Why is There No Biochar Production for The Palm Oil Industry Yet?

Even though biomass waste is abundant in the palm oil industry, both in the plantation area and in the palm oil mill area, most of the biomass waste, especially empty fruit bunches or EFB, is still not utilized or is simply piled up or thrown away. In fact, if the palm oil industry has a strong vision about maximizing profits by minimizing the occurrence of waste, especially biomass, and maximizing environmental sustainability as well as being part of the climate solution, then biomass waste, especially empty fruit bunches or EFB, is a big opportunity.  Currently, special department in the palm oil industry that specifically deal with sustainability issues are starting to be created by palm oil companies. Waste management issues including the utilization of EFB, reducing soil and water pollution due to fertilizers and increasing fertilizer efficiency are the concerns of the sustainability department.

The empty fruit bunches or EFB can be used as fuel so that most or all of the palm kernel shells or PKS can be sold directly and even exported. Palm oil mill boiler fuel currently uses fuel in the form of palm fiber (mesocarp fiber) and some palm kernel shells / PKS, which can be replaced using empty fruit bunches (EFB) and palm fiber (mesocarp fiber) and without palm kernel shells / PKS. Palm kernel shells / PKS are a very popular biomass fuel in the global market that competes fiercely with wood pellets. By being able to sell all palm kernel shells / PKS and at the same time utilize empty fruit bunch / EFB waste, the palm oil industry will provide many economic benefits.

The use of empty fruit bunches / EFB and mesocarp fiber as a heat source for the boiler is not burned as usual or as is done by all palm oil mills today but must be gasified or pyrolyzed so that another product is produced in the form of biochar. Although gasification can be used to produce biochar, pyrolysis is more recommended because the quality and quantity of biochar will be better. The biochar can later be used for the palm oil plantation itself. The use of biochar in palm oil plantations will significantly save on fertilizer use as well as reducing water and soil pollution due to inefficient use of fertilizer. The biggest cost in operating a palm oil plantation is fertilizer, so by using biochar these operational costs can automatically be reduced. Biochar will become a slow release agent so that fertilizer use will be more efficient or increase NUE (Nutrients Use Efficiency).

Empty fruit bunches / EFB and mesocarp fiber are solid waste from palm oil mills so the waste is located around the palm oil mill, while biochar is used for palm oil plantations. In palm oil companies, management is generally separated between the plantation and mill departments. The use of biochar in palm oil plantations while the raw material comes from palm oil mills requires special arrangements regarding this matter. This could be, for example, trucks transporting fresh fruit bunch / FFB from the plantation to the palm oil mill, then after the FFB is unloaded at the mill, they then go to the plantation again carrying biochar from the palm oil mill.

Currently, no one is utilizing empty fruit bunches / EFB and palm mesocarp fiber as a source of boiler heat and biochar production. The main factor causing this is the main orientation or vision of the palm oil company itself as described above. This is predicted to change soon as awareness of climate issues increases and reaches all levels, especially in sectors related to energy and sustainibility. Moreover, when biochar is applied to plantation land, it also gets carbon credit as carbon sequestration. The smoke coming out of the boiler furnace will also be cleaner as seen from its opacity. The use of gas and liquid fuels from pyrolysis by-products will produce better combustion quality as well as smoke from the chimney. And even the liquid products from pyrolysis can also be used as biopesticides and organic fertilizers. Boiler efficiency will also increase because it uses boiler feed water (BFW) in the form of hot water from the condenser output of the pyrolysis unit.

Apart from old palm oil mills which really want to upgrade their industrial energy systems and fertilizer efficiency in their plantations including sustaibility according to this vision, new palm oil mills whose status is in the development stage should be able to apply this concept more easily. New palm oil mills can immediately follow developments and demands of the times so that they become trend setters with this vision. Being a pioneer and trend setter is indeed more difficult and even risky than just being a follower, but this will raise the reputation and become a leader in the industry so it should also have a positive impact on the company's business performance. A worthy effort.

