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. 

Green Aluminum and the Role of Biomass-Based Energy

The need for aluminum is predicted to increase, including in the construction, transportation (including aircraft), automotive, household appliances, and electronic equipment sectors. Green aluminum production from bauxite mining, then processed into alumina as an intermediate product from bauxite refining and into the final product in the form of aluminum, is very ideal. Aluminum production, especially from the processing of alumina into aluminum, requires very large electrical energy. For the production of around 300,000 tons/year of aluminum, approximately 1 GW (1,000 MW) of electrical energy is needed. To meet these electrical energy needs, very large power plants need to be built. And if using fossil-based energy sources, especially coal, the need will be very large.

PT Inalum in North Sumatra is an example of green aluminum production in the production of aluminum from alumina. This is because the aluminum production from alumina uses energy from hydroelectric power plants (PLTA) to meet its electricity needs. However, for more than 40 years, the aluminum plant has imported millions of tons of alumina as its raw material. And once the alumina plant from bauxite in Mempawah, West Kalimantan, is operational, the majority of the alumina used as PT Inalum's raw material will be supplied from the alumina plant in Mempawah, West Kalimantan. Approximately 1 million tons of alumina will be produced from the alumina plant in Mempawah, West Kalimantan, or more than 80% of PT Inalum's alumina needs in North Sumatra.

Alumina production from bauxite also requires significant electrical energy, necessitating a power plant capable of meeting the plant's operational needs. Most alumina plants still rely on fossil fuels for electricity production. For decarbonization efforts, renewable energy sources, such as biomass-based wood pellets, are feasible. Wood pellets can be used with a gradual cofiring ratio, ultimately leading to full-firing, or 100% use of wood pellets or other biomass-based energy.

 

The demand for renewable energy, particularly biomass-based energy, is enormous and sustainable, necessitating biomass sources capable of meeting this demand. These biomass sources can be woody biomass or agricultural waste. Woody biomass sources include forestry waste, wood processing industry waste, and wood produced by energy plantations. Meanwhile, agricultural waste sources include agricultural and plantation waste, as well as agro-industrial waste. Sustainability certification also requires attention, and in the near future, it could become mandatory regarding the origin of biomass-based energy sources.