Oil Palm Industry

Oil palm is a tree whose fruits are used for the extraction of edible oil. It originated from West Africa, cultivated in all tropical areas of the world and has become one of the main industrial crops (Kelly-Yong et al., 2007). Additionally, the oil palms Elaeis) comprise two species of the Arecaceae, or palm family. The African oil palm Elaeis guineensis is native to west Africa, occurring between Angola and Gambia, while the American oil palm Elaeis oleifera is 

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Apart from the production of CPO and palm kernel oU (PKO), the oil palm industry also generates large quantities of by-products in the form of biomass. The bulk of the by-products derived from the palm oil industry are basically Ugnocellulosic and organic in nature and with a high plant nutrient content. With proper handling and management, these by-products could be utilized and converted into value-added products. 

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. 

Malaysian Palm Oil Board, MPOB (2007c) Overview of the Malaysia oil palm industry 2007. 

A. Mohd Nasir, Oil Palm Industry Economic Journal, 2003, 3(2), 21. 

Only the oil palm industry in Malaysia produces more than a million tones of empty fruit bunches annually as a by-product [48]. Oil palm fiber is anticipated to be a promising raw material due to its toughness [49]. Hasibuan and Daud [48] investigated the effect of super heated steam drying on the surface morphology, color and tensile properties of oil palm empty fruit bunch fibers. John et al. [49] developed oil palm... 

Palm Oil Refiners Association of Malaysia representing the interest of refiners in the oil palm industry. 

It cooperates with the other extension agents in the country in formulating and undertaking effective extension services specific to the oil palm industry. 

Evaluation of techno-economic feasibility of new technologies, products etc for the oil palm industry. 

The engineering services group was recently set up to provide a forum for exchange of ideas among engineers of the whole institute. Ad hoc engineering problems related to research projects, PORIM physical development and the oil palm industry are brought for discussion and subsequent action. 

Sulaiman, F, Abdullah, N., Gerhauser, H., Shariff, A. An outlook of Malaysian energy, oil palm industry and its utilization of wastes as useful resources. Biomass and Bioenergy 2011, 35(9), 3775-3786. 

The raw materials for the manufacture of soap, the alkali salts of saturated and unsaturated C10-C20 carboxylic acids, are natural fats and fatty oils, especially tallow oil and other animal fats (lard), coconut oil, palm kernel oil, peanut oil, and even olive oil. In addition, the tall oil fatty acids, which are obtained in the kraft pulping process, are used for soap production. A typical formulation of fats for the manufacture of soap contains 80-90% tallow oil and 10-20% coconut oil [2]. For the manufacture of soft soaps, the potassium salts of fatty acids are used, as are linseed oil, soybean oil, and cottonseed oil acids. High-quality soap can only be produced by high-quality fats, independent of the soap being produced by saponification of the natural fat with caustic soda solution or by neutralization of distilled fatty acids, obtained by hydrolysis of fats, with soda or caustic soda solutions. Fatty acids produced by paraffin wax oxidation are of inferior quality due to a high content of unwanted byproducts. Therefore in industrially developed countries these fatty acids are not used for the manufacture of soap. This now seems to be true as well for the developing countries. 

Surfactants can be produced from both petrochemical resources and/or renewable, mostly oleochemical, feedstocks. Crude oil and natural gas make up the first class while palm oil (+kernel oil), tallow and coconut oil are the most relevant representatives of the group of renewable resources. Though the worldwide supplies of crude oil and natural gas are limited—estimated in 1996 at 131 X 1091 and 77 X 109 m3, respectively [28]—it is not expected that this will cause concern in the coming decades or even until the next century. In this respect it should be stressed that surfactant products only represent 1.5% of all petrochemical uses. Regarding the petrochemically derived raw materials, the main starting products comprise ethylene, n-paraffins and benzene obtained from crude oil by industrial processes such as distillation, cracking and adsorption/desorption. The primary products are subsequently converted to a series of intermediates like a-olefins, oxo-alcohols, primary alcohols, ethylene oxide and alkyl benzenes, which are then further modified to yield the desired surfactants. 

Crude palm oil used to be the main form of export in the past. With the establishment of refineries especially in Malaysia during the mid-1970s and 1980s, refined palm oil products have replaced the crude as the main form of palm oil export. A wide range of processed or semiprocessed products are exported, and these include the different fractions of processed pahn oil known as palm olein (liquid) and palm stearin (solid). The availability of refineries also led to the production of specialty fats products aimed at the confectionery markets. A similar trend has been seen in the export of pahn kernel oil. Palm kernel oil is a coproduct to palm oil produced at a ratio of 10-13 tons of palm kernel oil for every 100 tons of palm oil. Even the export of refined palm kernel oil has begun to decline as more is being used locally by the oleochemical industry that has been estabhshed in recent years. 

Biomass Production and Availability. The biomass production from the palm oil industry is derived mainly from two sources, i.e., the plantations and the pahn oil mills. From the plantation the biomass produced per hectare of oil palm has been estimated and shown in Figure 11. On an annual basis, about 0.4 tons of palm... 

Generally, the recommended flow rate for palm-oil-based industrial margarines is approximately 60% of the nominal capacity of a scraped-surface heat exchanger process line for industrial margarine (27) for example, a scraped-surface heat exchanger with a nominal capacity of 3000 kg/h for oil blends based on oils such as soybean oil or cottonseed oil will, for oil blends based on pahn oil, have a capacity of approximately 1800 kg/h. 

Advancement of this technology has been applied in many industries. A major potential application of the electrocoalescence technology is in the edible oil production industry such as palm oil processing technology and bioprocesses (51,53). 

Vegetable oils and fats are very important resources for polyols. The vegetable oils such as soybean oil, castor oil, sunflower oil, palm oil, rapeseed oil, olive oil, linseed oil and so on, with a worldwide production of around 110 milions t/year (in 2000) [10,12, 21, 22], are used mainly in human food applications (76%), in technical applications (19.5% only 7.5% is converted into soaps, and 10.5% is used in oleochemical industry) and 1.5% in other applications. Soybean oil is the most important vegetable oil produced worldwide, representing 25% from the total oils and fats, the second place being occupied by palm oil (18%) [10, 12, 21, 22, 24-26]. 

In contrast to other known herbicides, glyphosate is more efficient against older weeds, so it is to be used in the later growth stages. Its recommended rate is 0.7-S.6 kg active ingredient/ha. It is recommended, in addition to industrial and non-crop areas, for application as directed spray in orchards, vineyards, rubber, coffee, citrus, tea and oil palm plantations (Anonym., 1971 Kemmer, 1978 Kafadaroffer al., 1977 Wurgler and Neury, 1977 Bailey, 1978 Richardson and Lynn, 1979, Franz, 1979). 

Because they are biochemically similar to zygotic embryos (3,4), somatic embryos also present an opportunity for vitro production of numerous secondary plant products which are associated with seeds. For example, essential oil, flavor, and aroma components found in seeds of celery (5), cocoa (6,7), and oil palm (8) are produced by somatic embryos. The ability to control and develop this process may permit more economical and reliable production of certain plant products on an industrial level. 

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