Sustainable Technologies For The Oil Palm Industry

This book reports the latest research and successful industrial case studies on sustainable technologies in the oil palm industry, ranging from plantation, processing to waste handling. It covers the latest developments on harvesting, refining, nanomaterial production, aviation biofuel, biomass supply chain and waste treatment and handling. This book is a continuation of a previously published Springer book 'Green Technologies for the Oil Palm Industry' and is intended for industrial practitioners and academics interested in sustainable technologies for palm oil milling processes.

Oil palm cultivation is a significant contributor to the global agricultural industry, providing valuable resources for various products. While it has faced challenges, including concerns about deforestation and environmental degradation, it is crucial to understand the geographical distribution of oil palms to ensure responsible and sustainable management. This book introduces the application of geospatial technology to the palm oil industry, demonstrating how these tools can address key issues while promoting responsible practices. The topics discussed in the book aim to tackle challenges such as illegal deforestation and the monitoring of environmental impacts associated with oil palm cultivation. Key Features: The first book to explore the use of remote sensing and geospatial technologies for mapping and monitoring oil palm plantations Introduces cutting-edge techniques from the fourth industrial revolution, including the use of the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, big data and analytics, block chain and 5G technology for effective oil palm tree monitoring Addresses current environmental concerns affecting the industry, including issues like floods, changes in precipitation, temperature, humidity, and El Niño events Explores the scientific aspects of promoting sustainability in oil palm developments and the responsible conversion of rainforests into oil palm plantations Provides a wealth of application data for early detection and continuous monitoring of environmental challenges. This book serves as an insightful resource for those interested in geospatial technologies and their positive impact on monitoring and mitigating environmental changes in the context of the palm oil industry.

Oil palm cultivation is known to be one of the leading causes of deforestation and degradation of the environment. This book introduces and explains the application of geospatial technology to an established and important tropical agricultural industry for responsible and sustainable management.

This book evaluates and discusses the main sustainability challenges encountered in the production of biofuel and bio-products from oil palm biomass. It starts off with the emphasis on oil palm production, oil palm products recovery and oil palm wastes utilization. The simultaneous production of these bio-products for sustainable development is discussed. This is followed by the key factors defining the sustainability of biofuel and bio-product production from oil palm biomass. The environmental issues including ecological, life cycle assessment and environmental impact assessment of oil palm plantation, milling and refining for the production of biofuels and bio-products are presented. Socio-economic and thermodynamic analysis of the production processes are also evaluated using various sustainability assessment tools such as exergy. Lastly, methods of improving biofuel production systems for sustainable development are highlighted.

This book reports the latest work on green technologies in palm oil milling processes, including new processes and various optimisation techniques. It covers the latest developments on palm oil milling process with new technologies, alternative solvent design, residual oil recovery, palm oil mill effluent treatment, palm biomass supply chain, as well as ecoindustrial park concept. The book is intended for industrial practitioners and academics interested in green technologies for palm oil milling processes.

Key messages Several sustainability certification schemes have been developed for palm oil; however, the field impacts of these schemes remain highly uncertain. The Sustainable Palm Oil Production (SPOP) project, funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR), was aimed at consolidating and deepening the scientific basis of these schemes.SPOP field work undertaken in Indonesia and Cameroon highlighted the large variability in practices and impacts of oil palm systems. Our main results related to the uncovering of the multiplicity of growers and their trajectories, and identifying room for improvement and the need for recommendations adapted to the various grower contexts and strategies.The SPOP project made it explicit that visions of sustainability and global challenges vary greatly among growers and other stakeholders involved in the palm oil sector. These diverging conceptions are most likely to induce bottlenecks in the definition and implementation of good practices and should be accounted for in the refinement of sustainability criteria.Within the SPOP project, we investigated possible futures for oil palm using participatory prospective analyses and multi-agent-based modeling work. Our research work showed that capacity development and the organizational capacity of smallholders, fair partnerships and combined forms of governance are key drivers in ensuring the uptake of good practices and sustainable development at the landscape scale.

This book discusses modern technologies for utilizing various types of agricultural waste as a direct means of properly managing its abundance. It explores the potential of using waste materials obtained from the palm oil industry, used cooking oil, maize and tea plantations, as well as citrus-based plants for the production of useful, high-value materials such as pyroligenous acid and bio-oil (Chapter 1), ferulic acid (Chapter 4) and bio-control agents (Chapter 5-7, 9). It also includes case studies to further enhance readers’ understanding. This comprehensive volume is useful to anyone involved in agricultural waste management, green chemistry and agricultural biotechnology. It is also recommended as a reference work for all agriculture and biotechnology libraries.

The Congo Basin is rich in biodiversity and stores an estimated 25%-30% of the world’s tropical forest carbon stocks. As agricultural land becomes increasingly scarce in Southeast Asia, and regulatory pressures continue to intensify, the Congo Basin could become the next frontier for oil palm expansion. Most of the roughly 280 million hectares (Mha) of additional land suitable for oil palm in the Congo Basin are found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (60%), Cameroon (11%) and the Republic of Congo (10%). Many heavily forested countries in the Congo Basin are setting national targets to increase production to meet national and regional demands. Land area allocated to oil palm increased by 40% in the Congo Basin and five additional top-producing countries in Africa between 1990 and 2017. Without intervention, future production increases in the region will likely come from expansion rather than intensification due to low crop and processing yields, possibly at the expense of forest. Sustainability strategies initiated by companies and aimed at certifying palm oil mills are unlikely to be effective at curbing deforestation in the Congo Basin. Smallholder farmers are an engine of growth in the region’s palm oil sector, and recent evidence suggests they are actively clearing forest to expand. Because of the proliferation of non-industrial processing facilities (artisanal mills), a substantial fraction of the palm oil produced by smallholders never passes through a company’s jurisdiction. Smallholders are also disadvantaged by power imbalances and limited access to technical and financial resources. Including smallholders in sustainability strategies offers opportunities to achieve multisectoral goals. Recommendations to improve the sustainability of the palm oil sector in the Congo Basin include (1) improving access to finance for smallholders and non-industrial mill managers; (2) implementing policies to safeguard natural resources and facilitate access to appropriate market opportunities that offer incentives to prevent future deforestation; (3) intensifying production by replanting aging plantations, rehabilitating abandoned plantations with disease-resistant and high-yielding varieties, and increasing fertilization, without further expansion into high conservation value or high carbon stock forest areas; and (4) improving processing capacity and extraction rates by upgrading mill technologies. Sustainable palm oil development in the Congo Basin will require careful consideration of the governance, institutional, environmental and socioeconomic factors that underpin the complex regional supply chains.