Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
DOI 10.1007/s11157-010-9199-2
REVIEWS
1 Introduction
The manufacturing industries in Malaysia can be
divided into resource based industries and nonresource based industries. Resource based industries
include rubber products, palm oil products, woodbased products and petrochemicals. Non-resource
based industries include electronic and electrical
products, machinery and engineering products and
textiles. Malaysia is blessed with abundant natural
resources and a climate conducive for commercial
cultivation of crops such as rubber and palm oil.
Malaysia is the largest producer of palm oil, the third
largest for rubber and fourth largest for cocoa. There
were more than 3.79 million hectares of land,
occupying more than one-third of the total cultivated
area and 11% of the total land area, under palm oil
cultivation in Malaysia in the year 2003 (Yusoff and
Hansen 2007).
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15
Paramters
with E. guineensis. The oil palm is an erect monoecious plant producing separate male and female
inflorescences. Oil palm is cross-pollinated and the
key pollinating agent is the weevil, Elaeidobius
kamerunicus Faust. Earlier oil palm was thought to
be wind pollinated and owing to the low level of
natural pollination, assisted pollination is a standard
management practice in plantations. However, this
practice was discontinued after the discovery that oil
palm was insect pollinated and the introduction of
E. kamerunicus from the Cameroons, West Africa in
1982 (Syed et al. 1982). Harvesting commences
about 2430 months after planting and each palm
can produce between eight to 15 fresh fruit bunches
(FFB) per year. The FFB weigh about 1525 kg
each, depending on the planting material and age of
the palm. Each FFB contains about 1,0001,300
fruitlets, each fruitlet consists of a fibrous meoscarp
layer and the endocarp (shell) containing the kernel.
Present day planting materials of oil palm are
capable of producing 39 tonnes of FFB ha-1 and
8.6 tonnes of palm oil. Good commercial plantation
yields about 30 tonnes FFB ha-1 with 5.06.0 tonnes of oil (Henson 1990). The average FFB yield
was 19.14 tonnes while palm oil production was
11.80 million tonnes in year 2001 in Malaysia
(MPOB 2001). The total oil palm planted area in
the country increased by 4.3% to 4.48 million
hectares in 2008 (MPOB 2008a, b) (Fig. 2). Total
plantation area in Malaysia was 4,304,914 ha in
2007, which has reached 4,487,957 ha in 2008
(MPOB 2008a, b) (Fig. 2). Based on statistics
obtained from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board,
Malaysia controls about 45% of total palm oil
production in the world. In 2005 alone, there were
423 mills with a production capacity of approximately 89 million tonnes of fresh fruit bunch (FFB)
year-1 (Borowitzka et al. 2009).
Cultivars of E. guineensis can be differentiated
with the help of their fruit pigmentation and characteristics. The most common cultivars are Dura,
Tenera and Pisifera, which are classified according
to the endocarp or shell thickness and mesocarp
content. Dura palms have between 2 and 8 mm thick
endocarp and medium mesocarp content (3555% of
fruit weight). Tenera palms have 0.5 to 3 mm thick
endocarp and high mesocarp content of 6095%
while the pisifera palms have no endocarp and about
95% mesocarp (Latiff 2000).
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10
Years
Fig. 2 Area of oil palm and palm oil production. (MPOB
2008a, b)
2.
3.
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334
4.
5.
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6.
335
Fruits
(70 %)
Evaporation
(10 %)
Bunch ash
(0.5 %)
Crude oil
(43 %)
Pericarp
(14 %)
Nuts
(13 %)
Pure oil
(21 %)
Solids (Animal
feed / fertilizer
(2 %)
Water
evaporation
(2 %)
Dry fibre
fuel
(12 %)
Water
evaporation
(20%)
Kernel
(6 %)
Shell
(6 %)
Moisture
(1 %)
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336
POMEa
(Averagec)
Empty fruit
bunchb
pH
4.7
6.7 0.2
4,000
Biochemical oxygen
demand (BOD5)
25,000
Chemical oxygen
demand (COD)
50,000
Total solids
40,500
Suspended solids
18,000
34,000
Ammonical nitrogen
(NH3N)
35
750
58.9 (%)
Phosphorous (P)
180
Potassium (K)
2,270
Magnesium (Mg)
615
Calcium (Ca)
Boron (B)
439
7.6
Iron (Fe)
46.5
Manganese (Mn)
2.0
Copper (Cu)
0.89
Zinc (Zn)
2.3
Ma 2000
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337
Fig. 5 Oil extraction and waste generation process in palm oil mill (Prasertsan and Prasertsan 1996)
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338
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* No discharge standard
after 1984
339
Parameter
Unit
Parameter limits
(second schedule)
pH
59
mg L-1
50
mg L
-1
1,000
mg L-1
Total solids
mg L-1
-1
400
150
200
Suspended solids
mg L
mg L-1
mg L-1
Remarks
is rich in humus and plant nutrients and the byproducts of composting process are carbon dioxide,
water and heat (Abbasi and Ramasamy 1999).
In the composting process, aerobic microorganisms use organic matter as a substrate. The microorganisms decompose the substrate, breaking it down
from complex to intermediate and then to simpler
products (Epstein 1997; Ipek et al. 2002). During
composting, compounds containing carbon and nitrogen are transformed through successive activities of
different microbes to more stable organic matter,
which chemically and biologically resembles humic
substances (Pare et al. 1999). The rate and extent of
these transformations depend on available substrates
and the process variables used to control composting
(Marche et al. 2003).
Naturally, composting takes place when fallen
leaves pile up and starts decaying. Eventually the
decayed leaves are returned to the soil, where living
roots reclaim the nutrients from the remains of the
leaves. Ancient people dumped foodstuff in piles near
their camps, and found the wastes rotted and formed
habitat for the seeds of many food plants that sprouted
there. Possibly this may have led to the realization that
dump heaps were good places for food crops to grow,
and humans began to put seeds there intentionally.
Apparently, recycling of organic residues through
composting seems to be an ancient practice. It has
acquired ever greater significance, and in the present
times the use of composting to turn organic wastes
into resource should be practiced with a sense of
urgency as landfill space becomes increasingly more
scarce and expensive (He et al. 1995). During
composting, most of the biodegradable organic
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8 Conclusion
Crude palm oil mills generate various by-products
and large quantities of wastewater, which may have a
significant impact on the environment if not managed
properly. As waste produced from palm oil mills are
biological in nature and have high organic content,
composting as well as co-composting can be a good
option. These wastes may create environmental
problems with time due to high organic content.
Improper disposal in open area may result in
contamination of ground water via leaching or nearby
waterbody through runoff water. The improper waste
management practice may also result in aesthetic
problem, air borne diseases and also may be causal of
several vector borne diseases. Therefore, environmental management should place the greatest emphasis in waste minimization at source or recycling.
Composting provides a viable alternative method for
managing organic wastes.
Acknowledgments The study was funded through Universiti
Sains Malaysia (USM) short-term grant number 304/
PTEKIND/ 6310003. The authors acknowledge USM for
providing research facilities.
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