The Urgency of Biochar to Improve Soil Fertility in Palm Oil Plantations Amid High Crude Palm Oil (CPO) Prices

The high selling price of CPO, thus providing a large profit so that it can cover production costs, certainly does not last forever. The success of FFB production in palm oil plantations is one of the keys to the success of CPO production. The success of FFB production is related to the success of the plantation and the highest cost component in palm oil plantations is the cost of fertilizer. The high need for palm oil fertilizer for each palm tree reaches around 10 kg annually and this fertilizer is non-subsidized. Fertilizer as one of the components in the CPO production cost chain is easy to buy if the price of CPO is high or there is a big profit. But solely relying on the current high CPO price for the palm oil business operations is certainly a mistake.

And the fact is that in 2019 the price of CPO has fallen and the palm oil industry has suffered losses or almost no profit at all. The fact is that when there is a decline in CPO prices it also raises concerns for Indonesia because the palm oil industry has many strategic roles both economically, socially and environmentally. It was noted that CPO prices have continued to decline every month since 2018 compared to prices of CPO at 2017. This downward trend has touched world CPO prices since 2015. The CPO price was recorded at $448/ton in November 2018. Even though the world CPO price in 2018 2016 and 2017 averaged over $700/ton. On average, CPO prices decreased by 15-16 percent compared to 2017. Exports of CPO to Indonesian traditional markets, namely the European Union and India in 2018 also decreased compared to 2017.

And it's not impossible that this will happen again. Such as past experience in the form of accusations of an issue from the European Union Parliament which aims to prevent palm oil from Indonesia from dominating the European market, so that CPO exports decrease, a trade war that can occur at any time. While the excuses used are about deforestation, child labor practices and utilizing customary forests. This certainly should be a valuable lesson. The only way PTPN holding can work around this is by downstreaming CPO products (CPO derivatives), namely by creating an oleochemical industry. If the CPO price drops, the majority of CPO will be brought to downstream products. If the downstream product margins are not good, the majority is just CPO. Production flexibility is a strategy that makes the palm oil industry "immune" to crises. The majority of their products, both CPO and its derivatives, are for export. But downstreaming the palm oil industry is also not an easy and cheap thing that not all palm oil companies can do.

Biochar to improve soil fertility, increase fertilization efficiency so as to increase FFB productivity is the best solution. With the increase in FFB productivity, CPO production will automatically increase so that efforts to extensification through deforestation can be avoided. In fact, in addition to global CPO prices which can drop at any time, fertilizer prices can also increase at any time. This further encourages the biochar application efforts. The use of biochar in palm oil plantations is also a climate effort for carbon sequestration (carbon sink) or a negative carbon scenario to reduce CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, so that this can generate additional income in the form of carbon credits, which have a higher value. Another factor is that in the palm oil industry or CPO production, only 10% of vegetable oil produced and 90% are biomass, while this amount of biomass has great potential as a raw material for biochar production.

And because organizationally the palm oil company is divided into a plantation division and a CPO mill division, so to facilitate operation the biochar production can be a separate business unit but still within the same company or it could be with another party. And for example empty fruit bunches (EFB) as raw material for biochar whose position is in the mill while the application of the biochar is in the plantation land. In addition to the benefits mentioned above, the production of biochar is also an effort to deal with biomass waste and produce energy that can be used for the production of CPO or in the mill. And when the CPO price drops but the production costs are low because the use of fertilizer in the plantations can be suppressed but the FFB productivity remains high, the losses experienced are also less. 

