Palm Oil Replanting Movement and Utilization of Biomass Waste

Palm oil trees begin to lose productivity after 20 years and need to be replaced after 25 years, while new trees take about four years to begin bearing fruit. This generally renders the land unproductive during this four-year period, which discourages farmers from replanting their palm oil. However, intercropping during this period can still provide benefits for farmers. Planting short-term crops like upland rice and corn alongside palm oils can help farmers earn additional income while the palm oils bear fruit and mature.

In 2024, Malaysia, the world's second-largest palm oil producer, began implementing land intensification due to limited land area, only replanting 2%, or approximately 114,000 hectares. This is despite the country's target of replanting 5% of its land. The situation in Indonesia is not much different, with replanting predicted to be less than 2%. For example, if only 1.5%, or approximately 246,000 hectares, are replanted, it would be disproportionate to the area of ​​its oil palm plantations, which is nearly three times Malaysia's. Furthermore, replanting should be carried out periodically every year to achieve optimal palm oil production performance.

The reluctance or slow pace of replanting has led to a decline in national crude palm oil (CPO) production. Malaysian palm oil production has even stagnated for more than a decade due to limited land for new plantations and slow replanting. Meanwhile, in Indonesia, concerns about deforestation have also impacted the expansion of new oil palm plantations. Crude palm oil (CPO) production will decline further if labor shortages and the spread of ganoderma fungus reduce yields.

Given the above conditions, the replanting of palm oil plantations must be encouraged to maintain or even increase palm oil production. The issue of biomass waste from palm oil trees, which cover thousands of hectares, also poses a challenge. With such a large volume of old palm oil trees, utilizing them for value-added products is crucial. With an average hectare of palm oil plantations containing 125 trees, each tree yielding an average dry weight of 2 tons, this yields 250 tons of dry weight of biomass per hectare. For 10,000 hectares, this yields 2.5 million tons of dry weight, and for 100,000 hectares, this yields 25 million tons of dry weight. An optimistic estimate would be that Indonesia could replant 5% of its land, or 820,000 hectares, for 205 million tons of dry weight of biomass. Similarly, Malaysia, with 5% replanting, or 285,000 hectares, would yield 71.25 million tons of dry weight.

Business readiness factors, both in terms of technology and the market or user base for the product, need to be carefully assessed. With such a large volume, biomass processing plants or industries can be established and operate optimally without worrying about raw material shortages. Products such as pellets, briquettes, and biochar are made from waste biomass from old palm oil trunks. Dead old palm oil trunks, often left abandoned on land, should be utilized to produce these useful, value-added products.

Biochar for Sustainable Palm Oil Productivity

The Indonesian government emphasized the importance of sustainable palm oil productivity for food and energy security, as conveyed by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Sudaryono, at the opening of ICOPE (International Conference on Palm Oil and Environment) in Sanur, Bali, mid-February 2025. The conference, attended by delegates from various countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, India, the Netherlands, France, Finland, Colombia, and Spain, aims to formulate a sustainable transformation for the palm oil industry. Sustainable palm oil productivity can be increased by land intensification and the use of superior seeds. Even if land expansion is necessary, it must be done without causing deforestation. Meanwhile, for replanting in dry land, it can also be combined with upland rice or corn through intercropping methods.

Biochar is a powerful solution
Palm oil productivity can be increased by improving fertilizer efficiency, or Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE), as part of land intensification. Using the same fertilizer dose with the addition of biochar will increase palm oil productivity by around 20% or more. Fertilizer savings of around 30% with the addition of biochar will keep palm oil productivity relatively stable or at the same level as before. For efforts to increase palm oil productivity while avoiding deforestation, the first option is more appropriate: maintaining the same fertilizer dose as usual, but adding biochar to increase fertilizer efficiency.  

Indonesia's current CPO production reaches approximately 50 million tons/year across 16.4 million hectares, with an average CPO production of 3.55 tons/ha per hectare, or 3.55 million tons per million hectares. If biochar is used and productivity increases by 20%, this means an increase of 10 million tons of CPO per year (a total of 60 million tons of CPO per year), saving approximately 2.8 million hectares of land. The use of biochar will also slow down forest clearing (deforestation) for palm oil plantations.

