Greenheart Projects

Raw EFB to Value-Added Products

					All photographs are for illustration purposes only.
Raw EFB		Pulverized EFB		Palm Based Pellet

One of the biggest problems facing the palm oil millers in Malaysia is the disposal of the Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB), after the oil has been extracted. The current trend among the millers is limited to allowing the EFB to rot in the estates, burning in incinerators, converting into low grade fertilizers or use as low-grade low-burn fuel in boilers.

However, Greenheart has found a profitable way for recycling this by-product into a value-added sustainable and renewable energy source in the form of Palm-Based Pellets, or PBP. These pellets are carbon neutral and can be used as bio-fuels or replacements for fossil fuels.

This method of recycling is beneficial to the millers as an added income in an otherwise mundane task of disposal, as well as being beneficial in the long run to the environment. The incinerators are the source of serious air pollution to the immediate vicinity, while the rotting of the EFB in the fields will emit harmful methane gases. Converting to fertilizers is costly and cumbersome to be used in the field, as well as having low nutrient values.

Therefore, the proposal from Greenheart will be a win-win situation for all the parties involved, where the PBP becomes a source of natural and renewable fuel, which are a value-added product. Currently, in Malaysia alone, more than 18 million tonnes of EFB are produced a year as a by-product of the palm oil industry, while the estimated pellet consumption world wide as fuel replacement is expected to exceed 1.2 billion tonnes a year by 2030.