scholarly journals Challenges for Life Cycle Assessment Of Palm Oil Production System

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz Stichnothe ◽  
Cécile Bessou
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Palm Oil ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Oil Production ◽  
Farm Income ◽  
Oil Palm Plantation

Growing demand for palm oil is driven by increasing human population, income growth as well as biodiesel stimulation programs. Covering an area of over ten million ha in Indonesia, palm oil production is also one of the most important sources of crop residues while processing generates large amounts of wastewater. Cultivation and processing of this crop are considered as potentially large sources of emissions. Improving environmental impacts of the palm oil production can help to reduce existing emissions while increasing yield and generating surplus energy and farm income. However, area expansion for oil palm plantation is perceived as  closely linked to illegal logging, deforestation and diminishing biodiversity. Apart from ensuring sustainable land use change, the use of residues is the most important criterion in ensuring sustainable palm oil. It is important to note that there are trade-offs (e.g. between maximizing bio energy production, reducing environmental impacts other than greenhouse gases (GHG), and sustaining soil fertility). Nitrogen (N) losses in palm oil production systems are a major environmental and economic issue. Unfortunately,  there is little comprehensive knowledge on how to calculate N-budgets in oil palm plantation in order to optimize fertilization, taking into account N-leaching and N-gaseous emissions. Land use, soil-carbon, N-emissions and biodiversity are key aspects of life cycle assessment (LCA) of palm oil production systems and they pose a number of methodological questions.

Life cycle assessment of two palm oil production systems

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (9) ◽  
pp. 3976-3984 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinz Stichnothe ◽  
Frank Schuchardt
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Palm Oil ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Oil Production

Renewable Energy for Environmental Protection: Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of different Palm Oil Mills in Nigeria

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelechi E Anyaoha ◽  
Lulu Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Palm Oil ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Palm Kernel ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Oil Palm Industry

Oil palm is expected to continue its dominance of global oil production, trade, and consumption. Nigeria will continue to play a dominate role in oil palm industry particularly on production and consumption. One of the biggest challenges to agricultural productivities is the need to reduce the environmental impacts and improves circularity in the operations. This study investigated the environmental impacts of different palm oil processors in Nigeria using life cycle assessment approach. The study covers the reception and processing of fresh fruit bunch (FFB) to palm oil. The inputs include generated empty fruit bunch, mesocarp fibre, palm kernel shell, palm oil mill effluent, diesel, and water and all outputs to the environment for a functional unit of 1 tonne of FFB. The large-scale processor performs worse than the semi-mechanised and smallholder processors in terms of climate change with 468 kg CO2-eq per tonne of FFB and better in the other impact categories. In large-scale mill, the contribution to climate change was reduced by 75% when the raw POME was used in composting EFB. Similarly, the contribution to climate change was decreased by 44% when biogas from POME substituted diesel in the semi-mechanised and smallholder mills. Concerted efforts by regulators are needed to ensure that stakeholders take steps towards improving management practices in the industry. Particularly on the generation and reuse of biomass and POME. This study will be very useful particularly on the contributions to climate change by Nigeria’s oil palm industry and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

scholarly journals Life Cycle Assessment and Environmental Valuation of Biochar Production: Two Case Studies in Belgium

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 2166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Rajabi Hamedani ◽  
Tom Kuppens ◽  
Robert Malina ◽  
Enrico Bocci ◽  
Andrea Colantoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Pig Manure ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Life Cycle Perspective ◽  
The Impact

It is unclear whether the production of biochar is economically feasible. As a consequence, firms do not often invest in biochar production plants. However, biochar production and application might be desirable from a societal perspective as it might entail net environmental benefits. Hence, the aim of this work has been to assess and monetize the environmental impacts of biochar production systems so that the environmental aspects can be integrated with the economic and social ones later on to quantify the total return for society. Therefore, a life cycle analysis (LCA) has been performed for two potential biochar production systems in Belgium based on two different feedstocks: (i) willow and (ii) pig manure. First, the environmental impacts of the two biochar production systems are assessed from a life cycle perspective, assuming one ton of biochar as the functional unit. Therefore, LCA using SimaPro software has been performed both on the midpoint and endpoint level. Biochar production from willow achieves better results compared to biochar from pig manure for all environmental impact categories considered. In a second step, monetary valuation has been applied to the LCA results in order to weigh environmental benefits against environmental costs using the Ecotax, Ecovalue, and Stepwise approach. Consequently, sensitivity analysis investigates the impact of variation in NPK savings and byproducts of the biochar production process on monetized life cycle assessment results. As a result, it is suggested that biochar production from willow is preferred to biochar production from pig manure from an environmental point of view. In future research, those monetized environmental impacts will be integrated within existing techno-economic models that calculate the financial viability from an investor’s point of view, so that the total return for society can be quantified and the preferred biochar production system from a societal point of view can be identified.

