LEMBAGA MINYAK SAWIT MALAYSIA …palmoilis.mpob.gov.my/publications/POEB/poeb87.pdfLEMBAGA MINYAK SAWIT MALAYSIA MALAYSIAN PALM OIL BOARD ... Dato’ Dr Mohd Basri Wahid ... Secretary

PALM OIL ENGINEERING BULLETIN NO. 87 �

ISSUE NO. 87 (April - June 2008)

LEMBAGA MINYAK SAWIT MALAYSIAMALAYSIAN PALM OIL BOARD

KEMENTERIAN PERUSAHAAN PERLADANGAN DAN KOMODITI MALAYSIAMINISTRY OF PLANTATION INDUSTRIES AND COMMODITIES, MALAYSIA

Website: http://mpob.gov.my


CONTENTS

Editorial

RECENT EVENTS

FORTHCOMING EVENTS 2008 MPOB Training Programme

2008 MPOB Conferences/Seminars

FEATURE ARTICLESDeveloping a Biomass Fuel Supply Chain

Milling Ideas - Digesters

Mongana Basics: Part 12 - Problems Associated with Oil Separation

PALM NEWS

TITBITSCellulose to Sugar in Single Process Step

DATASHEET Monthly Prices of Crude Palm Oil

1

3

11

12

17

23

45

EDITORIAL BOARD

ChairmanDato’ Dr Mohd Basri Wahid

• Dato’ Dr Choo Yuen May• Dr Lim Weng Soon• Dr Ma Ah Ngan

• Ab Aziz Md Yusof • Ir N P Thorairaj

SecretaryIr N Ravi Menon

Malaysian Palm Oil BoardMinistry of Plantation Industries and Commodities,

MalaysiaP.O. Box 10620, 50720 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Tel: 603-8769 4400Fax: 603-8925 9446

Website: www.mpob.gov.my

© Malaysian Palm Oil Board, 2008All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Products and services advertised in thisPalm Oil Engineering Bulletin do not

connote endorsement by MPOB.

AEditorial

see page 2

33

43

subsidies at their disposal - all in the name of biodiesel blend. The irony is that many may not even be aware of what is going on amidst the bi-zarre biodiesel related policies in force around the oil world. The other biodie-sel producers seem to have either been squeezed out of the race without them probably even realizing what caused the calamity or did not have the time to review and find out what hit them. Both these nations - by no means any close neighbours - are able to earn three separate sets of subsidies for biodiesel.

They both (a) benefit from the ex-port taxes, set low for biodiesel and high for cooking oil. In Argentina, it is 45% export duty for soyabean oil and 20% export duty for biodiesel. On top of this, a refund of 2.5% is also offered as an incentive for exporting biodiesel (a saving of USD 300 on USD 1000 t-1 compared to the export of soyabean oil). Likewise, Indonesia also has different export taxes for palm oil and biodiesel. The export duty on palm oil is 15% and for biodiesel 5% - a 10% savings here amounting to USD 100 t-1. (b) USA also gives a blending credit of about USD 315 t-1 of biodiesel used for blending ir-respective of from where it originated, local or otherwise. (c) In addition, the European Union (EU) nations, where the blends like B99 eventually lands also offer generous incentives.

In USA, the volume of biodiesel ex-ports in the first-quarter of 2008 have overtaken the local production volume with a corresponding rise in biodiesel

rgentina and Indonesia appear to be taking the full advantage of the several weird biodiesel

21

PALM OIL ENGINEERING BULLETIN NO. 87�

from page 2

CALL FOR ARTICLES

The millers are requested to send in articles of relevance to the palm oil industry in Malaysia for publication in Palm Oil Engineering Bulletin. By sharing your expertise you will be helping the industry and the nation as a whole. The topics of interest are:

1. Plant modifications done in your mill that resulted in improvements in milling operation or maintenance.

2. Innovations done in your mill that produced improvements in the operation of the mill and that you are willing to share them with others.

3. Any special work done in your mill that directly resulted in improvements in OER and product quality.

Please submit your article to us and we shall be pleased to publish them in Palm Oil Engineering Bulletin. Feel proud to have your articles published in this Bulletin that is circulated throughout the industry and MPOB offices worldwide.

imports, which had been steadily increas-ing initially from Southeast Asia but now increasingly from Argentina. They are re-exported as biodiesel blend under the name B99 meaning 99% biodiesel in the blend. The targeted market is EU and the product is enjoying a boom there with good local incentives to add flavour.

Argentina and Indonesia enjoy lower export taxes on biodiesel as compared to the vegetable oil from which it is made. They also have the specific advantage of sourcing the feedstock at a significantly lower price due to the large discount it en-joys when compared to others who have to source the same feedstock at world

market price thus expelling all competi-tors.

The vegetable oil price is now well-linked to fossil fuel price through the technical relation of biodiesel and it is unlikely that the bond can be broken. The fluctuations in the pricing of one edible oil is bound to influence another oil un-less edible oils are deliberately liberated from the fuel line and replaced by non-ed-ible oil like Jatropha oil even though, cur-rently, only some selected oils are in the biodiesel arena. The current relationship may not be the best solution considering the fact that edible products will always continue to be in demand as the world population rises.


Recent Events Contributed by: Noor Asmawati Abd Samad*

* Malaysian Palm Oil Board, P. O. Box 10620, 50720 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

PAC MeetingThe 28th Programme Advisory Committee (PAC) meeting was held from 7 to 11 April 2008 at MPOB Head Office. In case some of the readers are not aware, the governing Board of MPOB has established the PAC to render advice on research projects.

During the annual gathering, PAC will examines all the research projects to ensure that they are technically sound and beneficial for the industry as well as the nation giving due consideration on environmental impact. Most of the PAC members have diverse expertise, knowledge, experience and background to help the Board in this regard.

Twenty new members were appointed during the recent PAC Meeting. They are listed as below:

Biology Sub-committee• Prof Dr Musa Hassan• Prof Dr Normah Mohd Nor

Food Nutrition and Quality Sub-committee• Prof Dr Bharat Aggarwal• Prof Sato Kiyotaka• Prof Dr Tom Sanders

Processing and Engineering Sub-committee• Abdul Halim Ahmad• Lee Keong Hoe

• Prof Dr Ing Volker Thole• Dr Yong Jiang Shi• Mr Jim Platts• Dr Gee Ping Tou• Prof Dr Stanislav Miertus

Oleochemical Sub-committee• Dr Hans Brand• Dr Vahid Sendijarvic

Technical Promotion and Commercial Sub-committee• Mr Mohd Nor Kailany• Prof Dr Fatimah Mohamed Arshad• Dr Susan Martin• Dato’ Henry Sackvillee Barlow• Dr James Fry• Dato’ Carl Bek-Nielsen

During the meeting, Dato’ Sabri Ahmad, Chairman of MPOB, also hosted a dinner to entertain the PAC members. On the final day, PAC members visited FELDA Biotechnology Centre at Bandar Enstek, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan.


Recent Events

PAC SeminarMore than 360 participants attended a half-day seminar organized by MPOB in conjunction with the 28th PAC meeting at Dewan Bactris, MPOB Head Office on 10 April 2008.

The seminar had five sessions, namely,• Seminar 1: Nutritional Significance of the

Sn2 Position by Prof Dr Tom Sanders, King’s College, London, United Kingdom;

• Seminar 2: Building a Knowledge Economy on the Right Foundation by Jim Platts, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom;

• Seminar 3: Exploitation of Genomic Re-sources to Optimize Harvest from the Oil Palm Crop by Prof Jeremy Roberts, Uni-versity of Nottingham, United Kingdom;

• Seminar 4: Bio-based Polyol and Polyurethanes - Opportunity for Malaysian Palm Oil Industry by Dr Vahid Sendijarvic, Troy Polymers Inc. USA; and

• Seminar 5: World Biodiesel Viability Amidst High Feedstock Price by Dr James Fry, LMC International, United Kingdom.

The purpose of the seminar was to dis-seminate and gain knowledge on the latest developments in the oil palm industry.

Course on Trading and Marketing of

Palm OilFor the first time ever, MPOB jointly with the Palm Oil Refiners’ Association of Ma-laysia (PORAM) organized an Introductory Course on Trading and Marketing of Palm Oil from 5 to 8 May 2008 at MPOB Head Office. Dato’ Dr Mohd Basri Wahid, Direc-tor-General of MPOB , officially opened the course.

The purpose of the course was to impart trading and marketing knowledge to participants who aspired towards a career in the palm oil industry and those who wished to sharpen their palm oil trading skills.

A total of 99 local and international participants attended the course. The foreign participants were from Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom.

