Integrated System for Palm Oil and PHA Production

Successful large-scale production of PHA is largely determined by the availability and constant supply of cheap fermentative substrates. At the same time, the overall cost involved in the production of this biodegradable polymeric material needs to be controlled and reduced in order to penetrate and compete in the world s commodity market. Palm oil has been identified as suitable carbon feedstock and potential strains capable of utilizing this raw material have been discussed in the above sections. However, waste disposals from palm oil mill and the amount of energy needed for PHA production are other issues that require equivalent attention when PHA is produced in large scale. 

Besides that it is interesting to note that the CO2 emission from coal or oil-based electrical power plants is much higher compared to that generated from biomass to generate the same amount of current supply. For every kWh, approximately 1,100 g of CO2 could be produced from coal or oil. However, this figure 

4 Is the Palm Oil Supply in Malaysia Sufficient for Continuous Large-Scale PHA Production in the Future  

It is now convincing that palm oil products are attractive renewable resources for the production of PHA. In order to ensure sufficient supply of this raw material for large-scale production of PHA, we should first take into account the amount of palm oil products generated in Malaysia every year. The data should include the net balance of global trade (import and export) and existing demand of end users. It was estimated that to produce 5,000 tons of PHA annually, approximately 7,000 tons of soybean oil were required with more than 150 batches of fermentation run (Akiyama et al. 2003). At the moment, this set of simulation is by far the closest and most relevant to the PHA fermentation from palm oil. Over the past decade, the average yield of palm oil on plantations has been measured at 3.8 tons per ha (Murphy 2007). Therefore, in order to produce 1 million tons of PHA, 450,000 ha of oil palm plantation is required. Hence, more lands have to be reclaimed to pave the way for new oil pahn plantation in order to produce more oil. Nevertheless, it has been suggested that the yield of oil could be doubled by 

However, palm oil producers, especially Malaysia still need to convince the public that they consider seriously the matter of sustainability. They have the conscience to protect the environment and put a perfect balance between economic consideration, environmental issues, and future sustenance. In the context of palm oil as source of edible oil and fermentative substrates for PHA biosynthesis or as far as food security issue is concerned, it is the responsibility of the oil palm industries to ensure sufficient supply of edible oil to meet both current and future demands (Berck and Bigman 1993). If this could be achieved, then we can ensure the uninterrupted supply of palm oil for PHA production without affecting palm oil-based food industries. 

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