Besides using biochar to increase palm oil productivity, other benefits from biochar production include the potential for carbon credits (BCR = biochar carbon removal) and the utilization of pyrolysis byproducts for palm oil plantations and palm oil mill operations in CPO production. This method offers several advantages for palm oil companies, such as savings in liquid organic fertilizer and pesticides, and the sale or export of 100% of the palm kernel shells (PKS). In addition to palm oil companies producing their own biochar through pyrolysis, it is also possible to establish separate companies or companies that collaborate with palm oil companies for biochar production under specific agreements.

Global pressure and scrutiny on the palm oil industry to adopt sustainable practices are increasing. Amidst soaring demand for palm oil in both global and domestic markets, increasing palm oil productivity is inevitable. Utilizing biomass waste from palm oil mills and plantations, such as empty fruit bunches (EFB) and trunks (OPT), for biochar production, and using biochar to increase palm oil productivity, is a powerful solution to address these challenges. Even for replanting dryland with upland rice or corn using intercropping methods, the use of biochar will also have a positive and significant impact on these intercrops. 

EFB Pellets as Biomass Fuel Transition from PKS to Wood Pellet Energy Plantations?

The high demand for palm kernel shells or PKS makes their availability or supply increasingly limited. The properties of palm kernel shells or PKS which have many similarities to wood pellets make them the main competitor for biomass fuel in the global market. The high demand for palm kernel shells is not only because the price is usually cheaper than wood pellets, but also the large availability can be achieved because of the large number of palm oil mills, also especially the many new biomass power plant developments that can use 100% palm kernel shells, namely biomass power plants with fluidized bed combustion (CFBC or BFBC) technology, read more details here. 

Under these conditions, efforts to obtain new biomass fuel become important. The palm oil industry itself produces a lot of biomass waste so it has potential as raw material for new biomass fuel. One of the biomass wastes that has not yet been utilized and is large in volume and has the potential to pollute the environment is palm oil empty bunches or EFB (empty fruit bunch). Every ton of crude palm oil or CPO production will produce approximately 1 ton of EFB waste. This means that with an average palm oil mill capacity of 45 tonnes of FFB/hour, around 10 tonnes/hour of crude palm oil (CPO) will be produced and 10 tonnes/hour of EFB waste. So, for example, if a palm oil mill operates 20 hours/day, approximately 200 tons of EFB waste will be produced/day. And with the number of palm oil mills in Indonesia estimated at 1,000 units, the amount of EFB waste will also huge.

PKS and EFB are both biomass waste from palm oil mills. Both can be easily obtained from palm oil mills in abundant quantities. PKS can even be used directly as biomass fuel, whereas EFB requires pre-treatment first. The EFB that comes out of the palm oil mill is very wet and the shape and size still need to be adjusted to make the follow-up process easier. EFB pellet production is a solution for EFB waste. But apart from that, so that this EFB pellet product can be used more widely or like wood pellets in general, there is an additional process to reduce the amount of mineral content in the ash.

Meanwhile, wood pellets from energy plantations could become the next source of biomass fuel, although currently someone has already started doing so. Because the raw material for EFB pellets is palm oil mill waste and is abundant, it requires a smaller investment, so EFB pellets can be used as transitional biomass fuel before biomass fuel in the form of wood pellets from energy plantations. Investing in land and its preparation as well as creating an energy plantation costs a lot of money. But the advantage of wood pellets from this energy plantation is that the availability of raw materials, even in very large volumes, can be more guaranteed. Apart from that, there are also other benefits from using the leaves as animal feed, especially ruminants and the flowers for honey bee farming.

Production of Briquettes from EFB and MF of Palm Oil for Industrial Boiler Fuels

The need for biomass fuel is increasing all the time, palm kernel shells (PKS) are increasingly expensive and scarce, even though this palm kernel shell (PKS) is the main competitor for wood pellets. When the supply of PKS is limited due to high demand, the price is high, even closer to wood pellets. When this condition is achieved, wood pellets become more desirable than PKS because the quality of wood pellets is better than PKS. In addition to a more uniform shape and size, wood pellets are also drier with a moisture content of around 10%.