Biochar as a Solution to Deforestation in Indonesian Palm Oil Plantations

Palm oil trees are not native to Indonesia but come from West Africa and were brought by the Dutch colonialists in the mid 19th century. At first they brought 4 grains and planted them in the Bogor Botanical Garden which is now a palm oil monument. The first palm oil plantation were established in Indonesia in the early 1900's in North Sumatra. The development of the palm oil industry and its subsequent plantations is very rapid, especially in the last 10 years and it is currently estimated that the area of Indonesian palm oil plantations reaches 15 million hectares. As the largest vegetable oil-producing plant in the world and the area of palm oil plantations is also the largest in the world, of course, palm oil has a strategic value in the Indonesian economy. The average rate of growth for Indonesian palm oil plantations is 6.5% per year or the equivalent of about 500 thousands up to 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% in average. In fact, the largest increase occurred in 2017 which increased by 2.8 million hectares. From 2015 to 2019, the total area of palm oil increased by 3.7 million hectares. Extensification or expansion of palm oil plantations turned out to be many "accused" and became the world's spotlight as from the conversion of forest land functions, so that there was a lot of deforestation to be converted into palm oil plantations.

Pressure from the European Union in particular, due to these conditions worsened the image of Indonesian palm oil which in turn affected the selling price of palm oil, both CPO (crude palm oil) and its derivative products. Improving the image is also not easy. One of the effective measures is to stop the extensification effort so that forest land remains as forest land and does not turn into palm oil plantations. Biochar can be an effective solution to this problem. By increasing the productivity of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) from the usage of biochar, new palm oil plantations do not need to be opened again. Assuming an average productivity increase of 20% occurs, CPO production will also increase by 20% or equivalent to 2 million tons. The increase would be equivalent to new land clearing of more than 2 million hectares. Certainly not a small land area. With the 20% increase in production, it is very likely that the national needs for CPO needs have been met and the same goes for the export market.

With the extensification of palm oil land of more than 1 million per hectare every year but the increase in palm oil fruit (FFB/fresh fruit bunch) production is only 11%, it is certainly less attractive and must be avoided, especially when the world's attention on deforestation is getting stronger. This also indicates the low productivity of the palm oil plantations. In fact, by improving soil quality, the productivity of palm oil fruit can be significantly increased and the clearing of new land for palm oil plantations can be avoided. Biomass wastes in palm oil plantations and in palm oil mills can be used for the production of biochar.

In palm oil mills, this biomass waste is easier to process in large quantities, especially empty fruit bunches (EFB). An average palm oil mill can produce 200 tons of waste per day of EFB. Meanwhile, in palm oil plantations, biomass waste, such as palm fronds, leaves and stems, is the raw material for the production of biochar. Palm oil trunks even have a lot of negative impacts when they are not treated adequately or are only left to rot in the plantation, giving rise to horn beetle pests, for more details read here. Optimizing the utilization of biomass waste has multiple benefits, not only preventing environmental pollution by the waste, and can be described as the scheme below.

In terms of technology, biochar production technology is also very varied, from simple technology (low tech, low cost) that is cheap to advanced high technology that is efficient, precise process control but at a higher price. In the palm oil mill, it will be effective to use high technology so that it can be integrated with the operations of the palm oil mill. The excess energy from the pyrolysis process will also replace boiler fuel which has been using fiber and palm kernel shells (PKS). There are indeed many advantages of palm oil mills when doing the production of biochar, for more details, please read here. Production of biochar with empty fruit bunches or EFB biochar is also more profitable than EFB pellets, a more detailed explanation can be read here. Meanwhile, for people who have palm oil plantations as part of society palm oil producers (Plasma) or independent plantations, they can use simple technology (low tech, low cost) for the production of biochar. Biochar production in a simple way can also take advantage of excess energy for various small business activities such as those carried out in Tanzania, Africa. In this way, the community in addition to producing biochar also gets a source of energy including reducing the use of firewood which can be obtained from cutting down trees in protected forests or reducing deforestation pressures.