The emphases of the course were aspects related to trading and marketing with adequate focus on key technical matters pertaining to processing of palm and palm kernel oils. They gained the exposure through a series of lectures and field visits to plantations, palm oil processing and handling facilities.


Recent Events

Visit of Deputy Minister of Plantation Industries and

Commodities to MPOBThe Deputy Minister of Plantation Indus-tries and Commodities, Senator A. Kohilan Pillay and his delegation visited MPOB Head Office on 6 June 2008.

Dato’ Sabri Ahmad, Chairman of MPOB; Dato’ Dr Mohd Basri Wahid, Director-General and senior officers of MPOB greeted the Deputy Minister and his delegation on arrival at MPOB Head Office.

The Director-General gave a briefing on MPOB before the delegation proceeded to visit several research facilities in MPOB, namely Margarine Pilot Plant, High Oleic Pilot Plant, α-SME Pilot Plant, Microbial Technology Engineering Centre (MICROTEC) and Tissue Culture Laboratory.

value, generate wealth and contribute to the well-being of the oil palm industry country.

Until the year, MPOB had launched 378 technologies/products and 23 services. In 2008, 34 new technologies and products and 16 services had been launched, increasing the technologies to 412 and services to 39.

During that event, Datuk Peter Chin also had launched a new product namely, INXBIO™ and a book written by Dato’ Dr Mohd Basri Wahid, Director-General and Dr Kalanithi Nesaretnam, Director of Product Development and Advisory Services, entitled Healthy Ageing with Tocotrienols – New Discoveries.

The Minister also witnessed the sign-ing of agreement between MPOB and An-com Crop Care Sdn Bhd on Development of Glyphosate Formulations Using Palm-based Adjuvants and their Herbicidal Efficacy in Con-trolling Weeds and signing memorandum of understanding between MPOB and Innovax Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Chemical Compa-ny of Malaysia Berhad (CCM) on Oil Palm Phenolics-based Products.

Datuk Peter Chin also officially launched MPOB Biotechnology Building in conjunction of the TOT Seminar 2008. In conjunction with the launching of the building, Dato’ Dr Mohd Basri Wahid also presented a specially made stamp to Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui. The Deputy Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Senator A. Kohilan Pillay; Datuk Wira Ismail Saleh, Secretary-General of the ministry and Dato’ Sabri Ahmad, Chairman of MPOB, also attended the event.

Transfer of Technology Seminar

The Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui had officially launched the Transfer of Technology (TOT) Seminar 2008 on 17 June 2008 at MPOB Head Office.

TOT Seminar is organized by MPOB an-nually to ensure the industry is aware of the latest research results available for adoption and commercialization. Adoption of new technologies will increase productivity, add


GSAS SeminarA total of 130 participants attended the MPOB Graduate Students’ Assistantship Scheme (GSAS) Seminar at MPOB Head Office on 19 June 2008. Dato’ Dr Mohd Basri Wahid, the Director-General of MPOB, officially opened the seminar.

The objectives of the seminar were to emphasize on human capital development in order to enhance the nation’s capability to compete globally, to strengthen national unity and to bring about a better distribution of income and wealth and higher quality of life among the people.

To date, MPOB has sponsored 104 students under the scheme, 50 of them have graduated and currently serving and contributing to the nation in various sectors.

Recent Events

PALM OIL ENGINEERING BULLETIN NO. 87 ��

Forthcoming Events

2008 MPOB TRAINING PROGRAMME SCHEDULE

CODENO.

TITLE DATE VENUE

A COURSES

1 Oil Palm

A.1.1 Kursus Kemahiran Menggred Buah Sawit

Bil. �: Wilayah Tengah �� – �� Ogos Hotel Allson Klana Putra, Nilai,

Negeri Sembilan

Bil. �: Permintaan Industri (PPNJ) �� – �0 Julai Hotel Prime City, Kluang, Johor

Peperiksaan PPNJ �� Julai KKS PPNJ Johor

Bil. �: Permintaan Industri (FELCRA) �� – �� Oktober FELCRA Johor*

Bil. �: Permintaan Kerajaan (JTM, KSM) Oktober* Kulim, Perak

Bil. �: Permintaan Industri (FELDA) * *

Peperiksaan Kemahiran Menggred Buah Sawit

Peperiksaan Bil. �0: Sarawak �� Ogos Hotel Imperial, Miri, Sarawak

Peperiksaan Bil. ��: Semenanjung * Hotel Orient Star, Lumut, Perak

A.1.2 10th Intensive Diploma in Oil Palm Management and Technology Course

Semester III � – �� July MPOB HQ

A.1.3 Kursus Pengurusan dan Tapak Semaian Sawit

�� – �� Ogos* Hotel Seri Malaysia, Bagaan Lalang,

Selangor

A.1.4 Kursus Operator Mekanisasi Ladang

Feb. – Julai MPOB UKM

PALM OIL ENGINEERING BULLETIN NO. 87��

Forthcoming Events

CODENO.

TITLE DATE VENUE

2 PALM OIL

A.2.1 Diploma in Palm Oil Milling Technology and Management**

Semester III �0 June – � July MPOB HQ

Exam. Semester III �� – �� Aug. MPOB HQ

A.2.2 The ��st MPOB Oil Palm Products Surveying Examination

�� – �0 Nov MPOB HQ

A.2.3 Welder Certification Palm Oil Industry �G SMAW

March, June, Sept. SIRIM, Shah Alam

A.2.4 Reclamation Welding Technology in Palm Oil Industry

April, June, Aug. SIRIM, Shah Alam

2008 MPOB CONFERENCES/SEMINARS

Notes: * To be confirmed. + By invitation. ** Course approved under PROLUS scheme of Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad.

For enquiry or further information, please contact:

HRD & Conference Management UnitTel. No. : 0�-��00 ext. ��, ��0, ��Fax No. : 0�-��E-mail : [email protected]’s website : http://www.mpob.gov.my

B CONFERENCES/SEMINARS

1. Persidangan Kebangsaan Pekebun Kecil Sawit

�� – �� November Casuarina, Ipoh, Perak

2. �00� National Seminar on Biofertilizer, Biogas and Effluent Treatment in the Palm Oil Industry

�� – �� August Mines Resort City, Selangor

2. National Seminar on Palm Oil Milling, Refining, Technology, Quality & Environment

�� – �� December Kota Kinabalu, Sabah


Feature Article

* 21, Jalan Abang haji Openg 2, Taman Tun Dr Ismail 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Developing a Biomass Fuel Supply ChainPola Singh*

there will be a corresponding increase in the amount of energy demanded, particularly fossil fuels. One of the consequences of the greater use of energy (by burning fossil fu-els) is the higher level of emission of green-house gases such as carbon dioxide, which is the biggest source of global warming. Meanwhile, oil and gas prices will continue to trend upwards because of persisting po-litical uncertainties in the West Asia and the voracious appetites of China and India. Our own oil reserves are expected to run dry in 10 years.

HARNESSING RENEWABLE ENERGy

Mindful of the need to develop alternative forms of energy, the government in 2001 introduced the five-fuel policy with renew-able energy (RE) added as the fifth fuel (to the four that comprised oil, natural gas, hy-dropower and coal). The objective was to give greater importance to green energy in the energy equation of Malaysia. This poli-cy gave recognition to renewable sources of energy as the way forward in energy devel-opment sustainability.

Besides turning to solar energy, which still remains relatively expensive to harness,

E nergy plays a central role in the eco-nomic development of a country. As the global economy expands,

the government was keen to make use of the abundant biomass waste in oil palm estates and turn it into a valuable biomass fuel. The idea was for the palm oil mills to pro-duce electricity using the biomass waste as fuel and sell any excess to the national util-ity company. These mills have traditionally produced electricity and steam for their own use, mainly using mesocarp fibre (MCF) and palm kernel shell (PKS) and cost-wise, it will mean merely upgrading their existing system to produce more electricity for sale. It has been estimated that the palm oil mills currently generate about 500 mW of electric-ity for their own use. In addition, palm oil effluent, a by-product of the milling process can be tapped as it can produce biogas (con-taining about 60% to 70% methane) which can serve as an additional source of energy.

TURNING PALM OIL WASTE TO ENERGy

The quantum of solid palm oil waste avail-able at the 400 palm oil mills nationwide is certainly impressive. With about 4 million hectares of oil palm plantations in the coun-try and every hectare producing an average of 20 t of fresh fruit bunches (FFB), about 80 million tonnes of FFB are produced per annum. After the palm oil has been extract-ed, about 25 million tonnes of the residue remain consisting of empty fruit bunches (EFB), MCF and PKS. If we include the palm fronds and trunks left in the fields, the waste residues from our ‘golden crop’ will be even higher.