In this condition, actually it also opens up opportunities for briquette production. Briquettes and pellets actually use the same type of technology, namely biomass compaction or biomass densification. But briquette production is easier and cheaper than pellets. The level of flexibility of the raw material as a briquette material is also higher than that of pellets. Even some materials that are difficult to make pellets are easy to do with briquette. The size and shape of the briquettes are also more diverse as is the production technology. Briquettes for industrial boiler fuel are briquettes that can be an alternative between PKS and wood pellets.

Besides producing PKS waste, palm oil mills also produce solid waste in the form of empty fruit bunches (EFB) and mesocarp fibre (MF). A number of palm oil mills that use high efficiency boilers will produce a lot of MF. These wastes in the form of EFB and MF can be used as raw material for the production of briquettes. Industrial briquettes with puck shapes that are produced with mechanical press are not only easy to produce but also have a large capacity. The location of the briquette users, which is not too far from the palm oil mill, makes transportation costs cheap, and can compete with PKS and wood pellets.

 Industrial areas and also surrounded by a lot of palm oil mills and plantations such as in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia are very potential for the production of industrial briquettes. The briquettes produced are expected to have quality between the PKS and wood pellets as well as the price. The production of industrial briquettes from MF is easier than from EFB. Besides being wet, EFB also needs more effort to reach desired particle size so that it is suitable for the briquetting. Utilization of these wastes in addition to reducing environmental impact will also provide economic benefits.

Owls, Cobra Snakes or Liquid Smoke to Repel Mice at Palm Oil Plantations?

Mice are animals that disrupt various human activities so they must be expelled or killed. Many stories from farmers who experienced crop failure due to rampant rat pests. Likewise in palm oil plantations, rats will damage the palm fruit. Biological countermeasures are mostly carried out, namely with owls and cobra snakes. While other efforts that can be done is by liquid smoke. Aside from being used for fertilizer, liquid smoke can also be used to repel these mice. A strong aroma and an acidic nature will make the mice away from the palm oil trees that have been given liquid smoke. The longer the effect of liquid smoke on the palm oil tree the longer the mice away from the palm tree.

Liquid smoke does not harm humans and can be produced in large quantities. Besides that liquid smoke also comes from biomass (pyrolysis) so that it is an environmentally friendly chemical and from renewable sources. Empty bunches or EFB which have generally not been utilized by palm oil mills can be used for the production of liquid smoke. In addition to liquid smoke, biochar is also produced which is also very useful in the palm oil plantations, for more details, please read here. Production of liquid smoke and biochar from EFB will also be a solution to handling solid waste in the form of empty bunches. The production of biochar and liquid smoke for large scale can be done only with continuous pyrolysis units, for more details, please read here.

While when biochar and liquid smoke are used in oil palm plantations, the pyrolysis product in the form of syngas and biooil can be used for boiler fuel. When syngas and biooil are used as fuel, palm kernel shells and a number of mesocarp fibers can be sold or exported like CPO. PKS (palm kernel shell) or shell can be exported directly to Japan or Korea. Whereas mesocarp fiber can be made pellets or briquettes before being exported. Production of pellets or briquettes from mesocarp fiber is almost the same as the production of wood pellets or sawdust briquettes, for reference can be read here and here.

Back to the laptop. So the production of liquid smoke from pyrolysis of empty palm bunches is more likely to be a solution to overcome rat pests in addition to various other advantages for palm oil plantations and mills. In addition, liquid smoke can also be used for fertilizers and is not harmful. Even to optimize the control of rodent pests is very possible with a combination of liquid smoke with owls and cobra snakes.

EFB Charcoal Briquette for Substitution of Sawdust Charcoal Briquette

Continuity of raw material supply is the main thing for the sustainability of a production, as well as the sawdust charcoal briquette industry. The lack or even stop of supply the sawdust or wood waste as raw material for sawdust charcoal briquette makes production disrupted and even stops. And such conditions have now been experienced by some the sawdust charcoal briquette factories. In fact, from the market side the demand for sawdust charcoal briquette is very large, especially in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Continuous alternatives to raw materials and availability in large quantities are the choices. An empty fruit bunch (EFB) can be an option. Why? EFB is a solid waste of oil palm mills which are large in number and are generally not utilized. Palm oil mills with a capacity of 60 tons / hour FFB produce EFB waste of 13.2 tons / hour or 264 tons / day. And currently there are approximately 1,000 oil mills throughout Indonesia.

