IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i3p792-d203135.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability Implications of the Incorporation of a Biogas Trapping System into a Conventional Crude Palm Oil Supply Chain

Author

Listed:
  • Chye Ing Lim

    (Faculty of Engineering and Science, Curtin University Malaysia, Sarawak 98009, Malaysia
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Wahidul K. Biswas

    (Sustainable Engineering Group, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

Abstract

This paper presents the sustainability implications of installing biogas trapping systems in palm oil mills of a crude palm oil production supply chains in Malaysia. The study evaluates the impact of this mitigation strategy on the existing supply chains published by Lim and Biswas. The experience of a local palm oil mill installed with the KUBOTA biogas trapping system was incorporated into a typical 60 metric tonne per hour palm oil mill for effluent treatment. This allowed us to assess the changes in sustainability performance of the whole crude palm oil supply chain using the Palm Oil Sustainability Assessment (POSA) framework. Installing the biogas trapping system increased waste recycling and reuse percentage of the mill from 81.81% to 99.99% and the energy ratio (energy output/fossil fuel and biomass energy input) from 2.45 to 2.56; and reduced the Greenhouse Gas emission of the supply chain from 0.814 tonne CO 2 eq to 0.196 tonne CO 2 eq per tonne of Crude Palm Oil. This system could also potentially increase the mill’s annual revenue by 2.3%, while sacrificing the sustainability performance of other economic indicators (i.e., a further 3% negative deviation of actual growth rate from sustainable growth rate). Overall, sustainability score of the supply chain improved from 3.47/5 to 3.59/5 on the 5-level-Likert-scale due to environmental improvement strategy consideration. Finally, this paper shows that the POSA framework is capable of capturing changes in the sustainability performance of triple bottom line indicators associated with the use or incorporation of any improvement strategy in the crude palm oil supply chain.

Suggested Citation

  • Chye Ing Lim & Wahidul K. Biswas, 2019. "Sustainability Implications of the Incorporation of a Biogas Trapping System into a Conventional Crude Palm Oil Supply Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-19, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:3:p:792-:d:203135
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/3/792/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/3/792/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Foo, K.Y. & Hameed, B.H., 2010. "Insight into the applications of palm oil mill effluent: A renewable utilization of the industrial agricultural waste," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(5), pages 1445-1452, June.
    2. Lalit Arora & Shailendra Kumar & Piyush Verma, 2018. "The Anatomy of Sustainable Growth Rate of Indian Manufacturing Firms," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 19(4), pages 1050-1071, August.
    3. Chye Ing Lim & Wahidul Biswas, 2015. "An Evaluation of Holistic Sustainability Assessment Framework for Palm Oil Production in Malaysia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(12), pages 1-27, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. How, Bing Shen & Ngan, Sue Lin & Hong, Boon Hooi & Lam, Hon Loong & Ng, Wendy Pei Qin & Yusup, Suzana & Ghani, Wan Azlina Wan Abd Karim & Kansha, Yasuki & Chan, Yi Herng & Cheah, Kin Wai & Shahbaz, Mu, 2019. "An outlook of Malaysian biomass industry commercialisation: Perspectives and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Muhammad Ansori Nasution & Ayu Wulandari & Tofael Ahamed & Ryozo Noguchi, 2020. "Alternative POME Treatment Technology in the Implementation of Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO), and Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) Standards Using LCA," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-16, May.
    3. Tan, Yue Dian & Lim, Jeng Shiun & Wan Alwi, Sharifah Rafidah, 2020. "Multi-objective optimal design for integrated palm oil mill complex with consideration of effluent elimination," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    4. Nirvana Angela Marting Vidaurre & Ricardo Vargas-Carpintero & Moritz Wagner & Jan Lask & Iris Lewandowski, 2020. "Social Aspects in the Assessment of Biobased Value Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-27, November.
    5. Vivek Arulnathan & Mohammad Davoud Heidari & Maurice Doyon & Eric P. H. Li & Nathan Pelletier, 2022. "Economic Indicators for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: Going beyond Life Cycle Costing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-27, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ali, Ghaffar & Nitivattananon, Vilas & Abbas, Sawaid & Sabir, Muazzam, 2012. "Green waste to biogas: Renewable energy possibilities for Thailand's green markets," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(7), pages 5423-5429.
    2. Okey Francis Obi & Ralf Pecenka & Michael J. Clifford, 2022. "A Review of Biomass Briquette Binders and Quality Parameters," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-22, March.
    3. Ahmed Zainul Abideen & Veera Pandiyan Kaliani Sundram & Shahryar Sorooshian, 2023. "Scope for Sustainable Development of Small Holder Farmers in the Palm Oil Supply Chain—A Systematic Literature Review and Thematic Scientific Mapping," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-24, January.
    4. Bonassa, Gabriela & Schneider, Lara Talita & Canever, Victor Bruno & Cremonez, Paulo André & Frigo, Elisandro Pires & Dieter, Jonathan & Teleken, Joel Gustavo, 2018. "Scenarios and prospects of solid biofuel use in Brazil," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 2365-2378.
    5. Murat Ocak & Derya Fındık, 2019. "The Impact of Intangible Assets and Sub-Components of Intangible Assets on Sustainable Growth and Firm Value: Evidence from Turkish Listed Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-23, September.
    6. Ohimain, Elijah I. & Izah, Sylvester C., 2014. "Energy self-sufficiency of smallholder oil palm processing in Nigeria," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 426-431.
    7. Najmul Hoque & Wahidul Biswas & Ilyas Mazhar & Ian Howard, 2020. "Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Alternative Energy Sources for the Western Australian Transport Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-33, July.
    8. Shu Yu & Yongtong Mu, 2022. "Sustainable Agricultural Development Assessment: A Comprehensive Review and Bibliometric Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-18, September.
    9. Ohimain, Elijah Ige & Izah, Sylvester Chibueze, 2017. "A review of biogas production from palm oil mill effluents using different configurations of bioreactors," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 242-253.
    10. Ahmad, Ashfaq & Buang, Azizul & Bhat, A.H., 2016. "Renewable and sustainable bioenergy production from microalgal co-cultivation with palm oil mill effluent (POME): A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 214-234.
    11. Kumar, Gopalakrishnan & Bakonyi, Péter & Kobayashi, Takuro & Xu, Kai-Qin & Sivagurunathan, Periyasamy & Kim, Sang-Hyoun & Buitrón, Germán & Nemestóthy, Nándor & Bélafi-Bakó, Katalin, 2016. "Enhancement of biofuel production via microbial augmentation: The case of dark fermentative hydrogen," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 879-891.
    12. Gobi, K. & Vadivelu, V.M., 2013. "By-products of palm oil mill effluent treatment plant – A step towards sustainability," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 788-803.
    13. Shekarchian, M. & Moghavvemi, M. & Motasemi, F. & Zarifi, F. & Mahlia, T.M.I., 2012. "Energy and fuel consumption forecast by retrofitting absorption cooling in Malaysia from 2012 to 2025," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(8), pages 6128-6141.
    14. Sadhukhan, Jhuma & Martinez-Hernandez, Elias & Murphy, Richard J. & Ng, Denny K.S. & Hassim, Mimi H. & Siew Ng, Kok & Yoke Kin, Wan & Jaye, Ida Fahani Md & Leung Pah Hang, Melissa Y. & Andiappan, Vikn, 2018. "Role of bioenergy, biorefinery and bioeconomy in sustainable development: Strategic pathways for Malaysia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 1966-1987.
    15. Loh, S.K. & Nasrin, A.B. & Mohamad Azri, S. & Nurul Adela, B. & Muzzammil, N. & Daryl Jay, T. & Stasha Eleanor, R.A. & Lim, W.S. & Choo, Y.M. & Kaltschmitt, M., 2017. "First Report on Malaysia’s experiences and development in biogas capture and utilization from palm oil mill effluent under the Economic Transformation Programme: Current and future perspectives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1257-1274.
    16. Anwar Ahmad & Salam S AlDawey & SS Reddy, 2021. "Anaerobic degradation of palm oil mill effluent with aluminum bauxite residue for methane production," Energy & Environment, , vol. 32(2), pages 226-241, March.
    17. Brinkman, Marnix L.J. & Wicke, Birka & Faaij, André P.C. & van der Hilst, Floor, 2019. "Projecting socio-economic impacts of bioenergy: Current status and limitations of ex-ante quantification methods," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    18. Anwar Ahmad & Fatima Shahitha, 2022. "The impacts of red mud dosing on methane production and reduction of CO2: Activity of granules and formation," Energy & Environment, , vol. 33(1), pages 135-151, February.
    19. Nur Izzah Hamna A. Aziz & Marlia M. Hanafiah, 2017. "The Potential Of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) As A Renewable Energy Source," Acta Scientifica Malaysia (ASM), Zibeline International Publishing, vol. 1(2), pages 9-11, October.
    20. Shekarchian, M. & Moghavvemi, M. & Mahlia, T.M.I. & Mazandarani, A., 2011. "A review on the pattern of electricity generation and emission in Malaysia from 1976 to 2008," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 2629-2642, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:3:p:792-:d:203135. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.