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As their supply of MCF and PKS far ex-ceeds their fuel requirements, EFB is tradi-tionally not used as fuel. Instead the latter is returned to the field for mulching and as nutrients. Although the government tried hard to encourage the palm oil mills that had abundant biomass waste at their door-step to venture into the electricity business, hardly any took up the offer for various rea-sons. Most of the owners argued that elec-tricity generation was not their core activity and that it was risky given the fixed low sale price to the utility and that they would be better off concentrating on what they know best. But there has been a recent change in the mindset of millers in their willingness to venture into this business.

RE Entrepreneurs

To fill the vacuum, a new breed of RE entrepreneur took up the government’s of-fer to set up small power plants (less than 10 mW in capacity). But the major problem that this group of entrepreneurs faced was that they did not own oil palm plantations or mills nor was there any existing biomass supply chain to source their fuel supply. Many palm oil mills with plantations are not interested in selling their EFBs while others may agree to short-term delivery agree-ments. This is because they expect higher prices in the near future due to an increase in the number of non-energy competitive uses of biomass waste. At the moment, EFB is used for making paper and pulp, parti-cleboard, medium density board and desert control mat. With more RE plants being planned, the demand for biomass fuel and its price will only head upwards.

Long-term Security of Supply

Therefore, the uncertainty of availabi-lity of long-term supply of biomass fuel re-mains a major barrier in encouraging more RE developers to venture into this emerg-ing power-generation business. Reliability of continuous fuel supply is critical to the full operation of a power plant. Without an

agreement for the long-term supply of bio-mass fuel, it will be virtually impossible for a prospective generator to secure a bank loan to build his plant.

The amount of biomass available for power generation is also influenced by the seasonal nature of palm oil mill operations. During the high season, palm oil mills op-erate between 18 to 20 hr day-1 but during the low season, they operate for about 10 to 12 hr. Longer operational hours trans-late to more EFB being produced and therefore more fuel for the biomass-based power plants, and the reverse holds true. Biomass-based power plants need a regular supply of fuel, irrespective of whether it is high or low season. This is the challenge for biomass fuel suppliers to ensure a regular supply of biomass feedstock despite the low season. Efficient logistics and trans-port as well as sourcing of EFB from palm oil mills throughout Peninsular Malaysia, for example, will serve as a daunting chal-lenge, particularly during the low season. In the light of uncertainty in securing bio-mass feedstock on a long-term basis, Tenaga Nasional’s initial requirement of a perform-ance target was difficult to comply with but it was announced in August last year that this requirement will be waived. This means that the RE developer will not be liable to pay a penalty in the event of not producing the minimum agreed units of electricity.

Higher Price for RE Electricity

As price was one of the major barriers to entry, RE developers welcomed the news that Tenaga had agreed to increase the pur-chase price of green electricity from 19 to 21 sen kWhr-1 with immediate effect. With the higher price and more favourable terms in the power purchase agreement, more palm oil millers, led by the Bell Group, are now venturing into this nascent RE-based power generation business. The price increase has served as an encouragement for palm oil millers who had been waiting on the side-lines.


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BIOMASS FUEL SUPPLy CHAIN

Unlike the well-developed supply chain for oil, natural gas and coal, there is practically none for biomass as a source of fuel. Other than a few localized suppliers and trans-porters, there are no companies specially in-volved in the supply, transport and logistics of biomass fuel.

With greater demand and amid uncer-tainty in supply, some enterprising busi-nessmen may venture into the buying and selling of biomass. The actions of a few trad-ers will inevitably lead to the establishment of an unofficial biomass market, provided the government takes the initiative to pro-vide incentives and other forms of encour-agement. If the 350 mW target in the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006 - 2010) is to be achieved, it has been estimated that 10 million tonnes of biomass waste per annum will have to be utilized and transported. This quantity is more than enough to facilitate the establish-ment of a viable and lucrative biomass fuel trade.

In view of this impending biomass fuel market, the immediate step would be the es-tablishment of a biomass repository by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), where expressions of interest by buyers and sell-ers can be registered and parties’ require-ments matched. Over time, as the RE sub-sector grows, the market for biomass fuel will evolve as entrepreneurs spot opportu-nities in the trading of various types of bio-mass. Meanwhile, the government, through MPOB, can take concrete steps to work out the framework, including operating rules and regulations, for the development of an efficient biomass fuel market/exchange.

All of these efforts will certainly help overcome the security of supply of biomass in the long-term and a nascent biomass fuel market can be expected to emerge.

Fuel Characteristics of Biomass

However, daunting challenges lie ahead, particularly in terms of the characteristics of EFB. Biomass is a low-density feedstock with a low-energy content compared to coal or oil.

EFB is bulky and requires huge storage space. The high moisture content (65%) af-fects its burning properties as the energy content is low. In its original state, EFB can-not be considered a fuel unless it is pre-treat-ed - it needs to be dried and compressed into bales. The quality of EFB deteriorates the longer it is stored untreated. Fungi will de-velop; it will become less combustible and more importantly, from an environmental point of view, the fuel will release methane the longer it is stored. Due to such character-istics, entrepreneurs will have to find a way to engage in a ‘just-in-time’ inventory sys-tem so that the biomass feedstock is utilized as soon as it arrives at the power plant.

Two issues arise with the transport of biomass: achieving lowest possible cost and avoiding road and community congestion during delivery. The use of rail transport should not be discounted. An efficient col-lection and transport system will be essen-tial. As EFB is not a high value commodity, the economics and viability of transporting this bulky fuel may also pose a challenge, especially when biomass is widely dis-persed across the country. Using lorries and trucks to transport EFB from low demand areas to high demand areas across the pe-ninsula would also inevitably raise the price of biomass.

FURTHER RESEARCH

To ensure the viability of the biomass fuel market, MPOB will have to intensify re-

PALM OIL ENGINEERING BULLETIN NO. 87�0

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search efforts in the following areas: • the economics of transporting the bulky

biomass fuel over long distances by road, rail or a combination of both;

• delaying the decay and quality of bio-mass through time;

• the economics of converting EFB into pellet form to facilitate transport; and

• viability of using dedicated conveyor belts within a specific area.

CONCLUSION

Many thriving businesses may be founded with greater use of biomass for the power sector, such as the development of a bio-mass fuel market. Not only will RE develop-ers be assured of a ready supply of biomass (albeit slightly higher prices) but oil palm estate owners and millers will enjoy multi-ple returns and more importantly, all of the waste will generate revenue and contribute significantly to the bottom line of plantation companies and palm oil mill owners.


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T

Milling Ideas - DigestersN Ravi Menon*

* Malaysian Palm Oil Board, P.O. Box 10620, 50720 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

milling technology could be improved. This may be a difficult exercise as there will be innumerable problems to attend to related processing issues, while stationed in the mill. While pondering on such topics, I was awakened by some new milling strat-egies that invaded my mind and I felt that they could improve the way our processing plants are configured.

In this issue, let us discuss the way our digesters are installed in the press station. Is there any particular advantage in having a dedicated digester/press configuration like the ones we have in most mills? I would give considerable weight to digester drain-age as efficient digester drainage should en-tail good pressing with the least nut break-age. It is not uncommon to see nut breakage in press cake exceeding 35% against a target of less than 15%. The obvious reason is high press cone/plate pressure, which in some mills is set at even 80 bar or more. One mis-take follows another and the mills end up fighting the consequences of a mistake; in this case poor drainage. If the digester drain-age had been done efficiently, there would be no necessity to increase the pressure on pressing in the first place.

he mill engineers should spend some time sitting quietly on a chair visualizing how the present

Mills have no doubt spent a lot of energy to improve digester drainage but were of no avail as almost all of them were only able to perform for short spells. In some mills, the drainage pipe network could be likened to the tentacles of an octopus but despite its initial performance very soon the tentacles became cold and lifeless when the drainage pipes experienced blockages on all fronts. What did the mills do then? Just gave up and did nothing.

Let us now look at the configuration from a totally different perspective. Why should one digester be dedicated to only one press and that too located so closely that even the regular digester liner renewal becomes a nightmare with the press stand-ing in the way. When talking about digester liner renewal, the task is performed in the worst way imaginable in all mills. The liner by right should be a right concentric cylin-der and when fitted should be concentric with the stirrer arm shaft axis so that the blade tip clearance is kept to a minimum. But with the conventional way of changing worn off liner plates, the centre lines of the cylinder and the stirrer shaft are no more co-axial resulting in large blade tip clearances inevitably leading to poor digestion; the net result?- poor digestion and un-ruptured cells. All these can contribute towards high oil losses.