Fertilizer is the highest cost component in the palm oil plantation operations. Besides being able to increase the productivity of palm oil fruit or FFB, Biochar can also reduce the need for the use of fertilizers. An increase in soil pH makes nutrients easily absorbed by palm oil trees and also increases soil microbial activity which increases fertility is one of the benefits of using biochar. And when the performance of the productivity level of palm oil plantations has been able to be achieved and maintained, a number of other improvements can also be made. From the industry point of view, raw materials are a vital factor in terms of availability, continuity of supply and quality, including palm oil mills. Moreover, the plantation aspect of CPO production holds a portion of 80% while the factory or the mill aspect is only 20%. This confirms that the plantation aspect plays a vital role in the supply of these raw materials, so that efforts to maximize productivity, including maintaining productivity level performance, are very important and a top priority. Meanwhile, the change in palm oil plantations from monoculture to polyculture (mixed plantation) is one of the further improvement that can be made. Extensive monoculture plantations have the potential to be susceptible to disease, so they need to be avoided. Technically, how much monoculture area is still effective, especially for palm oil plantations, there are no convincing findings.

Which is Better, Efficient Boiler or Pyrolysis System ?

Fiber and palm kernel shells (PKS) are palm oil mill solid wastes that are produced in CPO production in that mill. The amount of fiber and PKS waste is quite a lot, which is around 20% of each fresh fruit bunch (FFB) or almost the same as the CPO produced. A palm oil mill with a capacity of 60 tons / hour FFB can produce fiber as much as 8.1 tons per hour or 194.4 tons per day and PKS of 3.3 tons / hour per hour or 79.2 tons per day. And because both of them are waste, generally the utilization of the waste is not initially considered, including for use as fuel in boilers in palm oil mills for the production of electricity and steam. The use of fiber and PKS for boiler fuel generally uses 100% fiber and about 30% of the PKS. Under these conditions the remaining 70% of the PKS can be used for other things including being sold or even exported.

When the shell becomes a commercial commodity and demand is greater, palm oil mills replace their old inefficient boilers with new boilers that have a high level of efficiency. In this way, 100% of the PKS is no longer used to boiler fuel and only requires fiber as fuel. In this condition a paradigm shift in thinking begins to occur, that is when the solid waste is almost unnoticed and tends to be considered a problem, then it becomes an important part of earning additional income and it can even be estimated that if the shell is successfully sold then it is sufficient to cover the operational costs of the palm oil mill. Certainly something interesting if the production of CPO (crude palm oil) with 0% operational costs so that profit is increasingly attractive especially amid the recent decline in CPO prices.

Another thing that can be done is to use a pyrolysis unit, to run the boiler. With pyrolysis, not only fiber is used but also the empty fruit bunch (EFB). EFB are solid palm oil mill waste which to date have generally not been utilized. Besides producing energy, pyrolysis also produces products in the form of charcoal (biochar). Although charcoal (biochar) can also be used for energy sources, but in the business of palm oil companies the use of biochar for plantations can be more compatible. The use of biochar in palm oil plantations is mainly to  fertilizer saving, which is one of the major cost components (around 30%) in the CPO production business. With an area of ​​20 thousand hectares of oil palm plantations, fertilizer costs are estimated to reach Rp. 71.50 billion (around US$ 5 million) per year or Rp. 35.75 billion (around US$ 2.5 million) per year for every 10,000 hectares, for more details, please read here. Palm oil mills with big vision certainly try to maximize their potential with the aim of maximizing profits from upstream to downstream production activities. With Biochar can also target the increase in productivity of FFB, for more details, please read here.

The application of biochar will be easier to do in Indonesia than in Malaysia, this is because almost all palm oil mills in Indonesia also have palm oil plantations while in Malaysia the mills generally do not have their own palm oil plantations. The palm oil industry also has an important role for the two countries because Indonesia and Malaysia are the largest CPO producers and owners of biggest palm oil plantations in the world today. The palm oil industry contributes around 7% of Malaysian GDP and 3% of Indonesian GDP, so its role cannot be ignored. Both with pyrolysis and high efficient boilers, biomass waste can be used as an energy source and 100% of the PKS can be commercialized, but with pyrolysis is better because waste of EFB can also be processed, there are biochar product (while only ash if only with regular combustion) for Fertilizers saving in the palm oil plantations and the exhaust gases from the palm oil mill boilers are also clean because they burn gas (syngas) produced from the pyrolysis process. 

