Sustainable land use has been identified as one way of tackling challenges related to climate change, population expansion, food crisis and environmental pollution. Disposal of oil palm fresh fruit bunch (FFB) solid wastes is becoming a challenge with an increased demand and production of palm oil. Whilst this poses a challenge, it could be turned into an opportunity by utilising it as a resource and fully valorise it to meet soil and crop demands. This review presents the potentials of FFB solid wastes, which include empty fruit bunch (EFB), mesocarp fibre (MF), palm kernel shell (PKS), as soil ameliorants. The major findings are the following: 1) pyrolysis, gasification, combustion, and composting are processes that can enhance the value of FFB solid wastes.
Three routes of oil palm fresh fruit bunch (FFB) processing in Nigeria namely, industrial, small-scale and traditional were compared by means of determining fruit losses associated with each route. The fruits that are not recovered after each process were hand-picked and quantified in terms of crude palm oil (CPO), palm kernel (PK), mesocarp fibre (MF) and palm kernel shell (PKS). The energy value of empty fruit bunch (EFB), MF and PKS were used to determine the value of energy lost for each route. Additionally, the environmental implications of disposal of EFB were estimated, and socio-economics of the industrial and small-scale routes were related. The analysis showed that 29, 18, 75 and 27 kg of CPO, PK, MF and PKS were lost for every 1000 kg of FFB processed with the industrial route, whereas 5.6, 3.2, 1.4 and 5.1 g were lost with the small-scale route, respectively. Approximately 89 kWh and 31 kWh more energy were lost from MF and PKS with the industrial route than the other two routes, respectively. An equivalent of 6670 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent of methane and nitrogen oxide was released due to the disposal of 29,000 tonnes of EFB from one palm oil mill. The monetary value of lost CPO per 1000 kg of FFB processed in the industrial route is more than the labour cost of processing 1000 kg of FFB in the small-scale route. The advantages of the industrial route are high throughput in terms of FFB processed per hour and high quality of CPO; however, high fruit loss is associated with it and therefore, the poorly threshed EFB is recommended to be fed into the small-scale route.
Energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will increase significantly in the developing world. Scaling up bioenergy use and reducing GHG emissions is vital to achieving the Nationally Determined Contributions and advance the greener economy. This study investigated three types of palm oil processors to support technology advancement and renewable energy transition in the African oil palm industry. We compiled gate-to-gate life cycle inventories of large-scale, semi-mechanized, and smallholder processors of oil palm fresh fruit bunch in Nigeria. The inventory includes materials and energy inputs to the systems and outputs and emissions to the environment. The inputs are diesel, water, electricity, empty fruit bunch, palm kernel shell and mesocarp fibre for a functional unit of one tonne of fresh fruit bunch, while the outputs are crude palm oil, palm kernel, and all emissions to air and soil. Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and dinitrogen oxide (N 2 O) emissions were 47% and 73% more in smallholder mills than in large-scale mills. Semi-mechanized mills produced 73% more N 2 O than large-scale mills. In contrast, large-scale mills emit 71% more methane (CH 4 ) than smallholder and semimechanized mills. The study reveals critical hot spots of GHG emissions from different processors of Nigeria's oil palm industry. These findings will contribute to supporting policymaking, developing technology, and promoting bioenergy use within and outside the industry as an essential strategy for mitigating climate change.
This paper presents a study carried out to investigate the performance of a hybrid photovoltaic/thermal crop dryer in hot humid region of Umuagwo-Ohaji in the Southeast region of Nigeria, through energy and exergy analyses, drying, electrical and thermal efficiencies, energy utilization and energy utilization ratio, sustainability indicators such as waste energy ratio (WER), sustainability index (SI) and improvement potential (IP). Drying experiments were conducted at varying inlet air temperatures (50, 60 and 70 o C), airflow rates (1.14, 2.29 and 3.43 kgs-1) and slice thicknesses (10, 15 and 20 mm) on 500g batch size of red pepper slices during sunshine periods. Results obtained show that the total and specific energy consumption for drying a batch of sliced red pepper samples varied between 2.08-34.91kJ and 7.04-62.76 kJkg-1 , respectively. The energy utilization and energy utilization ratio during the drying process ranged from 195.75-3013.21 Js-1 and 1.82-20.4%, respectively. The energy and exergy efficiencies varied between 15.67-38.17% and 26% to 88%, respectively. The mean drying efficiency of the system ranged from 7.12-40.27%. The maximum electrical and thermal efficiencies of 23.86% and 93.03%, respectively were obtained. A waste energy ratio of 0.0827-0.1579 was obtained, whereas SI and IP values ranged between 1.137 ≤ SI ≤ 6.119 and 0.198 ≤ IP ≤0.583kW, respectively. There is certainly a wide range of improvement in the PV/T system as 12.1-18.4 % of the solar irradiance was consumed for drying. Prospects for improvement and recommendations for further studies were suggested.
Oil palm dominates global oil production, trade, and consumption. Nigeria is one of the leading palm oil producers and consumers. A significant challenge of the palm oil industry is to reduce the environmental impacts (e.g. pollution and carbon footprint) and integrate a circular economy in operation. This study aims to comparatively quantify the environmental impacts of technologies used by different mills. We applied a life cycle assessment in the case of Nigeria. The study covers the reception and processing of fresh fruit bunch (FFB) to end-product palm oil. The inputs include generated empty fruit bunch (EFB), mesocarp fibre, palm kernel shell, palm oil mill effluent, diesel, water and all outputs to the environment for a functional unit of 1-tonne FFB. The results showed that large-scale mills perform worse (468 kg CO2-eq per t FFB) than the semi-mechanised and smallholder mills in effects on climate change but better in the other impact categories, including human toxicity, ecotoxicity, and fine particulate matter formation. In large-scale mills, the climate change impacts decrease by 75% when the raw palm oil mill effluent (POME) is used in composting EFB. Similarly, climate change impacts reduce by 44% when biogas from POME substitutes diesel in the semi-mechanised and smallholder mills. We conclude that regulatory measures are needed to ensure improved management practices in the production processes. Particular attention should be paid to the generation and reuse of biomass and POME. This study provides a handy reference to assist the sustainable energy transition in Nigeria’s and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa’s oil palm industry to mitigate climate change and form a cleaner bioeconomy.
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