The next question is, can the quality of charcoal briquette made from EFB compete with sawdust or wood waste? Judging from its use for fuel or energy, the quality of EFB is lower than sawdust or woody waste belonging to woody biomass while EFB is a biomass of agricultural waste (agro waste). The measure of quality can be shown mainly from the calorific value and ash content. The calorific value of the EFB charcoal briquette is lower and the ash content is greater than the sawdust charcoal briquette. Based on these conditions, the price of sawdust charcoal briquette should be slightly lower than sawdust charcoal briquette. But in an effort to overcome the problem of waste and be able to increase income, the profits from the production of the EFB charcoal briquette should still be very attractive.

The implementation of EFB charcoal production can work with palm oil mills, namely as a provider of raw materials as well as electricity providers for their operations. A number of palm oil mills with excess biomass waste such as palm kernel shells and mesocarp fiber can be used for electricity production. If it is still lacking, waste in the plantation such as fronds and leaves can also be used to fuel the power plant. The location of many palm oil mills is in the remote areas and there is no other electricity source that is sufficient so that's make the palm oil mill automatic as a power plant also which is generally used internally but can also be upgraded for external use. As for management and business, it is possible to produce EFB charcoal briquette that are integrated palm oil mill or separatd and managed by ownself. Of course the choice is very dependent on the management pattern of the company, especially in its business development division.

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.

Catching Up the Great Opportunity of OPT Pellet

Most of the palm oil plantations have entered the old age and need to be rejuvenated by replanting. The number of palm oil trunks so much that it needs to be processed so as not to pollute the environment while providing benefits. Production of oil palm trunk pellets (OPT pellets) is the best way of processing these oil palm trunks. Potency of oil palm trunk pellets (OPT Pellet) which can be produced as much as 12 million tons. While the need for wood pellets is also very large, ie globally 50 million tons/year, while for Asia, especially Korea and Japan alone ranges 20 million tons / year, while for the domestic market needs are also quite big which currently have reaches hundreds of thousands of tons/year with a tendency to keep increasing.

After the palm trunks are collected from the plantation then the OPT pellet production process can be done. The high moisture content of the palm trunks becomes a challenge for the production of OPT pellet. Pre-treatment to reduce the moisture content should be done so that the trunks can then be processed into wood pellets. Many ways can be done to dry the trunks of palm oil both naturally, mechanically and physically.

The selection of OPT pellet plant/factory site needs to be considered in such a way that they can be economical as they are adjacent to a palm oil mill so there is a good chance of getting an adequate supply of electricity and even a heat source to help dry the trunks. Since the waste of these palm trunks is not available all the time, the wood pellet manufacturer should consider this including whenever the factory has to move because out of raw materials or prepare the other raw materials for the long term such as making energy plantations.

Take a Look PKS Closer

Most of the PKS (palm kernel shell) are currently only bedded on an open yard (stockpile) for storage. These conditions make it very affected by weather conditions. When the hot weather on the outside of the PKS pile is dry, but the inside is still wet. PKS bed can usually reach a height of more than 5 meters. The higher the bed will be more difficult to reach the conditions inside. When the rain conditions on the outside of the pile become wet, but the inside drier. What happens to the PKS bed in both rain and hot weather?

As an organic material, biomass can also decompose either by physics, biology or chemistry. All biomass is no exception include PKS will decompose over time emmit some toxic gas and reduce oxygen concentration, such as carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), and methane (CH4). As a product or commodity to be sold then the decline in quality and quantity due to the decomposition process as much as possible to be avoided. Good handling from PKS collection, cleaning and storage will minimize the decomposition.

Biological decomposition that mainly occurs in the pile of the PKS. A number of organic materials as PKS impurities such as fibers, oils and so on will be easy to decompose biologically. Microbial activity in the PKS bed encourages the fermentation of organic matter. The softer and higher water content of the organic material will be decomposed biologically quickly, namely the fermentation. PKS itself is a hard material with high lignin content so it is not easily fermented in a short time. So how about a pile of PKS that is left for months and even years? What microbial activity happens? And how much the decline in quality and quantity?

In compost production, the production of CH4 or methane is usually related to biomass anaerobic decomposition, whereas CO2 is more in aerobic decomposition. The higher the temperature the CO / CO2 ratio is also greater. As the temperature increases, both CO2 and CH4 are also increasing, and CH4 becomes larger than CO2 at higher temperatures.

