Process development and design of an integrated palm oil processing plant

Abstract

The palm oil industry is one of the most profitable and significant contributors to Malaysia's economy. However, recently, the European Union is banning Malaysia's palm oil due to its environmental impact. Hence, it is urgent to improve Malaysia's palm oil industry system to reduce the impact on the environment by integrating the stand-alone palm oil process as integration of a process proven to enhance overall process performance (process efficiency, profitability and environmental sustainability). An Integrated Palm Oil Processing Plant is expected to increase the productivity and sustainability performance of palm oil production while reducing the overall cost of the process. To date, the integration of the processes specifically on the crude palm oil (CPO) products and derivatives has not been executed or academically researched. This study focused on the process design and development for integration of processes that involve the main product from the upstream of palm oil industry, CPO. Process selection for the integration was based on the material integration of CPO processing flow from milling (extraction of CPO) to refinery and dry fractionation (refining and separation of palm olein and stearin), hydrogenation of palm stearin, and fractionation of the hydrogenated palm stearin. Mass balance and process simulation was done to evaluate the mass throughput for stand-alone palm oil processes as the basis for scale up of the current (stand-alone plant) capacity to the proposed integrated plants to meet the hydrogenated palm stearin capacity process of 550 MT/day, 225 MT/day, and 100 MT/day. The feasibility of the integrated plant was analysed based on economic potential and sustainability performance. In terms of economic, the Integrated Palm Oil Processing Plant with the largest capacity (550 MT/day) was found to be feasible based on the profitability analysis where it has the highest return on investment (ROI) of 173% as compared to ROI of 85% and 49% for the other integrated plant capacity in comparison, 225 MT/day and 100 MT/day. In terms of sustainability, the integrated plant was compared with existing stand-alone plants using the modified palm oil milling sustainability index where the largest capacity (550 MT/day) of the integrated plant showed the highest overall score of 79 for the sustainability index, which indicated an improvement in the sustainability performance. For validation of the integrated plant, opinions from subject matter expert were obtained from the industry experts that include plant managers and engineers, project manager and academician. The experts' opinions on the integrated plant were varied in terms of the integrated plant management (control system, waste management and data management), operational (plant maintenance, utilities, operators, and technical staff) and sustainability (waste production, gas emissions and transportation). In summary, based on their feedback, the concept of an integrated plant was found to be promising in terms of systematic management, operational reliability, and support sustainable goals. In conclusion, the integrated plant with the largest capacity of 550 ton palm stearin hydrogenated fatty acids per day yielded a promising ROI, a great profit margin, and better sustainable performance and based on experts’ opinion, the integrated plant concept has the prospect for a more efficient and reliable plant, proving that integration of palm oil processes is feasible in terms of productivity, economic potential and sustainability of the industry.