Biomass Residue from Palm Oil Mills in Aceh Province: A Potential Usage for Sustainable Energy

Palm oil is one of the major agro industries in Aceh province. There are 25 crude palm oil (CPO) Mills in Aceh located in 8 districts with 551.12 tons/hour total capacity. The mills are concentrated in five districts along the western and eastern coasts, Aceh Utara, Aceh Timur, Aceh Tamiang, Nagan Raya, and Aceh Singkil (including the newly-established municipality of Subullusalam). As the climatic conditions in the Aceh are suitable for palm trees, the oil palm plantation area has expanded every year. The processing of FFB (Fresh fruit bunches) in palm oil mill produced a biomass residue that mainly consist of EFB (Empty fruit bunches), fiber, shells, and POME (Palm oil mill effluent). This study investigates the potential usage of biomass residue from palm oil mills in Aceh province. Results of the study indicated that the fiber and shells are mainly used as fuel for the mill boilers to generate heat and electricity for the whole plant. The EFB is disposed and spread on the plantation, incinerated or dumped in unmanaged sites. The POME is treated in the anaerobic and aerobic ponds, then normally being discharged into waterways or rivers. In some mills, the treated POME was spread to the plantation for fertilizer. Based on investigation on site, it shows that the load factor of the mill is only about 70% of capacity, thus the mills are inefficient since a lot of energy is lost. The use of EFB is very potential to be implemented in Aceh since this province produce of 724,185 ton EFB per year. With the total capacity of 551.12 tons/hour, palm oil mills in Aceh produce about 426.12 tons/hr of POME that also can be converted into energy. If 3.37 million ton FFB are treated in Aceh CPO mills, biogas energy of about 1.51 millions GJ will be produced.