Palm Oil Industry Case Study

Introduction to Palm Oil Industry in Malaysia
The oil palm tree , which is also known as Elaeis guineensis, is an indigenous species to the tropical rainforests of West Africa. It was first grew wild before being established as an agricultural crop. In the early 1870’s, It was introduced to Malaysia as an ornamental plant by British. The first commercial planting was performed in Tennamaran Estate (Selangor). This laid the foundations for the rapid growing of oil palm plantations and the palm oil industry in Malaysia. (Mpoc.org.my, 2012) Figure 1: Palm plantations is Malaysia (Crisp.nus.edu.sg, 2010)
Now, Malaysia is one of the largest producers and exporters of palm oil in the world. By 2015, about 5.64 million hectares of land is used for

As current energy supply is largely based on fossil fuels (coal, oil, natural gas), meeting the increasing demand will definitely raise more issues such as the fossil fuels depletion and global warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels (Biofuels Production through Biomass Pyrolysis —A Technological Review). Figure 3: Primary Energy Supply in Malaysia From 1980-2013 Figure 4: Final Energy Demand in Malaysia From 1980-2013
Given that the fossil fuiels reserves are finite and emission of CO2 increases with energy demand, the importance of getting a long-term alternative energy sources is obvious. In the Eighth Malaysia Plan (2001), renewable energy was introduced as the ‘fifth fuel’ after the four primary energy sources: oil, gas, hydropower and coal (EIB, 2006). The abundance of oil palm waste in Malaysia gives a strong reason for the development of biomass as the first renewable energy sources (Yusoff,