1 Cranfield Soil and Agrifood Institute, School of Water, Energy and Environment, Cranfield University, UK.
2 Power Engineering Centre, Cranfield University, UK.
Waste Manag Res. 2018 Mar;36(3):236-246. doi: 10.1177/0734242X17751848. Epub 2018 Jan 30.
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.
在尼日利亚，对三种油棕鲜果串（FFB）加工路线，即工业、小规模和传统路线，通过确定每条路线相关的果实损耗进行了比较。在每一过程后，未回收的果实都经过人工挑选，并以粗棕榈油（CPO）、棕仁（PK）、中果皮纤维（MF）和棕仁壳（PKS）的形式进行量化。空果串（EFB）、MF 和 PKS 的能量值用于确定每条路线的能量损失值。此外，还估算了 EFB 处置的环境影响，并对工业和小规模路线的社会经济情况进行了相关分析。分析表明，采用工业路线加工 1000 公斤 FFB，分别损失 29、18、75 和 27 公斤 CPO、PK、MF 和 PKS；而采用小规模路线分别损失 5.6、3.2、1.4 和 5.1 克。与其他两条路线相比，工业路线中 MF 和 PKS 的能量损失分别多 89 千瓦时和 31 千瓦时。由于一家棕榈油厂处置 29000 吨 EFB，释放了相当于 6670 吨二氧化碳当量的甲烷和氮氧化物。在工业路线中，每加工 1000 公斤 FFB 损失的 CPO 的货币价值超过了小规模路线中加工 1000 公斤 FFB 的劳动力成本。工业路线的优势在于每小时处理的 FFB 吞吐量高，CPO 质量高；然而，它与高果实损耗相关联，因此，建议将未充分脱粒的 EFB 送入小规模路线。
