Energy consumption during transportation along the palm oil supply chain in Malaysia

Abstract

The Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) analysis on the energy consumption was based on the study of the transportation of palm oil (PO), refined, bleached and deodourised (RBD) palm olein (POo) and palm stearin (POs) throughout the PO supply chain beginning from the transportation of the oil palm pollinated bunches from the 'mother palm' to the transportation of the RBD PO and its fractionated products, namely RBD POo and RBD POs from refineries/fractionation plants to the ports and finally to the retailers. The LCI analysis found that based on the production of 1 t RBD PO, the transportation of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) from plantations to mills consumed the highest energy followed by the transportation of POo from refineries to retailers and the transportation of crude palm oil (CPO) from PO mills to refineries, while the transportation of pollinated fruit bunches, germinated seeds and seedlings consumed the least amount of energy. The energy consumption on the basis of the production of 1 t RBD PO for the transportation of FFB from plantations to mills, RBD POo from refineries to retailers and CPO from mills to refineries were 197.12 MJ, 192.78 MJ and 151.50 MJ, respectively. Based on the actual production of the materials transported on an annual basis, it was estimated that the transportation of RBD PO, RBD POo and RBD POs along the palm oil supply chain consumed 7.025 billion MJ (0.168 Mtoe) energy per year.