Energy index for palm oil processing in oil palm mills

Abstract

Energy conservation helps to reduce the cost of energy generation particularly in oil palm mills. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyse the energy and mass balance, the cost of production, energy conservation and consequently getting the energy index for oil palm mills. There are several oil palm mills operating in Malaysia and in other parts of the world, a few samples have been selected for the energy index study. Many factors effect the energy conservation in the palm oil mills which include the capacity of the mill, good maintenance and using energy efficiency equipments. Energy index has been introduced for the mills that enable them to identify the strengths and weakness of the various sections in processing the palm oil. Thus, the energy index helps to identify the strength and weakness of the various oil palm mills studied. Extra biomass could be converted into some value-added products or sold for added income of the mills.