Post on 17-Jan-2020
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LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT ON ELECTRICITY GENERATION
FROM PALM OIL MILL EFFLUENT
NUR AFIQAH BINTI MOHD KASIM
A project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Science (Energy Management)
Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
SEPTEMBER 2017
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to thank God gracefully for bringing me the strength and
blessing so that I could finish this research successfully. In preparing this thesis, I
was in contact with many people, researchers, academicians, and practitioners. They
have contributed towards my understanding and thoughts. In particular, I wish to
express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to my respectful supervisor, Dr Lim
Jeng Shiun for his encouragement, guidance, critics and advice during the progress
of this study.
Not to forget, to all lecturers, staffs, and my fellow coursemates who had
given very great support and motivation throughout this research. Without them, I
may not be able to complete this research successfully. Last but not least, my greatest
gratitude to my beloved family members and friends who are the reasons that keep
me going to complete this study.
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ABSTRACT
Nowadays, the world is dealing with a crisis between the limits of nature and
the ambitions of mankind. The climate change issue that been mentioned globally is
caused by uncontrollable greenhouse gases emissions from anthropogenic activities.
This life cycle assessment study on electricity generation from palm oil mill effluent
is important to measure the impacts from the activities to the environment because
palm oil effluent is harmful to environment due to high BOD and COD content.
Along the process of anaerobic digestion and electricity generation through biogas
CHP, a lot of energy (electricity, heat, steam), raw materials and water been used to
get a complete product. So, these inputs will contribute to the many categories of
environmental impacts. Then, a life cycle assessment is required to perform an
impact assessment for this process. The functional unit is production of 1 MWh of
electricity produced. This study was modeled by using openLCA Software to
develop with addition of Ecoinvent 2.2 Database to reveal the impact of the
processes involves towards environment as well as to compare their impact with
electricity generation from fossil fuel alternatives. From the study done, it proves that
cogenerating electricity from biogas produced by anaerobic digestion by using palm
oil mill effluent can lead to significant reduction in most impacts compared to fossil
fuel alternatives. This study also includes sensitivity analysis of feedstock used and
type of digestate storage.
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ABSTRAK
Pada masa kini, dunia berhadapan dengan krisis antara had alam semulajadi
dan pembangunan dunia. Isu perubahan iklim yang terjadi di seluruh dunia yang
diakibatkan oleh pelepasan gas rumah hijau yang tidak terkawal daripada aktiviti
aktiviti antropogenik. Kajian penilaian kitar hayat mengenai penjanaan elektrik dari
pembuangan sisa kilang minyak sawit adalah penting untuk mengukur kesan aktiviti
yang terlibat terhadap alam sekitar kerana sisa pembuangan minyak kepala sawit
berbahaya kepada alam sekitar disebabkan oleh kandungan BOD dan COD yang
tinggi. Sepanjang proses pencernaan anaerobik dan penjanaan elektrik melalui
biogas, banyak tenaga (elektrik, haba, stim), bahan mentah dan air digunakan
sepanjang proses berjalan. Oleh itu, penggunaain tenaga tenaga ini akan
menyumbang kepada pelbagai kategori kesan alam sekitar. Di dalam kajian ini,
semua model yang dibuat berdasarkan penghasilkan 1 MWh tenaga elektrik yang
dihasilkan. Kajian ini dimodelkan dengan menggunakan OpenLCA dan pangkalan
data Ecoinvent 2.2 untuk mengkaji kesan proses yang terlibat terhadap alam sekitar
serta membandingkan kesannya dengan penjanaan elektrik dari alternatif bahan api
fosil. Kajian yang dilakukan membuktikan bahawa penghasilan elektrik dari biogas
yang dihasilkan oleh pencernaan anaerobik dengan menggunakan sisa buangan
kilang minyak sawit boleh menyebabkan pengurangan yang ketara dalam
kebanyakan kesan berbanding alternatif bahan bakar fosil. Kajian ini juga
merangkumi analisis sensitiviti jenis sisa yang digunakan dan jenis penyimpanan
pencernaan.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER TITLE
PAGE
DECLARATION ii
DEDICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
ABSTRACT v
ABSTRAK vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
LIST OF TABLES x
LIST OF FIGURES xi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xii
1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Research Background
1.2 Problem Statement
1.3 Objectives
1.4 Scopes
1.5 Significance of study
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1
3
3
4
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2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Overview
2.2 Palm Oil Industry in Malaysia
2.3 Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME)
2.4 Biogas Production from POME
2.5 Energy Demand in Malaysia
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9
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13
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2.6 Electricity Generation from Biogas Captured