Now coming back to our topic, the di-gester must release most of the oil contained by the mash before it is admitted into the press so that it can be pressed comfortably with the least pressure to avoid high nut breakage. The easiest way appears to be to have separate digester station where all the digesters are stationed to receive sterilized fruit (Figure 1). It is not necessary to have complicated digester drainage as the whole content can be discharged into a digested mash conveyor that can feed a number of presses. The oil can be drained from the di-gested mash conveyor through a perforated bottom into an oil gutter that joins the press

Figure 2. Configuration of a Stork screw press.

juice gutter. Hot water can be added to the digested mash conveyor so that most of the crude palm oil is separated in the conveyor itself. In this way, not only the problem of digester drainage is addressed but also the digester liner renewal is performed in a pro-fessional way free from defects. In the Stork press arrangement, its built-in feed screw essentially does the same job as the digest-ed mash conveyor but press overhaul was cumbersome compared to the more popu-lar Devecker press (Figure 2). The relative-ly easy maintenance that is possible in the Devecker presses made them the preferred choice in Malaysia and elsewhere.

Figure 1. Segregated digester station.

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T

Mongana Basics:Part 12 - Problems Associated with Oil

Separation**N Ravi Menon*

* Malaysian Palm Oil Board, P.O. Box 10620, 50720 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

** Continued from p. 27 of Palm Oil Engineering Bulletin Issue No. 86.

WERKSPOOR CENTRIFUGE WITH CONTINUOUS DISCHARGE OF

SEDIMENTS

he bowl is a star-shaped, 6 spokes rotor. A nozzle is fitted at the end of each of the branches. A constant

volume of water is (5.4 t hr-1) discharged through the nozzles. The level of the interface is not set by gravity discs but by two inverted centrifugal pumps (fixed rotor and rotating liquid). One of these pumps supplies enough water to ensure full discharge of liquid through the nozzles dash - the diameter of which could vary from (2 to 2.3 mm).

This machine has been used for various types of crude oil pumping especially the crude oil discharged by the screw press. The limiting factor as regards to capacity is the amount of aqueous phase to be separated from the crude oil and not the quantity of oil. With a constant discharge of 5.4 t hr-1 of water, it has been possible to collect up to 7 t of oil per hour. The main advantage of the machine is its ability to deal with crude oil

containing from 0% to 100% of oil without performing any adjustment in its settings. Among factors affecting the efficiency of the machine, the following are worth noting.

• Hourly throughput. Contrary to what may be believed, the efficiency of oil removal from the crude oil is directly proportional to the hourly output and therefore inversely proportional to the dwelling time in the machine. The analytical results versus the crude oil hourly output are shown in the Table 1.

It is difficult to give a satisfactory explanation to the fact, why a longer dwelling time of the crude oil in the bowl should lead to a reduction in the extraction of oil from the NOS. A logical explanation could be that during periods of low hourly inputs , a larger volume of make-up water is admitted into the machine to maintain its stipulated throughput. As a result, the larger intake of water might create eddies in the bowl and this could affect separation adversely. This problem has been referred to the maker of the centrifuge. The other factors are:

• the temperature. This must be kept at 95°C;

• variable feed rate. The abrupt variations in the amount of crude oil fed into

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the centrifuge are not conducive to efficient separation; and

• boiling of crude oil and period of ebullition. Table 2 gives the residual amount of oil in NOS (a) versus the time during which crude oil is boiled and also (b) versus dilution.

The 100% dilution appears to lead for

getting the best results. It seems also that boiling either through direct steam injection on by means of steam coils is sufficient to induce a satisfactory extraction of oil. In the above cases involving 100% dilution, boiling was carried out either by steam injection or by steam coil (12% and 11% oil on NOS respectively). Each result is the average of eight tests carried out on samples taken whilst the machine was operating at three different throughputs.

The wear of the continuous discharge sludge centrifuge appears to be less severe than in the case of the previous one. The nozzles, although made of special metal; have to be renewed periodically. In a comparison between the resistance to abrasion of nozzles made of two different

TABLE 2. EFFECT OF DILUTION AND BOILING TIME ON THE OIL CONTENT ON NOS (results expressed in % oil on NOS)

Dilution (%)

Not boiled Brought to boiling

Boiled for 15 min

Boiled for 30 min

Boiled for 90 min

Boiled for 100 to 180 min

0100200

552222

-11-

-1120

-1127

3012-

-43-

metals, it was established that tungsten carbide is eight times as durable as stellite (cobalt alloy).

In the case of crude oil containing a large amount of sediments, the strainer placed in the feeding chamber displayed a tendency to clog up although the size of the perforations were larger than that of the sediments.

The screen can be cleared by a spray of water or simply by applying slight vibrations to the chamber. At the time of the trial, a device to impart vibrations to the strainer was being designed.

The continuous discharge sludge centrifuge of the type under discussion presents a number of advantages in respect of automatic operation. After starting the machine and adjusting the self-regulating make-up water addition, all that is required is to ensure that crude oil does not overflow from the feeding chamber. By fitting an automatic float valve to maintain a constant level the machine operates by itself and requires no supervision. Several factors may however perturb the machine operation;

TABLE 1. EFFECT OF THROUGHPUT ON THE OIL CONTENT OF NOS

Less then 2.5 (t hr-1)

2.5 to 4.5 (t hr-1)

More than 4.5 (t hr-1)

Oil on NOS

Percentage of results lower than 15%

Number of samples

23.8%

15%

53

19.9%

28%

54

18.9%

38%

45

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they are as follows: insufficient crude oil temperature, insufficient pressure of the make-up water (at least 3 m) and clogged discharge nozzles.

The last point is important. It has been observed that as soon as one nozzle gets blocked, sediments accumulate in that branch of the star and consequently eddies occur in the bowl. This induces abnormally high losses of the oil in the discharged effluent.

In order to avoid them, the strained crude oil must be protected from exposure to sources of contaminations. Moreover, a quick response indicator must be fitted to signal a drop in the throughput of the nozzles. Such an indicator may consist of the bell controlled by the time of filling the recording basculators. The inertia of such a system is low since it is at worst equal to the time taken for one of the basculator compartments to fill up. At Mongana, the time to fill up one section was 40 s when operating the centrifuge at 5.4 t hr-1. The clogging of one of the nozzles was therefore detected by the increase in the time required to fill up one compartment (48 s).

A number of problems specific to the machine have still to be studied. Among these:

• reason for the sudden emulsifications of some oil;

• effect on oil removal of plates with perforations close to the centre (lengthening of the zone of oil extraction);

• gurgling sounds detected in the bowl; and

• slow and recurring variations of the machine capacity.

A flow meter was fitted on the upper water pipe and a tachometer was also pro-vided. They were not standard equipments but were however, necessary to maintain efficient control of the machine. The cen-trifuge can be converted into a purifier by increasing its speed of revolution, charging

the plates and reversing the direction of the pumps. Difficulties are experienced how-ever as a result of these modifications.

The Star-rotor Sludge Centrifuge (Stork)

This machine discharges effluent continuously as the previous centrifuge but operates without a pump. The evacuation of oil from the bowl is controlled through a valve placed on the outlet pipe located at the centre of the bowl. Its disadvantage compared to the previous machine is to yield oil containing more moisture and more impurities (several percentage units against 0.7% moisture and less than 0.01% impurities); also the absence of a regulator of the oil water interface. It may happen therefore that through the throttling of the oil discharge, the bowl fills up with oil and the latter is eventually discharged through the nozzles. The machine is particularly adapted to the treatment of sludge or oily water. No make-up water is required. The water content of sludge is high enough. Its efficiency of separation is slightly lower than that of bowl and plate centrifuges.

Compared to the intermittent discharge centrifuge (Titan), these machines offer the advantage of being rugged, continuous and less prone to wear. Its operation requires only limited supervision. The very principle on which it is designed precludes its utilization as a purifier.

Settling Characteristics of Crude Oil that is Study of the δ-Coefficient

Clarification losses occur in the sedi-ments trapped in the centrifuge bowl and in solids of the discharged effluent. In both cases, the loss consist of the free oil, which can be recovered and of the ‘oil bound to the NOS’. Methods are evolved to assess them separately. They consist in the prolonged centrifugation in a laboratory machine of the material to be analysed. They made it possible to evaluate also the γ-coefficient or the centrifuge efficiency. The latter is solely governed by the amount of free oil lost since

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the amount of oil bound to the NOS is prac-tically constant.

The efficiencies of three different types of centrifuges were determined and was found to the close to 1 or at any rate higher than 0.99. The δ-coefficient or the settling characteristics was determined in the case of the oil derived from various types of fruit processed according to various extraction techniques.

The settling characteristics are not constant. They are governed by the NOS content of the crude oil and by the composition of the NOS. In the best possible conditions, cellular debris are likely to retain 15% to 25% of oil, whereas the oil content of the insoluble constituents of the NOS (fibre for instance) can be brought down to approximately 10%. As regards the water soluble constituents of the NOS (pectin for instance), their oil content after centrifugation is close to nil.

