Abstract:
The disappearing of fossil fuels has become a critical issue and called public attention to explore alternative renewable energy options. Biodiesel is one of the renewable energy sources producing from living things including oil palm. Effective utilization of palm oil production as energy resource requires the use of system analysis to take into account energy saving, cost, and profit. However, the system analysis for producing palm oil and the utilization of its waste are unclear, and relevant factors are needed to investigate the potential cost and benefit from palm oil production. The purpose of this research is to investigate a system that optimizes the use of palm oil production wastes by analyzing the cost and energy saving. The current research is conducted to address these research needs through three studies. The first study investigates how Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) standard affects investment and operating costs, and potential profit to smallholder farmers in Thailand. Fifty six farmers who have been certified by RSPO with a total of 455.36 hectares are investigated. In the evaluation of this investment project under four certain circumstances, it has been found that their internal rate of return (IRR) can be 49% with the payback period (PB) of 1.75 years under a specific base case using the midpoint of minimum and maximum costs as the base case parameters. The second study focuses on feasibility analysis of palm oil mill construction in the lower central part of Thailand. Findings indicated that the plant should produce at least 30 tonnes per hour making the IRR of 25%, the net present value (NPV) of 767,851 THB, the PB of 3.88 years, and the profit of 4,279 THB per ton of crude palm oil. The last study investigates the utilization of wastes of palm oil mill. Three major factors (environment, society, and economy) are considered to make palm oil industry to become a sustainable energy resource. Five palm oil mills utilizing palm oil waste as energy resource in their own mill and selling palm oil waste as raw materials to other businesses are discussed. It has been found that these five palm oil mills increase profit of 3.1-128.7% by utilizing waste of palm oil production.