Oil Palm Biofuel
The use of Oil Palm derived Biofuel as an alternative to Petrodiesel
Energy Futures (Oil and Gas)
School of Engineering
1 INTRODUCTION
The world today finds itself in a desperate attempt to source for alternative sources of energy to hydrocarbons. With high rising costs, the depleting oil and gas reserves globally, and the irreparable damage to the environment caused by increasing CO2 emissions, major research and exploration has focused on bio-derived sources of energy. This is largely attributed to the carbon neutrality of Biofuels. This benefit however, has been challenged by environmental NGO's and environmentalists pointing out that adopting Biofuel as a primary source of energy could have major consequences such as a worldwide shortage of food supply, and extensive emission of CO2 into the atmosphere as a result of deforestation, which they claim nullifies its advantage of carbon neutrality. Despite these alerts, major efforts encouraging the development and production of bio-derived sources energy are place mainly in Europe and Asia in countries like Malaysia(find European country). Biofuel can be obtained directly from a range of plants e.g. Hemp, Jatropha tree, Rapeseed, Soybean, Maize and Oil Palm tree.
Oil palm as an alternative source of energy to petrodiesel is discussed in this project. The project was carried out on an industrial placement with Juaben Oil Mills, a medium-scale palm oil producing company located in Juaben Kumasi, Ghana. The company processes about (amount of fruit) per hour with a total output of (total). The company receives its fruit from (total hectareage) of oil palm plantation. On a two month placement period, working in all the departments (Farm operations, mill operations, and refinery) provided firsthand knowledge and experience on the processing and production of palm oil, covering in detail how the growing of an oil palm plantation, and the milling and refinery processes involved in producing palm oil. During this process, the empty fruit fiber obtained after the removal of the fruits is dried and used to generate electricity which is used to power the plant and the town hospital.
The science, technology and physical factors associated with oil palm plantations, the processing oil palm fruits to extract palm oil, the processing of the fruit fiber to generate power, and the processing of palm oil to produce biodiesel were the focus of this project. The chemical properties of both the palm oil derived biodiesel and petrodiesel will be analyzed and compared, the energy output of both fuels will be calculated, the disadvantages/advantages of using biodiesel will be evaluated, and the future use of oil palm derived biodiesel as a primary/ major source of energy in place of petrodiesel will also be evaluated.
2OIL PALM
2.1 Historical background
The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) originated in the tropical rainforest region of West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Cameroun, Côte d'Ivoire, Sierra Leone, Togo, Angola and Congo). The growing and processing of oil palm has been practiced in Africa for many centuries dating as far back as the 12th century. During the 14th-17th century, palm fruits were taken to the west (Americas), then subsequently to Far East Asia. The plant thrived better in the Far East, thus why countries like Indonesia and Malaysia are the largest producers and exporters of palm oil worldwide today.
The economic importance of oil palm as a high-yielding source of edible oil as well as technical oils makes it a very attractive plantation crop. Oil palms are now grown in most countries with high rainfall (min 1600mm/yr) in tropical climates within 10o of the equator (FAO 3).
2.2Oil palm tree
A typical oil palm tree (Figure. 1) has a life span of over twenty years however, its economic life span is between 15-20 years and after that, it loses economic value due to the difficulties and costs associated with harvesting the fruits. It takes about four years after planting the seed (see chapter 3) before the tree bears fruit. The oil palm tree bears its fruits in bunches (Figure. 2) which vary in weight from 10-50 kg. A single fruit (Figure. 3) is made up of an outer skin (Exocarp), a pulp (Mesocarp) which contains the palm oil, a nut consisting of a shell (Endocarp), and the kernel which contains a different type of oil referred to as palm kernel oil (pko).
Figure 1. Oil palm tree
Figure 2. Fresh fruit bunches (ffb)
Palm kernel
Mesocarp
Figure 3. A single fresh fruit (cross section on the right)
Endocarp
Exocarp
The oil palm groves of West Africa consists mainly of a fruit type called the Dura. It is characterized by a thick endocarp and thin mesocarp. The thin mesocarp results in a low palm oil content which has led to the development of a hybrid called Tenera. The Tenera is obtained by crossing the Dura with the Pisifera; characterized by its no shell (endocarp) content. The resulting Tenera is a hybrid with a much thicker mesocarp and thinner shell. All plantation farms now use the Tenera because of its higher palm oil and palm kernel oil content.
Thick
Mesocarp
Thin
Mesocarp
Thick
Mesocarp
Thin
Endocarp
Thick
Endocarp
Kernel
Kernel
Kernel
(no endocarp)
Tenera
Pisifera
Dura
Diagram 1. Structural Diagram for the different types of palm fruits
2.1.1 Palm oil and palm kernel oil
3OIL PALM PLANTATION
3.1General Discussion
The growth of oil palm trees is restricted to tropical regions with minimum rainfall rate of 1600mm/year. The tree is not soil specific and will grow in most soil types except rocky, clay, and sandy soils. The presence of good drainage is also highly beneficial to the growth of the tree. On an overall landscape, the oil palm thrives best on the bottom and middle slope. There are three phases involved with the planting of an oil palm tree; the seed germination, nursery management, and the field plantation phase. Monitoring and maintaining the growth at each phase is necessary and crucial to ensure the successful growth of the palm tree. The principles applied during planting, the steps and procedures carried out in each phase will be covered in this section.
3.2Seed Germination
3.3Nursery management
3.3.1 Types of Nurseries
The nursery is the birth place of a palm tree. It is the period in the life of the seedling from attainment of four (4) leaves, to when the seedling is transplanted to the field usually when the seedlings are between 12-15 months old. There are two types of nursery practices; the poly-bag nursery, and the sand and field nursery. The latter practice is now outmoded and no longer practiced. There are two stages in the poly-bag nursery type and they are the pre-nursery stage and the main nursery stage. The pre-nursery stage is the period between when the germinated seed was planted and when the seedling attained four (4) leaves. Each month after plantation of the germinated seed, the seedling produces a leaf thus making the pre-nursery stage a four month stage. The seedling is then transferred to the main nursery stage which takes place for another 8-11 months before the tree is transferred to the field.
3.3.2 Nursery site selection
Before selecting a necessary site, some conditions must be observed. These are:
- The sites should be near a permanent body of water e.g. dam, pond, river, or stream to facilitate watering.
- The site should be in good alluvial soil to enhance good drainage
- The site should be flat or gently sloping to avoid erosion.
- Easy access for supplies and supervision.
3.3.3 Nursery size
The size of the nursery depends on the desired number of oil palm trees on the field. The standard dimension for field planting is 148 palms per hectare. Thus, if one intended to plant a field of 10 hectares, the total desired amount of oil palm trees will be 10 x 148 = 1480 palms. The maximum nursery losses are estimated at 20% giving a nursery output of 80%. When trying to determine the number of seedlings needed, the output rate (80%) should always be used to calculate the amount of seeds needed and not the loss rate (20%). The calculations below outline why this is so.
Calculating number of seeds:
Output rate (80%) Loss rate (20%)
___1480 _ = 1850 seeds 1480 x 0.2 = 296 palms lost
0.8 \ 1480 + 296 = 1776 seeds
From the results, it is clear that calculating with the loss rate provides the inaccurate number of seeds needed to grow 1480 palms. Planting of 1776 seeds at a 20% loss rate will produce 1420 palm trees which is sixty (60) palm trees short of the target 1480.
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