A Comparison of EFB to Ethanol Production by Integrating Between RBD Palm Oil and EFB Pulping Plant: An Assessment for Energy, Environmental and Economical Advantages

A comparative evaluation between two scenarios to utilize Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) biomass residue for producing bioethanol was performed. The simulations included EFB-to Ethanol integrated into the Refined, Bleached & Deodorized (RBD) palm oil scenario as the first archetype and EFB-to-ethanol integrated with the pulping plant scenario as the second archetype. Literature reviews for each archetype were conducted to accomplish data for definitions, assumptions, and simulation analysis of each production stage. Ethanol production capacity was set at 255.55 kg as the basic calculation for mass and energy balances. The energy preference focused on energy efficiency and the environmental preference focused on consumed water and wastewater load. The simulation showed that excess energy from the Refined, Bleached & Deodorized Palm Oil (RBDPO) plant, which processes 5 tons of Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB) equals to 82% of the required energy for producing 255.55 kg of ethanol. This required energy could also be supplied by excess energy from the combustion of 14.9 tons of dried black liquor in EFB pulping plant with 10.5 tons production capacity. The additional wastewater from the EFB-to-ethanol unit in the second archetype was only 2% of the wastewater from the EFB pulping plant with only a 5% increase in water consumption but it required a large production capacity. The first archetype could use 58.4% of the EFB waste. However, the required water increased from 5.3m3 to 20.88m3 for this archetype and required additional water treatment plant due to the different pollutant components from the additional installation units. The first archetype could gain additional income, which equals 18.5% of RBDPO sales. However, investment for integration of the first archetype was larger than the second archetype due to different types of additional installation units. Integration as in the second archetype required small modification and installation, with 2% additional income in 10.5 tons of pulp daily sales.