2.7 Life Cycle Assessment
2.7.1 Introduction
2.7.2 Life Cycle Assessment Methodology
2.7.3 Life Cycle Impact Assesment
2.8 Life Cycle Impact Categories
2.8.1 Global Warming Potential
2.8.2 Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emission
2.8.2 Ozone Depletion Potential
2.8.3 Acidification Potential
2.8.4 Eutrophication Potential
2.8.5 Fossil Depletion
2.8.6 Human Toxicity Potential
2.8.7 Water Depletion / Water Use
2.8.8 Eco Toxicity
2.9 Previous Study on Life Cycle Assesment on
Anaerobic Digestion
2.10 Research Gap
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3 METHODOLOGY
3.1 Methology Framework
3.2 Goal and Scope Definition
3.2.1 Goal of Study
3.2.2 Scope of Study
3.3 Life Cycle Inventory
3.3.1 Data Collection
3.4 Life Cycle Assessment
3.5 Software and Databases
3.6 Interpretation
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4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Life Cycle Impact Assessment Results
4.1.1 Abiotic Depletion Potential
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4.1.2 Acidification and Eutrophication
Potential
4.1.3 Global Warming Potential
4.1.4 Human and Eco-Toxicity Potential
4.1.5 Ozone Depletion Potential
4.1.6 Photochemical Oxidant Creation
Potential
4.2 Comparison to Electricity Generation from
Fossil Fuel Alternatives
4.3 Sensitivity Analysis
4.3.1 Alternative Feedstock
4.3.2 Digestate Storage
4.4 Comparison with other studies
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5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1 Conclusion
5.2 Recommendation
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REFERENCES 52
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LIST OF TABLES
TABLE TITLE
PAGE
2.1 Characteristics of raw POME 9
2.2 The Component of Life Cycle Analysis 18
3.1 Life Cycle Inventory for 1MWh of Electricity
Generated
33
4.1 Environmental Impact Categories, Nomenclature and
Unit Used
38
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LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE TITLE
PAGE
2.1 World oil and fat production in 1990 and 2011 7
2.2 Oil Palm Plantation area in Malaysia 8
2.3 Crude Palm Oil Production in Malaysia 8
2.4 Flow Chart of Flow in Palm Oil Mill for the Biogas Project 12
2.5 Energy demand over the year in Malaysia 13
2.6 Phases of LCA according to ISO 14040:2006 17
2.7 The 15 midpoint categories and four endpoint categories of
IMPACT 2002+
21
2.8 Projetion of carbon dioxide emission in Malaysia from 2010 to
2020
23
3.1 Methodology Framework for LCA process 30
3.2 Project Scope Boundary 32
4.1 Life Cycle Environmental Impacts associated with the
Generation of 1MWh of electricity from Palm Oil Mill Effluent
39
4.2 Contribution Analysis for Biogas Production and Electricity
Generation
42
4.3 Comparison of Impact Assessment for Generating Electricity
from AD-CHP system with natural gas CHP and oil CHP
43
4.4 Effect on different feedstock on the impacts 45
4.5 Effects of digestate storage on the impacts 46
4.6 Comparison with other studies 48
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LIST OF ABBREVIATION
ADP - Abiotic Depletion Potential
AP - Acidification Potential
EP - Eutrophication Potential
FAETP - Freash Water Aquatic Ecotoxicity Potential
GWP - Global Warming Potential
HTP - Human Toxicity Potential
MAETP - Marine Aquatic Eco Toxicity Potential
ODP - Ozone Depletion Potential
POCP - Photochemical Oxidant Creation Potential
TETP - Terresterial Eco Toxicity Potential
DCB - Dichlorobenzene
CFC - Cholorofluorocarbon
LCA - Life Cycle Assessment
LCI - Life Cycle Inventory
LCIA - Life Cycle Impact Assessment
SO2 - Sulphur Dioxide
PO4 - Phosphate
C2H4 - Ethene
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Research Background
In recent years, palm oil industry grown rapidly and keep growing over the
year. Palm oil industry in Malaysia is one of the world’s largest producers and
exporter of crude palm oil and its derivatives products. In 2004, oil palm cultivation
covers more than 3.79 million hectares of land and occupies 11% of the total land
area and more than one third of the total cultivated area in Malaysia. By increasing
the number of production of palm oil every year, the process of converting fresh fruit
bunch (FFB) to crude palm oil (CPO), it concurrently will generate abundant of by-
product such as palm oil mill effluent (POME) , empty fruit bunch (EFB), palm
kernel shell (PKS) and mesocarp fibre. From these by-products, POME is the only
by-product that has not been commercialized re-used by industry although 2.5 – 3.75
tonnes of POME will be generated for every tonne of CPO produced. However, there
is a great potential for renewable energy project using POME since it produce
methane gas which also can produce electricity
POME is still remain untapped and will be threat to the environment if
directly discharged into watercourse. Due to its highly polluting properties with
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average value of 25 000 mg/L biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and 50 000 mg/L
chemical oxygen demand (COD), the most cost effective technology is anaerobic
treatment. By the end of anaerobic digestion, the end product that will form is
basically methane and carbon dioxide. The utilization of biogas captured from
POME becomes recent interest as the increasing price of natural gas and fossil fuel.
