Dissertation
EVOLUTION OF PALM OIL MILL INTO BIOREFINERIES
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2015
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/111584
Abstract
Since the industrial revolution the temperature of the earth has increased 0.8°C. Global warming is often blamed for the loss of human life, species, and the increment of severity on droughts, flash floods, hurricanes, typhoons, and tornados. An alternative to mitigate climate change is the gradual conversion (evolution) of existing agro-businesses into biorefineries that produce new and more sustainable fuels, energy and products from lignocellulosic materials which are often considered wastes. One example of this agro-business is the oil palm sector, which its main product, the crude palm oil (CPO), is the most consumed vegetable oil in the world. This industry generates twice as much biomass as the CPO produced.
In this thesis, a new methodology for the evaluation of paths to convert an existing agroindustry into a biorefinery was proposed using a case study an average size palm oil mill (POM) in Colombia. Six biorefinery concepts were generated by coupling an average size POM in Colombia with emerging technologies for production of biogas, compost, electricity, pellets, biochar, and bio-oils. Environmental, economic and social impact indicators were calculated and used to compare the six biorefinery options. Our results confirm that the use of the palm oil mill effluent for the production of biogas is a technology that positively impacts all of the biorefinery concepts studied and consequently its implementation should be considered a priority. The results confirm that the production of compost, pellets, biochar/heat and biochar/bio-oil from the residual biomass generated in the POM could to biorefinery concepts with much better environmental, economic and social performance than the baseline POM studied.
This selection of the most promising biorefinery concepts was supported by software. The results shows that the boundaries of the study, impact factors, and the criteria used for weighting the impacts are critical for the selection of the most promising concept. Under the current conditions of Colombia, production of pellets is the most economically advantageous way of using the POM biomass. Production of char showed the best environmental performance.
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Details
- Title
- EVOLUTION OF PALM OIL MILL INTO BIOREFINERIES
- Creators
- Jesus Alberto Garcia-Nunez
- Contributors
- Manuel Garcia-Perez (Advisor)Manuel Garcia-Perez (Committee Member)Claudio Stockle (Committee Member)Craig S Frear (Committee Member)James Amonette (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Biological Systems Engineering, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 246
- Identifiers
- 99900581438301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation