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Improving Energy Efficiency at Palm Oil Mill Industries

Article  in  Journal of Physics Conference Series · May 2021

DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/1874/1/012013

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Improving Energy Efficiency at Palm Oil Mill Industries

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RETREAT 2020 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1874 (2021) 012013 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1874/1/012013

Improving Energy Efficiency at Palm Oil Mill Industries

Zamri Noranai, Nurul Farahin Mohd Joharudin, Muhammad Aliff Asyraf

Redzwan, Noradila Abdul Latif, Nur Zaha Hassan
Centre for Energy and Industrial Environment Studies (CEIES),
Faculty of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering,
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia, 86400 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia

[email protected]

Abstract. Palm oil production has become one of the essential economical in Malaysia, where
it is one of the world's largest oil palm producer and exporter. The rapid growth of the palm oil
mill as the primary product dominating Malaysian agriculture industries leads to the increasing
of energy usage. However, the efficiency of electrical energy usage has been recognized as one
of the significant factors to reduce the cost of electrical energy consumption. This research
aims to determine the energy consumption of palm oil mill process and proposed improvement
to its potential energy consumption. This research is limited to the energy efficiency
improvement in one of Malaysia palm oil industry. The palm oil mill selection and the palm oil
mill processes have been identifying in the early phases. Four main palm oil processes which
are fruit bunch reception, sterilizing, threshing and pressing have been investigating to improve
the energy efficiency. From the calculation of processing palm oil processes, the monthly
electrical consumption was near to 127MWh. The result found that 31.49% of energy
consumption can be reduced in a month by the selected palm oil mill processes by replacing
the current motor to high-efficiency motor.

1. Introduction
Energy plays an important role nowadays. It is the main driving force behind all human activities.
Energy is defined as the ability to produce change or do work [1]. Rapid population and industry
growth increased energy consumption demand [2-3]. In Malaysia, power plants generate electricity by
converting non–renewable energy such as coal, natural gas and fuel oil [4]. Electricity is the most
widely used energy type for domestic, commercial and industrial purposes which are leads to the
insufficient energy resources of non–renewable energy [5]. That has been the most demanding
challenge need to face by industries to ensure their sustainable business development. Energy
efficiency can reduce the use of primary energy resources and achieves significant savings [6]. This
method is suitable for all industries, including palm oil mills. The purpose of carrying this study is to
determine the energy consumption of each palm oil mill processes and discover its potential saving.
However, this research is limited to the energy efficiency improvement in one of Malaysia palm oil
industry. Solutions and recommendation discussed in the paper, which is support by the measurement
of approximate saving cost per month in the selected palm oil mill.
Energy is the primary source for all activities. The demand for electrical power today has been
increasing every day at an increasing rate. Since energy can not be to generated or destroyed,
electricity requires energy sources to be generated and energy management to be understood; energy

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RETREAT 2020 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1874 (2021) 012013 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1874/1/012013

resource studies are a must to estimate the energy consumption and proposes ways of energy-saving
solutions. Electricity generation utilizes both renewable and non–renewable energies [7]. However, the
trend of world energy consumption indicates that 82% is from non-renewable energy, while the
remaining 18% is from renewable energy. There are currently several primary energy sources used
worldwide for generating electricity. The sources include solar energy, hydrogen energy, wind energy,
tidal energy, hydroelectric energy, wave energy, biomass energy, fossil fuels and nuclear power [8-9].
In Malaysia, natural gas and coal-generated nearly 80% of electricity. Fossil fuel, such as natural gas,
are classified as non–renewable energy and can not be replenished. Continuous uncontrolled use of
fossil fuel will finish up the resources in no time [10-15].
The palm oil mill consists of different processes from fresh fruit bunch until becoming crude oil,
which is including sterilization, threshing, digestion, pressing and clarification. Its starts with receiving
fresh fruit bunch from the plantation in bunch reception by sterilization process [16]. The fruit bunch
are steam up to 3 bars or equal to 300 kPa in pressurized vessels to arrest the formation of free fatty
acids and prepare the fruit for next sub-processes. After finishing the process, the sterilized straps are
discarding in a rotating drum thresher. The stripped bundles or empty fruit bundles (EFB) are
transported for mulching in the plantation while the fruits are then was transporting to the press
digesters. The fruits in the digesters are heated with live steam and continuously stirred to loosen the
oil-bearing mesocarp from the nuts and open the oil cells in the mesocarp. The digested mash is then
was pressed. The oil is extracted through the screw presses. Then the press cake is transmitted to the
kernel plant where the kernels are recovered. Press oil is diluted and pumped into vertical clarification
tanks. The clarified oil is then fed to purifiers to remove dirt and humidity before further drying in the
vacuum drier. The oil is ready for storage and delivery [17-20].
Further study is required to sustain the energy consumption at the palm oil mill. Besides, energy
losses during the processing of palm oil will increase production costs and also have an adverse effect
on the environment. The tendency to overcome these energy losses has drawn greater attention to
issues related to industrial energy efficiency. A plant or a process's energy efficiency is inversely
proportional to the energy losses. Energy efficiency can, therefore, be improved when energy losses
can be minimized. As a reduction in the energy losses will significantly increase the efficiency of the
plants, possible causes of these losses must be identified in order to improve the energy efficiency of
the plant.

2. Methodology
The methods flow for this study divided into three phases, which is Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3,
respectively. In Figure 1, the first phase shows some literature review conducted are focused on palm
oil mill process, location of the palm oil mill plants, operation hour and energy tariff by TNB. The
palm oil mill was selected, and it is located in Banting, Selangor Darul Ehsan. It is approximately 15
kilometres (17 minutes) from Jenjarom and 14 kilometres (15 minutes) to Telok Panglima Garang.
The palm oil mill has operated for 40 years until now. Full processes of palm oil are processing at this
mill from fresh fruit bunch until becoming crude palm oil. In phase 2, data has been collected by using
several methods. The data are focus on machine list, machine usage and make some energy analysis.
After the data is collected, the study to find total energy consumption and energy efficiency are
calculated. In the final phase, data were analyzed to make some conclusion. The result has been
discussed, and some recommendation to improve energy efficiency for palm oil mill process is
proposed.

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RETREAT 2020 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1874 (2021) 012013 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1874/1/012013

Start

Phase I Literature Review

Plant Identification Process and Energy

Operation Hour Energy Tariff
and Location Identification

Phase II Data Collection

Calculation of Energy Consumption and Cost

Phase III Propose Energy Saving Method

Estimation Energy Consumption and Cost Saving

Conclusion

End

Figure 1: Research methodology at the palm oil mill.

3. Results and Discussion

The data are collected and presented in the table form for ease of reading and calculation. Table 1
shows the machine year usage, while Table 2 shows the operation hour of machines. The palm oil mill
operates for 26 days a month. The power consumption of each machine shown in table 3.

Table 1: Machine year usage

No. Processes Machines Year Usage
1 Fruit reception Loading hydraulic ramp system 10
FFB conveyor 10
2 Sterilizing Inclined scraper conveyor 10
Distributing conveyor 10
3 Threshing Rotary thresher drum 10
Bunch crusher 10
Recycling empty bunch conveyor 10
Bottom cross conveyor 10
Inclined scraper conveyor 10
4 Pressing Digester 10
Screw press 10
Fruit distributing conveyor 10
Top cross conveyor 10
Fruit elevator 10

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RETREAT 2020 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1874 (2021) 012013 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1874/1/012013

Table 2: Operation hour of machines

No. Processes Machines Operation (hours/days)
1 Fruit Loading hydraulic ramp system 16
reception FFB conveyor 16
2 Sterilizing Inclined scraper conveyor 16
Distributing conveyor 16
3 Threshing Rotary thresher drum 16
Bunch crusher 16
Recycling empty bunch conveyor 16
Bottom cross conveyor 16
Inclined scraper conveyor 16
4 Pressing Digester 16
Screw press 16
Fruit distributing conveyor 16
Top cross conveyor 16
Fruit elevator 16

Table 3: Power consumption of each machine

Power Rate Total Power
No. Processes Machines Quantity
(kW) Consumption (kWh)
1 Bunch Loading ramp 5.0 1 5.0
reception hydraulic system
FFB conveyor 4.0 1 4.0
2 Sterilizing Inclined scraper 7.5 1 7.5
conveyor
Distributing 4.0 1 4.0
conveyor
3 Threshing Rotary thresher 18.5 2 37.0
drum
Bunch crusher 11.0 1 11.0
Recycling empty 7.5 1 7.5
bunch conveyor
Bottom cross 5.5 1 5.5
conveyor
Inclined scrapper 7.5 1 7.5
conveyor
4 Pressing Digester 40.0 3 120.0
Screw press 30.0 3 90.0
Fruit distributing 4.0 1 4.0
conveyor
Top cross 2.2 1 2.2
conveyor
Fruit elevator 7.5 2 15.0

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RETREAT 2020 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1874 (2021) 012013 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1874/1/012013

Base on the data from Table 1, Table 2 and Table 3, the energy consumption is calculated from Eq.
(1) and summarized in Table 4.

Energy consumption = Total operation (h) × Total Power (W) (1)

Energy consumption at =
bunch reception process [ ]
= 3,744,000 Wh
= 3,744 kWh per month

Energy consumption at =
sterilizing process [ ]
= 4,784,000 Wh
= 4,784 kWh per month

Energy consumption at =
threshing process [ ]
= 28,496,000 Wh
= 28,496 kWh per month

Energy consumption at =
pressing process [ ]
= 90,653,200 Wh
= 90,653.2 kWh per month

Total estimated = Energy consumption at bunch reception process + Energy (2)

energy consumption consumption at sterilizing process + Energy consumption at
threshing process + Energy consumption at pressing process
= 3,744 + 4,784 + 28,496 + 90,653.2 kWh
= 127,677.2 kWh per month

Table 4 shows a summary of data analysis. From this table, pressing is highest with 71%, threshing
22.32%, sterilizing with 3.75% while bunch reception 2.93% of energy consumption. Table 5 shows
the comparison between current usage versus after replacement of IE4 motor class. The suggested
potential saving is by replacing the current motor type to IE4 motor class type. The total of energy cost
by using the current motor is 127,677.20kWh, while the IE4 motor is 87474.70kWh. There are
significant energy saving by 40,202.50kWh that contributes to 31.49% of energy saving.

Table 4: Summary of energy consumption for each process

Processes Total Energy Consumption (kWh) per month Usage Percentage (%)
Bunch reception 3,744.00 2.93
Sterilizing 4,784.00 3.75
Threshing 28,496.00 22.32
Pressing 90,653.20 71.00
Total 127,677.20 100.00

5
RETREAT 2020 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1874 (2021) 012013 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1874/1/012013

Table 5: Comparison between current usage versus after replacement of IE4 motor class
Power Consumption per Month (kWh)
Type of Processes
Current motor IE4 motor class
Bunch Reception 3,744.00 2808.00
Steriliser 4,784.00 4085.50
Threshing 28,496.00 19662.20
Pressing 90,653.20 60919.00
Total 127,677.20 87474.70
Saving value 40,202.50
Saving percentage 31.49%

There are a few ways of solution and recommendations proposed in this study. The suggestion that
would improve energy efficiency for the palm oil mill process has been made at the end of this study.
The potential saving measures can be categorized into two categories, which are technical saving
measures and manual saving measures, respectively. For technical saving measures, replacement of
motor efficiency class was included. Meanwhile, preventive maintenance is proposed manual saving
measures. Table 5 above shows the comparison between current motor usage and after replacement of
IE4 motor class. Next suggestion for recommendation is development of programme for evaluate cost
of electrical energy consumption by using MATLAB software which can leads to the trend of
technology today.

4. Conclusion
This study investigated the energy consumption and the potential energy consumption improvement
for oil palm mill process at Eng Hong Palm Oil Mill Sdn Bhd, which located in Banting, Selangor as a
case study. This research has been focused only on four processes which are fresh fruit bunch
reception, sterilizing process, threshing process and pressing process. The energy consumption for
four processes was estimated at nearly 127,677.20kWh, costing around RM 37,026. From these
figures, the pressing process was identified as the most significant contributor of electrical energy
consumption with 71%, followed by the threshing process with 22.32%, sterilizing process with
3.75% and the bunch reception is the least energy consumer at 2.93%. The suggestion for potential
saving measures proposed, which include the preventive maintenance of machines and motor
efficiency classes. As proposed have been summarized, it estimated that the potential energy saving is
about 40,202.50kWh per month or equivalent to RM 11,658. Therefore, by using this way, palm oil
mill plant can save approximately 31.49% of energy consumption in a month.

Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the funding of this research by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia
(MOHE) through the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS/1/2018/TK07/UTHM/02/6) and
research grant No. K091, Centre for Energy & Industrial Environment Studies (CEIES), Faculty of
Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering (FKMP), and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
(UTHM).

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