The Big Vision of the Palm Oil Mill: Not Only Generating Electricity with Steam Turbine Generators but also Biochar and Bio-Oil

At the palm oil mill, electricity is generated from a steam turbine generator so a water treatment unit is needed to provide boiler feed water and a boiler unit to produce steam. The specifications of the steam produced are superheated steam with a pressure of 30 bar or equivalent to a temperature of 240 C. The steam then powers the turbine and drives the generator to produce electricity. Steam that comes out of the turbine with a decrease in temperature and pressure is not thrown away, but is used for steamming fresh fruit bunches (FFB) in the sterilizer unit. That is the reason why electricity production in palm oil mills uses steam turbine generators, even though actually producing electricity does not have to use the steam turbine. There are a number of technologies that can be used for electricity production.

The boiler fuel for steam production also does not use fossil fuels but uses palm oil mill waste itself (mesocarp) fiber and palm kernel shell (palm kernel shell). This is what makes palm oil mills very environmentally friendly in terms of their use of energy sources because they use biomass fuels, namely solid waste in the form of (mesocarp) fiber and palm kernel shells. Judging from the environmental aspects of the use of biomass fuel is carbon neutral, so it does not add CO2 in the atmosphere. Environmental issues are very prevalent today due to a number of environmental damage, to the peak of climate change and global warming. This encourages various industrial activities to increasingly pay attention to these environmental aspects.

When a palm oil mill uses its biomass waste as fuel to produce electricity and steam for the operation of the plant and it produces waste or residue in the form of ash, that is something that is common to almost all palm oil mills today. But when the palm oil company has a bigger vision, what is produced besides electricity and steam is biochar, not ash. Why Biochar? Although the management of the palm oil company that separates the plantation and mill divisions is common, the implementation of biochar is also expected to make a better reciprocal relationship. At present the palm oil fruits or fresh fruit bunches are supplied to the mill for oil extraction, so when biochar is produced by the mill the biochar will be supplied nto the  plantation to increase the productivity of the palm oil fruits. When a palm oil company will optimize its CPO products it also means maximizing the productivity of its palm oil  fruit. Palm  oil fruits productivity can be maximized if the cultivation aspects are also maximum. Biochar can be used to maximize fertilization and even reduce the use of fertilizers in oil palm plantations which amount to tens of billions of rupiah, for more details, please read here.

Are there palm oil mills that dare to take up the challenge? God knows Nature. But oil palm companies that have a big vision and understand the importance of increasing the productivity of oil palm fruit in line with environmental aspects, should be challenged with this. Oil palm companies that have big visions will also see this as an effective (pro-planet) environmental solution. This is because besides having a positive effect on the productivity of oil palm, also with environmental aspects. The application of biochar is carbon negative, so that CO2 in the atmosphere will be absorbed into the pores of the biochar, thereby reducing greenhouse gases in the form of CO2 in the atmosphere. When tens to hundreds or even thousands of tons of biochar are applied to palm oil plantations, so much CO2 in the atmosphere is absorbed into the soil. Biochar can also survive tens or even hundreds of years so that the carbon content in the soil increases or is not damaged along with the productivity of the palm oil plantation.

In addition to the production of biochar with continuous pyrolysis also produced biooil which can also be used as fuel or processed into various other biomaterials. With characteristics close to crude oil, it also means that all materials that can be produced from crude oil can be produced with biooil. Another application of biooil is for blending with ship oil (marine fuel oil). Other liquid products in the form of biomass vinegar, its use is also very supportive in palm oil plantations, namely as bio-insecticides and bio-pesticides. Rats that attack many palm fruit can also be overcome with the vinegar biomass, for more details, please read here.