As has been mentioned before, half of the constituents of the NOS are soluble in water or at least can be solubilized. The amount of oil bound to the NOS is therefore close to 10%. The settling capacity can therefore be established by calculation. Its reliance has been established experimentally.

Purification

It consists in removing traces of impurity and a few tenths of percentage unit of water still present in oil after static settling or centrifugal separation. Four different machines were tested, three with bowl and plates revolving at 6000 rpm (de Laval, Titar, Melotte) and one with a spindle shaped bowl revolving at 15 000 rpm (Sharples).

The separation of the solids is equally effective in any of these four machines with an output ranging from 350 to 3500 kg of oil per hour. A slightly brighter oil appears to be derived from the machine with plateless bowl in which accelerations higher than 10 000 g are applied.

The chief difference between the machines is the amount of solids that can be retained in the bowl and the eventual dehydration that may occur therein.

Two of the centrifuges can hold 2 kg of wet sediments, i.e, 0.4 kg of dry solids in the bowl (Melotte and Sharples). These two machines do not permit direct dehydration. The other two provide for dehydration, the first through the natural air draught created by the rotation of the bowl and the second through provision of fan since natural ventilation is not sufficient. The advantage of the latter machine is to eject the sediments automatically through the operation of a suitable valve (Titan).

All these centrifuges yield purified oil containing less than 0.01% impurities, which is the detection limit of the standard determination procedure and less than 0.35% of water. The moisture content can be reduced to about 0.05%, if the centrifuges are used at low throughput.

DEGUMMING

It is a well-known fact that crude oil con-tains substances of a complex nature, which are soluble or at least dispersible in freshly produced oil but which precipitate under certain conditions, particularly through ageing of the wet oil. These substances are described in the palm oil industry as mu-cilage. They consist mainly of phosphati-des. Some oils (soyabean oil for instance) contain exceptionally high amounts of mu-cilage. Before use, they should be suitably treated in order to remove them. The muci-lage content of palm oil is very low, hardly more than a few hundredth of a percent. A number of users of palm oil have however, complained about the deposit found in oil which they regard as just another impurity similar to sand, fibre and organic debris, which are normally present in the oil.

Carefully controlled shipments of oil, in which strict conditions of cleanliness were achieved, failed to induce a marked

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improvement. In the course of storage and transport, precipitates materialized at the bottom of the land or ship tanks.

These precipitates are described as impurities of maturation. Users of palm oil eliminate mucilage in the course of the alkaline refining in the case of utilization as a basic material for margarine production or by treatment with surfactants in the case of industrial utilization (metallurgy and plating).

An attempt was made to separate the impurities of maturation into basic constituents. The oil was mixed with water at a high temperature (90°C). The resulting substance consisted mainly of soap. Table 3 gives the relevant information.

Industrial techniques of mucilage removal (degumming) are numerous. They are covered by a number of patents (30, 31, 32).

The industrial techniques can be classified as follows:

• degumming by alkaline treatment;• degumming by acid treatment;• degumming by organic and mineral

salts;• degumming by absorption;• degumming by physical methods

(ultrafiltration, passage through an electric field); and

• degumming by aqueous treatment.

The last of the above methods was implemented at industrial scale at Mongana although to our knowledge it has never been used for palm oil before.

This involves the following steps:• precipitation of the mucilages by

aqueous treatment;• separation of the precipitate and

possible; and • the purification of the precipitate.

TABLE 3. IMPURITIES OF MATURATION

Ether extract 13.85%

100%

Extraction residue 86.15%

FFASoap expressed in g for 100 g of FFA (molecular weight 256)Nitrogen: 0.53% as proteinsPhosphorousAsh

%

1.512.92

3.440.113.01

10.99

Soap expressed in g for 100 g of FFA(molecular weight 256) Not readily hydrolysable soap

38.4

4.5

FeO3 SiO2Ash 30.9% CaO MgO Residue

9.103.510.600.0017.69

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Dry mucilage dissolve or are dispersible in oil. They swell under the effect of moisture absorption and form substances, which agglomerate and become insoluble in oil. As a result of the high moisture content, their density is higher than that of oil.

Mucilage can be made to absorb moisture through the following processes:

• intimate mixing of purified oil with water;

• addition of water during the centrifugal extraction of the digested mash;

• centrifugation of oil coupled with addition of water in the machine using a suitable gravity disc;

• steam injection using an ejecto-mixer; and

• centrifugal straining of a water and oil mixture through a fine strainer.

Several of the above methods are continuous.

The time of contact between oil and water varies from one process to another. Strict control of temperature must be achieved failing which the hydrated mucilage can re-disperse in the oil.

The separation of the precipitate can be

made by static settling or better still and quicker by centrifugation. In that case, the precipitate can either be retained in the centrifuge bowl or eliminated together with excess treatment water. The raw mucilage can be partially dehydrated by centrifugation.

Unlike some vegetable mucilage, such as the lecithins of soyabean and groundnut, those of palm oil after exposure to air and are not hydroscopic. They consist of waxy white coloured powder, which keeps indefinitely.

Degumming modifies the physical properties of palm oil, particularly as regards the characteristics of solidification. It does not seem to affect bleachability but leads to markedly lower Wesson loss. It

may quite possibly to have an effect on the oil resistance to oxidation and consequently in an indirect manner on bleachability. It should be noted that the drying of oil to less than 0.1% moisture as is required to avoid acidification totally prevents the separation of maturation impurities.

CLARIFICATION OF SCREW PRESS CRUDE OIL

The clarification is organized according to the process flow in a palm oil mill. Crude oil is collected in a tank where dilution with hot water takes place. Dilution is continuous and can be controlled by an appropriate equipment (double tank basculator). The diluted crude oil is brought to boiling point by live steam injection. It is then strained through a 20 mesh rotary screen (3000 rpm). The strained material is then fed into a large capacity sand cyclone and recycled from two to three times through it with the overflow returned to the strained oil receiving tank. That tank is provided with steam injection. All steam injectors are equipped with a silencer, which reduced noise and also vibrations.

The diluted crude oil is centrifuged in a bowl and plates centrifuge with continuous discharge of the solids. The make-up water is provided by a constant level tank fitted with a heat exchanger controlled by a thermostatic steam valve. The amount of effluent discharged by the machine is recorded by a basculator. The amount of make-up water is measured by a flow-meter of the mercury column type.

The instantaneous throughput of the crude oil is therefore known at all times. Clarified oil is collected in a calibrated tank. It is then heated up by a thermostatically controlled device and passed through a centrifugal purifier and finally to a drier after which it is pumped into the storage tank.

Clarification and purification are completely automatic and continuous and only require supervisory labour.

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Palm News

COLLABORATION BETWEEN MALAySIA AND INDONESIA

A dialogue with European Union (EU) members of the Parliament and the World Sustainability Conference in London both slated for September this year will be the earliest grounds to test the collaboration between Malaysia and Indonesia to counter anti-palm oil propaganda in Europe. Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister, Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui said, “the events would be the first for both countries to stand on the same platform and respond to any accusation raised by the EU Parliament members and during the conference on their palm oil industries”.

Speaking at a news conference here, he said, “the agreement to have a common stand on the matter was reached during a Third Joint Committee Meeting on Bilateral Cooperation on Commodities between the Malaysian and Indonesian Governments in Kuta, Bali on April 25. The issue on promoting palm oil usage among the European countries had taken up the larger portion of the meeting where Datuk Peter Chin led the Malaysian delegation while the Indonesian team was led by their Agriculture Minister, Dr Anton Apriyantono.

Datuk Peter Chin said, “the meeting had been significant with the details of framework for actions had been discussed to consolidate their positions as the world’s largest oil palm producers and their influences in the world market”. Currently, Malaysia and Indonesia are producing 85% of the world palm oil supplies that translate

to about 33 million tonnes annually. He said that he expected the EU Parliament members and participants at the conference, which will also have international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to accuse oil palm plantations in Malaysia and Indonesia to have caused carbon emission and forest destruction.

The West would be also informed of the success of Malaysia in preserving nearly 50% of the country with virgin forests as compared to just about 19% in certain Eu-ropean countries. Malaysia and Indonesia would also explain how palm oil is a peren-nial crop that could be planted once but yet be able to produce fruits continuously for at least 25 years, against the competing crops such as soyabean, oilseed or sunflower that have to be planted annually, causing more destruction to the environment.

IOI GETS MPOB’S BEST ESTATE CR AWARD

Recently, The Star Online reported that IOI Group has diligently undertaken corporate responsibility (CR) activities in an admirable manner for over a decade. As a testimony to IOI’s good CR initiatives, one of the latest prestigious awards secured by the Group include the Malaysian Palm Oil Board’s Best Estate CR Award won by its Ulu Estate in Pamol, Sabah last month.