scholarly journals Assessment of The Biomass Potential Recovered from Oil Palm Plantation and Crude Palm Oil Production in Indonesia

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Byoung-Jun Ahn ◽  
Gyu-Seoung Han ◽  
Don-Ha Choi ◽  
Sung-Taig Cho ◽  
Soo-Min Lee
Keyword(s):  
Palm Oil ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Oil Production ◽  
Crude Palm Oil ◽  
Oil Palm Plantation ◽  
Biomass Potential

scholarly journals Visualization of the Sustainability Level of Crude Palm Oil Production: A Life Cycle Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1607
Author(s):  
Najat Omran ◽  
Amir Hamzah Sharaai ◽  
Ahmad Hariza Hashim
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Palm Oil ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Oil Production ◽  
Life Cycle Costing ◽  
Social Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle Approach ◽  
Crude Palm Oil

The Malaysian palm oil is an important source of social development and economic growth in the country. Nevertheless, it has been accused of conducting unsustainable practices that may affect the sustainability of this industry. Thus, this study aims to identify the level of sustainability of crude palm oil (CPO) production. Environmental impacts were assessed using the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standardized life cycle assessment (LCA). Economic impacts were evaluated using life cycle costing (LCC). Social impact assessment was identified based on the UNEP/SETAC Guidelines for social life cycle assessment (S-LCA). Life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) was used to combine three methods: LCA, life cycle costing (LCC) and S-LCA using the scoring system method. Finally, a presentation technique was developed to visualize the LCSA results. The results show that crude palm oil production requires more improvement to be a sustainable product. The study feasibly enables the decision-makers to understand the significant environmental, economic, and social hotspots during the crude palm oil production process in order to promote palm oil production.

scholarly journals Review of Implementation Life Cycle Assessment for Biodiesel Production from Palm Oil (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) in Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol 190 ◽  
pp. 00021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kiman Siregar ◽  
Sholihati Sholiati ◽  
Intan Sofiah ◽  
Try Miharza ◽  
Roy Hendroko Setyobudi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Palm Oil ◽  
Environmental Effect ◽  
Elaeis Guineensis ◽  
Oil Production ◽  
Biodiesel Production ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Boundary System ◽  
Gate System

Palm oil has benefits for economic and social development in Indonesia. However, palm oil is faced by several environmental problems most of them due to the land conversion from forest to the palm plantation. Therefore, numerous greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental effects also emitted during palm oil and biodiesel production. The life cycle assessment (LCA) method can be used for the evaluation of the palm oil production process impact on the environment as well as for potentially reducing the hotspot. A literature study was used in the identification of the implementation of LCA for biodiesel from palm oil in Indonesia. Study cradle to grave LCA for biodiesel production in Indonesia was still limited. Gate to gate and cradle to gate system boundary was the major boundary system used in the identification of the environmental effect for biodiesel production in Indonesia. However, numerous study has applied that boundary system and various scenario has been proposed in reducing the environmental effect for biodiesel production. Limitation of the LCA boundary for palm oil production is needed to be enhanced as well. Robust life cycle inventory in a wider range (i.e., cradle to grave) will be needed in order to present this industry in a global forum.

scholarly journals Scenarios for oil palm expansion in degraded and deforested lands in the Brazilian Amazon to meet biodiesel demand

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-107
Author(s):  
Carolina Monteiro de Carvalho ◽  
Allan Yu Iwama ◽  
Emilio La Rovere
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Palm Oil ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Oil Production ◽  
Degraded Land ◽  
Family Farming ◽  
Production Program ◽  
High Productivity ◽  
Current Trends

Palm oil production for biodiesel in Brazil is characterized by its high productivity in some environmental conditions, under the Sustainable Palm Oil Production Program. The program seeks to avoid deforestation for oil palm cultivation, recover degraded lands, and focus on social inclusion and family farming. This paper assesses the possible socio-environmental impacts of the expansion of palm oil until 2030, focusing on land-use change and impacts. Land-use data came from the TerraClass initiative for the analysis of degraded forests using geoprocessing. We produced two oil expansion scenarios. The first one reflects current trends in palm oil production expansion and deforestation in Pará State (S1). The second one considers the exclusive use of deforested/degraded land for oil palm crops (S2). The results demonstrate that degraded/deforested land in the current palm oil-producing municipalities is only sufficient for the projected level of expansion for 2020, requiring a stronger public policy to recover degraded areas for oil palm cultivation with social inclusion of family farming.

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