The biogas captured from POME can be utilized as one of energy sources with
upgrading them either to be electricity generation, vehicle fuel, heating, cooking gas
or it can be distributed on the natural-gas grid.
With increasing of energy demand every year, utilization of biogas as
electricity is relevant to replace the fossil-fuel based sources since Malaysia is the
world leader in the production and supply of crude palm oil. It leads to the plantation
of more palm oil trees, consequently processing more palm oil fresh fruit bunches
and thus more palm oil waste which also called palm oil mill effluent, mesocarp and
palm kernel shell. However, the process of capturing biogas and utilize it to generate
electricity still will give some amount of environmental emission. There is several
ways to determine it and one of the method is by using life cycle assessment.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is currently the most common method of
designing environmental friendly products and technologies and evaluating their
impact on the environment (Mirjana et. al, 2013). This method governed by the
international series of ISO 14000 standards, which also the reason why it is widely
used in relation to other methods of designing for the environment. LCA helps to
realize the extent of the impact of their products, processes, and other activities on
the environment. The goal of LCA is not only to provide an answer to the question of
how serious the harmful effect is, but also to enable strategic planning of future
activities.
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1.2 Problem Statement
Malaysia is one of the largest exporter and producer of crude palm oil and its
derivatives. This industry is involving in 3 major sector which is agriculture
(plantation), transport and industry (milling). It causes high environmental challenge
to deal with along the process of CPO production. Production of CPO creates
abundance of POME which will gives threat to environment if flow to waterways
due to its high BOD and COD. One of the solutions to prevent POME produced from
continuously harm environment is by utilizing it to be alternative sources of energy
due to high organic compound exist in the POME. Since the energy need in Malaysia
is relatively high and expected to increase from years to years and the existing fossil
fuel is keep depleted, abundance POME produced can be feedstock to produce
electricity in order to cater the energy demand that keep rising.
Although biogas captured is utilized as one of the energy sources such as
electricity, it still has its own impact to environment. By adopting self regulated
environmental tools such as ISO 14000, Life Cycle Assessment is one of the ways
that can be done to monitor and deal with the environmental impact along the
process run. This study will propose to conduct life cycle analysis on the electricity
generationfrom biogas produced by anaerobic digestion as it is one of the way to
monitor the impact exist towards environment along the process done.
1.3 Objective
The objective of this study is to conduct life cycle assessment on the
electricity generation from palm oil mill effluent with several aims;
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a. To evaluate the life cycle environmental impact of biogas utilization from
palm oil mill effluent to generate electricity.
b. To compare the impact of the electricity generation from biogas system with
electricity generation from fossil – fuel based alternatives.
1.4 Scope
The scope of this study includes;
a. Data Collection on every single stage involved in generating electricity from
biogas based on scope boundary.
b. Performing Life Cycle Assessment on utilization of biogas to be converted to
electricity by using openLCA software.
c. Comparing the environmental factor of electricity generation from POME
with the conventional source.
1.5 Significance of Study
Process of POME generation starting from plantation of palm oil,
transportation and milling might gives significant impact towards environment as
well as process of converting biogas produced as energy sources. By this study with
scope limited for electricity generation from palm oil mill effluent, it is important to
do life cycle within the scope chosen due to following reason.
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a. To reveal the actual impact for each activity occur along the process of
generate electricity from biogas of palm oil mill effluent
b. Increase awareness that every activity done may harm environment with
certain magnitude for each activities.
c. To identify the most highly impact of generate electricity from different
sources.
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