It is heartening to see that the company actually implements measures to ensure that its vision is put in practice where it mat-ters. Its CR principle, which is encoded in Vision IOI formulated in 1995, emphasizes

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on achieving commercial success in a bal-anced, responsible way by addressing the interests of stakeholders. “This simple guid-ing principle ensures that CR, as we see it, is part and parcel of how we do business”, said Group Executive Director, Datuk Lee Yeow Chor.

Its key CR initiatives include good busi-ness practices and sustainable cultivation, education, environment and wildlife con-servation, community and employee wel-fare. Lee told StarBiz “IOI believes that con-cern for the environment is an integral part of sustainable oil palm cultivation and this has governed the Group’s practice for many years”. “We have practised zero burning and biomass preservation in clearing land for new planting or replanting over the past 15 years”, he said.

Every year, large volume of biomass such as empty fruit bunches (EFB), meso-carp fibre and kernel shells are produced at its palm oil mills as by-products. “Three years ago, IOI installed a biomass steam plant to produce steam to power its refinery in Sandakan utilizing EFB fibre and kernel shell”, Lee said. The Group is commission-ing a 15 MW biomass power plant this year using EFB and shell in the same refinery. IOI also uses the organic-rich effluent produced at its crude palm oil (CPO) mills as a supple-mentary fertilizer for the Group’s estates.

The Group has invested in new processing technology for its CPO mills, which will reduce the effluent pollutants level. According to Lee, the Group’s efforts towards practicing sustainable agriculture and sustainable palm oil production have intensified in the last five years through its participation in the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). IOI is one of RSPO’s founding members and subsequently, became a member of its executive board.

Lee said, “we have undergone a number of sustainability audits by several regional and international bodies and intend to obtain the RSPO certification for some of

our estates during the next few months”. Other measures to minimize the impact on environment include integrated pest management, soil management, terracing and restoration of the riparian reserves to reduce soil erosion while barn owl nest boxes are set up for pest control. Buffaloes are also used instead of mini tractors for crop evacuation to reduce the usage of diesel and the subsequent emission of greenhouse gasses.

Lee said, the measures resulted in the efficient use of land, which translates into lower fertilizer, pesticide and energy usage, which in turn delivers significant benefits to the environment. “The IOI Group’s annual palm oil yield is also significantly above the national average despite a dramatic reduction in the land to produce the same amount of palm oil. Based on the Group’s planted 150 000 ha, Lee said, “this will result in the saving of an astonishing 70 000 ha of valuable land”.

For its employees, Lee said, “the Group strives to ensure its estate workers live in safe and comfortable surroundings. A com-plete range of amenities provided ranges from proper housing, schools, nurseries, places of worship, community halls, sundry shops, sports and recreational facilities, po-lice stations and flood relief centres”. To en-hance employees’ health and safety, it pro-vides free medical treatment at clinics with X-ray and ambulance facilities.

In environment and wildlife conservation, IOI also plays an active part in caring for the endangered wildlife species. Initiatives include a deer farm at Nangoh Estate, Proboscis monkey (Nasalis carvatus) sanctuary at Bayok Estate and cultivation of soft to semi-hard wood jungle trees in flood-prone areas to save the orang utan and other wildlife.

Lee said, “the CR initiatives undertaken by IOI Group and sister organization Yayasan Tan Sri Datuk Lee Shin Cheng were constantly evolving according to prevailing time and circumstances”. He said, “we

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realise that our efforts alone are not sufficient and we welcome opportunities to work with other like-minded organizations to advance the agenda of human capital development and environmental preservation further”.

yTL-SV CARBON HOPES TO HANDLE 1000 PROJECTS

Malaysian power-to-telecoms conglomerate, YTL Corp took a majority stake in what it said was the country’s largest carbon credit consultancy on Friday, looking to capitalize on growing opportunities in the palm oil sector.

The Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Develop-ment Mechanism (CDM) allows companies in developing countries to qualify to sell carbon credits, or Certified Emission Reduc-tions, in global commodity markets when they cut their output of environmental harmful substances.

Global trade in carbon markets was up 80% last year at 40 billion Euros (RM 61.9 billion), dominated by a European Union (EU) trading scheme. But a 12 billion Euro market under the Kyoto Protocol faces an uncertain future after the EU firmly linked it to global talks to hammer out a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

The new Malaysian firm, YTL-SV Car-bon, expects to be handling 1000 projects within three years, against 30 now, if the talks on a successor to Kyoto prove suc-cessful. Soeren Varming, Managing Direc-tor told reporters, “palm oil is where the big opportunity is in Malaysia”, he added. “The paradigm is changing, from a waste producer to a sector that will actually utilize the waste”.

Malaysia, the world’s second largest producer, expects crude palm oil output to rise to 16.5 million tonnes this year from 15.8 million in 2007, as soaring prices for the commodity have led to conversion of marginal land into plantations. The joint venture has worked on biogas projects to turn plant waste from palm oil mills into

power and compost ventures that turn organic waste into fertilizers, as well as mini-hydro projects. Varming said, “CDM allows, in some cases, an incremental project income that will go straight to the bottom line, in other cases, it allows projects you would never have thought of before, and in yet others, you’ll see new business models become possible, because the income stream of the carbon credits allows this.”

Malaysia’s oil palm industry faces accusations from Western environmental groups that it is destroying rain forest to grow palm oil, but YTL-SV Carbon’s environmental strategies could help blunt such attacks. YTL Chief Executive Francis Yeoh said, “biomass and biogas are very high in emissions that cause the greenhouse effect, so if we could recycle them and give it a commercially viable story, that would help keep our palm oil industry from being attacked so much.” “Besides Malaysia, YTL-SV Carbon was targeting projects in Southeast Asian neighbours such as Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand”, Varming said.

E. coli TO PRODUCE OUR BIOFUEL?

Last month, the Economist raved about the new generation of lean, clean diesel cars arriving belatedly in America (Diesel’s second coming, 4 April 2008). With oil pushing USD 120 a barrel, the diesel’s fuel-sipping charms delivers about 30% more miles per gallon (MPG) than regular petrol - created a shortage of diesel fuel around the world. Soaring prices followed the shortage. Over the past year, the average price of diesel in America has risen by 117% twice as fast as petrol. It is now 20% more expensive than regular gas. Rising prices like these could easily negate diesel’s MPG advantage.

Half of all new cars bought in to Europe are diesels; Europeans have pretty well hogged the supply of diesel fuel from oil refineries as well as from renewable crops. In fact, much of the biodiesel produced in the United States from soyabeans and corn


(and subsidized by American tax payers to the tune of USD 1 per 3.78 litres) winds up in Europe, where it benefits from still further subsidies. That’s great for farmers in the Midwest, but offers little consolation to motorists across America.

Now comes news that another major source of diesel – Southeast Asia, where it’s refined from palm oil is drying up. Refiners throughout the region are closing biodiesel plants and canceling new ones. Most are being priced out of the business by the soaring cost of palm oil, which has been rising even faster than crude.

With China and India getting richer, growers find they can make more money nowadays from selling palm oil for cooking rather than fuel. Malaysia, which has enough esterification capacity to produce more than 1 million tonnes of biodiesel, turned out only 80 000 t last year.

It’s not as though conventional oil refiners can add more diesel capacity in a hurry. For one thing, the catalytic crackers used by refiners in America are optimized to produce as much petrol as possible typically about 50% of every barrel of oil, with diesel accounting for little more than 15%.

In Europe, hydro-crackers that produce 25% petrol and 25% diesel are more common. But adapting American refineries to produce more diesel will take years. In the meantime, the motor industry is pinning its hopes on biodiesel. But growing crops for fuel instead of food is becoming politically difficult in many parts of the world. Besides, biodiesel’s contribution using traditional crops will be modest at most.

It’s a matter of scale. Europe has over 10 million tonnes and America around 4 million tonnes biodiesel capacity. Compare that with the 490 million tonnes of diesel that Europe and America consumed between them last year. To meet just America’s one-third share would require all the arable land in the country be planted with soyabeans for biodiesel.

Few countries have anything like enough arable land to feed themselves and grow biofuels at the same time. There has to be a better way. One answer could be synthetic biology - a set of tools for building novel functions into biological systems to solve engineering problems. To engineer a hydrocarbon like diesel, start with a fermentable sugar or starch in the usual way. In terms of energy produced per hectare of land, sugarcane is a better bet than sugar beets, corn or soyabeans.

