Evaluation of Decarbonisation Pathways for Palm Oil Mills Integrated with Carbon Capture and Storage

Malaysia is the second largest producer and exporter of palm oil products. The palm oil industry generates significant amounts of by-products during the extraction of crude oil from oil palm fruits. This presents opportunities for energy generation and production of green products, thus contributing to emissions reduction efforts. Especially, the palm by-products have potential to align with the country’s focus on green hydrogen, bioenergy, carbon capture and storage (CCS). Therefore, this study presents a systematic approach to evaluate the decarbonisation potential of palm oil industry by integrating hydrogen production and CCS pathways. A case study involving 24 palm oil mills in Sarawak state in Malaysia is used to demonstrate the proposed analysis. The results show that pathway involving biomass power generation, steam methane reforming, and CCS results in the highest emissions reduction potential between 3.7 – 4 MtCO2-eq/y.