding decarbonization or CO2 removal (CDR) or CO2 reduction is the main driving force.

Apart from that, the production of EFB pellets can also be carried out by a separate company by purchasing the raw materials for EFB from palm oil mills. With conditions in Indonesia where there are still very few palm oil mills that have biogas units so that they have electricity supply and can process EFB into EFB pellets, there is still a lot of EFB that has not been utilized and becomes waste that pollutes the environment. This makes EFB pellet producing companies not have to worry about the supply of EFB raw materials. In fact, because the amount or volume of EFB is very large, the EFB pellet plant will be overwhelmed by the abundance of this raw material.

However, due to the high content of EFB in potassium and chlorine (ash chemistry), the use of EFB pellets is limited or can only be used in certain types of power plants, especially stokers and fluidized beds. In fact, most power plants currently use pulverized combustion technology. This is so that the chemical content of ash in EFB must be made as friendly as possible to boilers, especially those with pulverized combustion technology. This can be done so that the chemical content of the ash in the form of potassium (K) and chlorine (Cl) is only less than 2000 ppm. Potassium (K) with a low melting point causes deposits or scale to form in the heat exchanger pipes in the boiler so that the efficiency of heat exchange decreases while chlorine (Cl) is corrosive which shortens the life of the equipment. The treatment was even successful in reducing K and Cl by up to 80% so that the problem of fouling thickness and corrosivity was also reduced by 80%. With the number of palm oil mills in Indonesia reaching around 1000 units, of course the amount of EFB that can be processed into EFB pellets is also very large.

Hydrothermal Carbonisation (HTC) Technology, Suitable For EFB Ugrading

Various efforts are made to improve the quality of biomass fuel so that it can be used especially on existing power plants. Power plants are the largest users of biomass fuels today as well as one of the main targets for reducing emissions by renewable fuels or carbon neutral fuel. Characteristics of raw materials and power generation technology becomes an important consideration in determining the technology of the fuel production process. The palm oil industry with the number of CPO producers (Palm Oil Mills) amounting to thousands (Indonesia and Malaysia) and the area of ​​oil palm plantations of 12 million hectares in Indonesia as well as 5 million hectares in Malaysia make it a target source of biomass raw materials. In the palm oil industry the amount of biomass produced is much more than oil or CPO as its main product, ie 10% oil and 90% biomass as illustrated below.

After the previous palm kernel shell (PKS) to fuel mainstay and sought for power plants because the properties are very appropriate, especially those using fluidized bed combustion (FBC), well next empty palm bunches or EFB which is very abundant and has not been used the next target for biomass fuel sources. If the PKS can already be used (just a little cleaning) by the power plants, then for EFB need to processing prior to be used because of the moisture content, size, shape and sometimes the chemical properties. EFB has high chlorine and potassium content so not all power plants are compatible with the fuel. If EFB is made into EFB pellet then FBC generator as used PKS can use it but for pulverized type is not suitable, because of the high chlorine and potassium content.

Such conditions create innovations so that EFB can be a suitable fuel for pulverized power plants that are widely used today. The innovation is a technology that can reduce the content of chlorine and potassium in particular, and increase its energy content. The technology is hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) or wet carbonisation so that the chemical ash in the form of chlorine and potassium can be dissolved by dissolving in water such as leaching and also its energy content can be increased by carbonization. In addition, the EFB condition of the palm oil mills with moisture content above 60% or wet biomass also simplify the application of hydrothermal carbonization technology.

The amount of EFB is huge, it is estimated that Indonesia alone reaches more than 35 million tons and in Malaysia is also very much that is more than 15 million tons, or from two of the largest producer of CPO at present the potential of EFB that can be processed reaches more than 50 million tons / year. In addition to addressing environmental issues, EFB processing will also drive a sizable economic sector. With hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) technology, EFB properties can be upgraded to fit the current powerplant commonly used. Fears of power generation due to high chlorine content, and potassium can be overcome with such technology. To save transportation costs while facilitating handling, storage and usage, EFB products that have been processed with hydrothermal carbonisation or HTC EFB (EFB hydrochar) are further densified into pellets and briquettes. It seems that this technology has provided an answer as well as opening up new opportunities for EFB processing into favorite biomass fuels such as wood pellets and PKS.

Export Pellets Fuel And Soil Fertility

There are some people who worry if bioenergy export especially pellets fuel is done massively so soil fertility will decrease or the soil become damaged. Why are they worried about this? Because the intended pellet fuel is EFB pellets or empty fruit bunches of palm oilpellets . Empty fruit bunch of palm oil as raw material EFB pellet is indeed currently many processed into compost or solid organic fertilizer is used on the palm plantation. If there is no fertilizer or nutrients for the palm oil trees it is true that the fertility of the soil will be damaged. Wastes of palm oil plantations such as midrib and leaves can also be composted but will be even more difficult, because  first, as it requires additional effort to collect them, whereas EFB is produced daily in large quantities in palm oil mills so there is no need to collect them. While midrib and palm leaf is the waste of plantation that spread or scattered in the plantation itself. Second, EFB from palm oil tree have high water content because previously done steamming process in CPO production. The high water content of EFB palm oil or about 60% makes it easy to compost because the material is easily decomposed into compost. While the midrib and leaves are generally dry, making it more difficult to compost.

The problems above can be overcome by grazing livestock, especially sheep. With grazing, the grass between the palm trees becomes the feed for the sheep, manure becomes fertilizer for palm oil trees and meat for human consumption. With such grazing, humans can produce meat and fertilize palm oil plantations very economically. A success story reference of this grazing is Allan Savory a biologist from Zimbabwe, whose Holistic Planned Grazing concept has been applied today to about 16 million hectares worldwide or about twice the area of our oil palm plantations. There are a number of factors of sheep grazing superiority compared to cows, which can be read on this link, this and this.

Then what about the pellets fuel from woody biomass or wood pellet from energy plantations? Trees planted as energy plantation are generally leguminoesae whose roots are able to bind nitrogen (nitrogen fixing trees), so it can be a pioneer plant and can grow almost anywhere including in barren or arid lands. The trees are even able to fertilize the land that was originally arid or the dead earth. But to get the best wood productivity the fertile and well-maintained soil (although the treatment is also very easy) should be met. Prepared and precise sheep grazing is one such treatment at the same time we will produce the most economical meat.