Next, forget about distillation. It may be an old and honourable way of making alcohol, but it’s appallingly wasteful in energy terms. Just heating the fermented broth ready for distilling into ethanol consumes around 40% of the energy in the alcohol produced. Instead, take a common bacterium like E. coli, which lives in the gut, or a yeast-like fungus such as Saccharomyces, which easily turns sugar into copious quantities of alcohol. Scour the world for suitable enzymes that speed up the whole process and deliver the molecular features being sought. Finally, tweak the enzymes to make them do their jobs better, and stitch their genes into the microbe being used as a fermentation factory.

Ten years ago such an endeavour would have been unimaginable. But thanks to the development of cheap and fast DNA sequencing and synthesis tools, such microbial engineering is becoming routine. Amyris Biotechnologies, a company in Emeryville, California, that spun out of the University of California at Berkeley several years ago, has pioneered a way of custom designing microbes to produce a whole range of specialized hydrocarbons including molecules that are exact replicas of artemisinin, an anti-malarial drug, as well as fuels like petrol, diesel and aviation spirit.

The key to Amyris’s success has been a class of hydrocarbons called isoprenoids (by-products, like synthetic rubber, that re-sult from cracking naphtha or oil). Like al-




cohols, isoprenoids are also found widely in plants and animals, and are actually the most common hydrocarbons produced in the human body. Enzymes that can manipu-late them are therefore fairly common. That makes tailoring bugs to synthesize specific hydrocarbons a lot easier. Unlike the bio-fuel produced by distilling witches brews of soyabeans or corn, Amyris’s hydrocar-bons are engineered to have precisely the same molecular structure as their oil-based equivalents and are hence one-for-one re-placements for fuels on the forecourt today. As such, engines notice no difference when running on them, save for the synthetic die-sel’s greater consistency and its 80% reduc-tion in emissions compared with petroleum diesel.

Last week, Amyris announced a deal with Crystalsev, one of Brazil’s largest ethanol distributors, to create a renewable diesel made from sugarcane. In Brazil, where sugar cane grows like a weed, ethanol plants typically produce around 9 kWhr of energy for every tonne of cane crushed. The Amyris process promises to raise that figure 20-fold. The aim is to have a demonstration plant up and running in Brazil by 2010, with large-scale commercial production starting a year or two later.

RETURN OF RUDOLF DIESEL

At the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, Rudolf Diesel exhibited an engine that could run on oil from vegetables and plants. But Diesel’s design was eclipsed by automobile engines that ran on petroleum-based fuel. Today, though, with concerns about the environment and the supply of oil, diesel engines – and the sustainable options for running them – are getting a second look. Auto industry analysts expect sales of diesel-powered cars in the United States to triple in the next decade, and many of those drivers will be looking for plant-based fuel, biodiesel, to put in their tanks.

Biodiesel is made from processed vegetable or plant oil, and can be used in diesel engines on its own, or blended with

petroleum-based fuel. Here in Berkeley, California, the pumps at Biofuel Oasis dispense diesel made from used cooking oil.

The fueling station is a co-operative, owned by five women. Margaret Farrow says, “Oasis was opened to offer a sustainable option to the petroleum-derived diesel offered by big oil companies”. “It’s a clean-burning fuel. It’s more efficient than gasoline. It’s biodegradable, non-toxic, non-flammable”, she says, adding that it’s good for the environment, too. “In terms of greenhouse gasses, if you use biodiesel, there’s no net increase of carbon dioxide going into the environment”.

Since Biofuel Oasis opened in 2003, about 2500 customers have pulled in to fill up. For Sandra Lupien, coming here is an ethical choice. “An important point for me about using biodiesel is to make sure that we’re using biodiesel that is made from recycled vegetable oil, oil picked-up from restaurants that’s just going to be thrown away anyway, instead of using oil processed from new crops”.

There are two types of biodiesel fuel: fresh or virgin biodiesel is made from crops such as soyabeans. Then there’s the biodiesel fuel made from recycled vegetable oil which only a few fueling stations besides the Oasis sell – currently at USD 1.10 litre-1, about 5 cents less than regular diesel fuel and 10 cents more than gasoline in California.

Even though diesel is more expensive than gasoline, litre for litre, it’s cheaper to run a diesel car. Diesel engines are designed to be more efficient than gasoline engines, so they provide higher fuel efficiency. But it can be more of a challenge to find a place to fill up a car that runs on diesel. Not all service stations carry diesel, and pumps serving up biodiesel are rare indeed. Nationally, there are only about 1600 biodiesel fueling stations, with most clustered in the grain-growing states of the Midwest, and a few along the coasts.


The biodiesel sold at Oasis comes from Yokayo Biofuels, the only commercial-scale plant in northern California that manufactures the fuel from used vegetable oil. Kumar Plocher founded the company in 2001, and it now produces about 3700 litres of biodiesel fuel every day.

Plocher has a fleet of biodiesel-powered trucks that collects used cooking oil from about 700 restaurants across northern California. Once at the processing plant, the oil goes through a series of screeners, high speed shakers, hot tanks and washes to remove food residue and water. The separated food products are composted, and the filtered oil begins its transformation. Treated with methanol and potassium hydroxide, also known as lye, the vegetable oil molecules break down. Plocher explains that this step is the most dangerous aspect of the operation, “people ask if biodiesel is a dangerous fuel. Once you’ve actually made it and purified it, it’s completely non-toxic and non-hazardous”.

But Plocher admits there is still a great deal of negativity surrounding biodiesel fuels. “Right now the [public sentiment] about biofuels in general and, certainly, biodiesel as well as ethanol, is very negative”. He points to news reports and studies focused on the diversion of food crops for fuel and the environmental costs of clearing land for biofuel crops. And he counters, “it’s very easy to show that this kind of biodiesel that we are making has serious net positives. But if you’re going to take a hectare of someone’s food garden and replant it to make energy, there’s problems with that”. Plocher says, “because of the huge amount of land required to grow biodiesel crops – often land where food crops had been grown – some biodiesel producers are importing palm oil from the tropics to make their fuel. But that’s not a perfect solution, either. Not only are there increased transportation costs, but the growing demand for palm oil has caused the destruction of rain forests in Malaysia, Indonesia and other tropical countries.

Kumar Plocher serves on the National Biodiesel Board’s Sustainability Task Force, working to develop a road map for the industry. With an eye on its impact on the environment and the global food supply, he says, “the search is on for sustainable, super biodiesel crops, stuff that doesn’t compete with food, that you can get a whole lot of energy per hectare”. He says, “soyabeans provide only a tiny amount of oil, and mustard seed and sunflowers are somewhat more productive”. “But there are trees that actually grow well in California and across a lot of the United States called Chinese Tallow trees. They can give you upwards of 4730 litres a hectare. We are looking into those. Difficult to harvest but they can be one of the real feedstocks of the future”. “Algae is another possibility, he says, “we can get (tens of thousands of litres per hectare) with algae ponds. So there are all kinds of more sustainable choices for the future”.

Whatever it’s made from, industry experts expect biodiesel to be an important part of the energy supply of the future.

PTT PCL BUyS 95% SHARE OF PT AZ ZHARA OF INDONESIA

“The Thai state-run oil giant, PTT Pcl has taken over a major palm oil plantation in Kalimantan, the Indonesian province on Borneo island”, PTT Prasert Bunsumpun said on Sunday. In a three-country deal, Singapore-based, PTT Green Energy Co. Ltd (PTTGE), a PTT subsidiary, bought 95% of PT Az Zhara of Indonesia for USD 22.27 million, or about 708 million baht. The deal was brokered by Sabra Brothers, a PTTGE subsidiary.

PT Az Zhara grow oil palm on 40 500 ha (roughly 253 000 rai) on Kalimantan. The company has current plans to construct a plant to produce crude palm oil at the plantation site by 2012. “PTT plans to sell the palm oil both locally and for export”, said Mr Prasert. He did not announce any plans to export the oil to Thailand, where palm oil is used extensively in production of biodiesel.

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Titbits

An enzyme isolate has allowed researchers in the US to process cellulosic material into ‘biofuel-ready sugar’ in single step. The enzyme, which they have called ethazyme, was isolated from bacteria Sac-charophagus degradans by molecular geneti-cist, Rob Weiner and cell biologist, Steve Hutcheson at the University of Maryland. According to the pair, the isolated enzyme was shown to break down cellulosic materi-als into biofuel-ready sugars – a process that took one step and at lower cost and with fewer caustic chemicals than current meth-ods.

This, they say, allow them to generate bioethenol from a wide range of cellulosic sources, most of which are currently con-sidered waste streams. These include waste paper, brewing by-products, agricultural waste such as corncobs and straw, and the energy crop switchgrass.

If the process can be scaled up to produce commercial volumes of bioethanol, then the enzyme itself could be highly valuable. In December 2007, the US Senate passed an

energy bill that mandates all oil companies must blend about 83 million tonnes per year of cellulosic ethanol with domestic petrol by 2022.