Comparison with wood pellets
In comparison, namely with the storage of wood pellets. The similarity of PKS with wood pellets is the same biomass fuel that has nearly equal calorific value and can be pourable so it is possible for automatic feeding with very accurate calibration. Wood pellets are made or produced by densification of wood powder in general the size of sawdust with a moisture content of 10%, being 10-30 mm in length and 6-12 mm in diameter. Wood pellets should be stored in a dry space and protected from water / rain. Storage of wood pellets in large quantities ie at a capacity level of 30,000 tons and above, can cause its own problems.

Storage of large bulk wood pellets above proved to generate harmful and self-heating gas emissions. Resins in the form of sugars and organic compounds in the wood through the wood pellet production process, begin to break during shipping storage. Wood pellet producers must prepare the best product so that acceptable buyers across oceans satisfactorily. Preparation of raw materials in the form of natural wood drying after being felled is being tested to minimize gas and heat emissions during storage. The reason behind the method is that wood tends to have varying water content every year, so that natural wood drying will reduce the breakup of chemical compounds in wood chips and sawdust. The spontaneous heat from wood chip and sawdust piles resulted from the oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids (unsaturated fatty acids) and other extractives.

A cargo ship carrying wood pellets in closed room reportedly detected a concentration of carbon monoxide (CO) of about 1% (10,000 ppm) on the 18th day after loading (loaded). The oxygen concentration at that time also became less than 1% and the carbon dioxide emissions from the wood pellet pile were 100-885 mg / ton / day. And it is well known that high concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) are very dangerous and should be avoided. An analysis says that the gas is formed from auto-oxidation of fat and fatty acids in the wood, but the factors driving the gas production are not fully known.

A fatal accident occurred at the port of Rotterdam in 2002 and the port of Helsingborg in 2006 contained safety issues of serious concern. Plus fatal accidents happen again in Finland and Germany, safety issues become increasingly prominent. Carbon monoxide poisoning (CO) has killed 5 people and severe brain injury for some people. In 2005 IMO (International Maritime Organization) also incorporated wood pellets as a hazardous material due to the formation of carbon monoxide (CO) gas that causes oxygen deficiency. Instruments such as oxygen-meter or CO-meter detection or instrumentation are required for the crew or personnel dealing with the wood pellets.

Aeration with inserting the adequate air (ambient water) in the pile of wood pellets into a solution for storage of wood pellets. The purpose of wood pellets aeration is to cool the pellets, regulate the temperature on the pile of pellets, prevent biological heating on wet pellets, circulate gas emissions, and eliminate odors generated from gas emissions. The speed of chemical reactions deterioration or decline in quality becomes very slow and sometimes insignificant at low temperatures. The increase in chemical reaction is noticeable every 10 ° C temperature increase, so keeping it at a low temperature is essential in wood pellets storage.

PKSThe PKS pile in open spaces does not pose any significant problems with harmful gas emissions. This is because the harmful gas emissions soon break down in the atmosphere because it is in open space. While the heat will cause safety problems for workers who manage the pile of the PKS. The higher the bed and the more organic impurities the higher the oxidation and fermentation rate. The temperature in the pile becomes higher, reaching 70 - 80 C so it is quite hot exposed skin or feet. The PKS manager often inserts water to cool the temperature in the pile. PKS quality will be biologically damaged if the fermentation process runs for a long time, ie 6 months or more. Entering the water will cool the pile temperature which also means decreasing the speed of the fermentation reaction. Maintaining the condition of the PKS bed remains also important to maintain the quality and quantity of the PKS. The content of nitrogen (N) elements in the PKS can also be used as a benchmark of how big the degree of fermentation in the particular PKS and biomass fuel in general. Ultimate analysis in the laboratory can be to know the chemical elements in the biomass. Nitrogen (N) standards should be listed for biomass fuels which, according to the European Standard (CEN), are grouped from less than 0.3% to groups above 3%.

In addition, PKS managers also often aerate by flipping through the pile with heavy mechanical devices such as backhoe. Aeration will also lower the temperature of the bed due to fermentation other than that by flicking it in the presence of heat of the sun will dry or decrease the water content of the PKS. Basically the two methods above are used to maintain the quality and quantity of PKS and that is not less important is the safety.