Producing ethanol successfully from cellulosic sources at commercial volumes, in an economically-viable process is the holy grail of biofuel production and key to the commercialization of so-called second generation biofuels. The main issue is the breaking down of the hardy cellulose poly-mer that forms the cell walls of all plants. The problem can be seen in cows, which spend all their time chewing and processing grass. Their method, if directly transferable would be commercially inefficient: the grass passes from stomach to stomach where it is degraded by a number of different enzymes and it regularly has to be regurgitated to mechanically break down the materials.

Dan Mote Junior, President of Uni-versity of Maryland says, “[this new proc-ess] makes affordable ethanol production a reality and makes it from waste materials. This benefits everyone and supports the green-friendly goal of carbon-neutrality”.

CELLULOSE TO SUGAR IN SINGLE PROCESS STEP


Source: MPOB.

PEN. MALAySIA : MONTHLy PRICES OF CRUDE PALM OIL (local delivered - RM t-1)

Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Average1980 1 096 1 140 1 045 999 882 862 841 815 777 702 911 958 9191981 991 1 017 979 967 967 1 093 1 038 899 888 923 930 880 9641982 938 978 950 939 959 909 733 688 734 652 688 784 8291983 792 749 725 785 850 810 824 1 068 1 265 1 329 1 300 1 412 9911984 2 122 2 029 1 586 1 465 1 698 1 450 1 035 981 1 004 1 108 1 222 1 198 1 4081985 1 212 1 192 1 296 1 497 1 385 1 229 1 020 847 753 662 674 781 1 0461986 672 582 485 604 555 595 552 463 446 581 726 684 5791987 765 811 738 749 734 762 719 712 748 784 806 957 7741988 1 184 1 029 899 963 975 1 126 1 166 1 036 968 1 000 1025 980 1 0291989 946 964 950 918 954 888 783 676 717 754 714 602 8221990 671 661 693 672 702 677 680 677 678 678 773 847 7011991 882 844 854 785 793 777 827 843 795 818 863 884 8371992 919 912 954 944 892 940 899 857 883 897 957 946 9171993 992 1 043 1 023 971 886 848 848 827 827 753 790 880 8901994 992 1008 995 1 085 1 223 1 276 1 195 1 410 1 454 1 417 1 634 1 718 1 2841995 1 538 1 616 1 700 1 502 1 420 1 427 1 457 1 425 1 346 1 417 1 431 1 395 1 4731996 1 245 1 221 1 199 1 253 1 281 1 160 1 067 1 126 1 188 1 152 1 184 1 223 1 1921997 1 315 1 347 1 281 1 299 1 315 1 215 1 180 1 233 1 389 1 619 1 669 1 849 1 3581998 2 404 2 312 2 264 2 362 2 499 2 350 2 432 2 482 2 409 2 349 2 377 2 228 2 3781999 2 197 1 923 1 671 1 698 1 553 1 276 1 103 1 143 1 324 1 263 1 205 1 199 1 4502000 1 160 1 079 1 121 1 230 1 107 1 054 1 017 985 926 773 811 758 9972001 722 697 786 816 743 796 988 1 215 999 862 1 059 1 113 8952002 1 180 1 124 1 151 1 175 1 262 1 449 1 391 1 496 1 410 1 408 1 576 1 646 1 3642003 1 659 1 612 1 504 1 461 1 480 1 518 1 503 1 399 1 430 1 677 1 867 1 839 1 5442004 1 790 1 894 2 001 1 978 1 874 1 549 1 476 1 483 1 555 1 470 1 483 1 421 1 6102005 1 338 1 305 1 428 1 434 1 415 1 403 1 409 1 354 1 388 1 456 1 423 1 391 1 3942006 1 413 1 445 1 428 1 410 1 423 1 397 1 447 1 605 1 529 1 515 1 690 1 865 1 5112007 1 930 1 927 1 959 2 209 2 472 2 609 2 634 2 538 2 582 2 771 2 965 2 933 2 531

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ADVERTISEMENTue to the increased cost of printing, the advertisement rate for 2008 is RM 700 per issue for an A4 size page of black and white, whereas the cost for colour is RM 900. One year of complimentary vendor’s list advertisement is given for every one page A4-size colour or black & white advertisement. Advertisers are required to submit to us either their own black and white artwork or colour separation films. Cheque should be made payable to the ‘Malaysian Palm Oil Board’. If you have any queries, please contact the following at MPOB.

Tel: 0�-��00 Fax: 0�-��

Dr. Lim Weng Soon ext: ��0� • N. Ravi Menon ext: �� • Lim Soo Chin ext: �� E-mail: [email protected]

Advertising Schedule for MPOB Palm Oil Engineering Bulletin

Issue Quarter Deadline forRegistration

Deadline forSubmissionof Artwork

�� July - Sept �00� �0 July �00� �0 Aug �00�� Oct - Dec �00� �0 Oct �00� �0 Nov �00��0 Jan - Mar �00� �0 Jan �00� �� Feb �00�� Apr - June �00� �0 Apr �00� �0 May �00�

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Dr. Lim Weng Soon/Ir. N. Ravi MenonEngineering and Processing Division Palm Oil Engineering BulletinMPOB�, Persiaran InstitusiBandar Baru Bangi��000 Kajang, Selangor

PALM OIL ENGINEERING BULLETIN ADVERTISEMENT – FULL PAGE ADVT.

�. We confirm our intention to advertise in the MPOB Palm Oil Engineering Bulletin.

Company:

Address:

E-Mail: Tel. No.: Fax No.: Contact Person: Issue No.:

�. The artwork is attached/will be sent on for your further action.

�. Please find enclosed *crossed cheque no.: for RM ( ) being payment for the advertisement fee.

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ollowing a decision by the Editorial Board to further increase the role of Palm Oil Engineering Bulletin to serve the Industry better, a new addition called Palm Oil Mill Vendors has been introduced similar to Telekom Yellow Pages to assist mill engineers to know where to source materials or services pertaining to the industry. In order to make this useful, we need the co-operation of the mill engineers/managers to persuade their vendors to advertise in the Vendor’s List for a nominal fee of RM �00/year (four issues). If you have any queries, please contact the following at MPOB.

Tel: 0�-��00 Fax: 0�-��

Ir. Ravi Menon ext. �� or e-mail: [email protected] Ms. Lim Soo Chin ext. �� or e-mail: [email protected]

REPLy SLIP

Dr. Lim Weng Soon/Ir. N. Ravi MenonEngineering and Processing Division Palm Oil Engineering Bulletin AdvertisementMPOB, �, Persiaran Institusi, Bandar Baru Bangi, ��000 Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia.

We wish to advertise in the MPOB Palm Oil Engineering Bulletin Vendor’s List

Company: Issue No.:

Contact Person: H/P:

Address:

E-mail: Tel: Fax:

Please find enclosed a crossed cheque No.: Bank:

for RM: (Ringgit Malaysia)

drawn in favour of MALAySIAN PALM OIL BOARD

Please select the headings from the list given below (not more than five headings) under which you wish to advertise.

Air filters/dryersAir separatorsBoiler suppliersBearings/belts/bushesBoiler spares/control/othersBunch crushersBiomass/bio-compost/productsCastingsCleaning - generalCivil engineeringCondition monitoringControl/automation/sparesConveyors/chains/elevatorsConsultancy services/certificationDiesel eng./services/sparesDynamic balancing Electric motors/systemsExpansion jointsFansFabrication works

Signature:

Name:

Date: Company chop

ADVERTISEMENT

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Filter press/materialsFluid control system/couplingsGaskets/packing materials/sealsGear boxesHardware Hydraulic systems/services/spares Laboratory analysisLaboratory equipmentLubricantsMill machinery/sparesMiscellaneousNut crackersOil recovery systemsPalm kernel oil crushing plantPollution control/safety systemsPressure vesselsPumps/services PurifiersRenewable energyScrew press/parts

ScrubbersSludge separators/decantersSteam turbines/generator/sparesSterilizer/partsStorage silosVacuum pumpsValves/seatsWater treatmentWaste water treatmentWelding equipmentsWeighing machines/sparesWheel loaders/spares


From:

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(We have enclosed this form to assist you in sending to us any questions or comments)

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ChairmanThe Editorial BoardPalm Oil Engineering Bulletin Malaysian Palm Oil Board P.O. Box �0��0�0��0 Kuala LumpurMalaysia

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Documents

LEMBAGA MINYAK SAWIT MALAYSIA …palmoilis.mpob.gov.my/publications/POEB/poeb87.pdfLEMBAGA MINYAK SAWIT MALAYSIA MALAYSIAN PALM OIL BOARD ... Dato’ Dr Mohd Basri Wahid ... Secretary