• Energy Research

As one of world’s edible oil main producers, Malaysia has planted more than 5.23 Mha of palm oil plantations and established more 400 palm oil mills. However, current oil palm industry practices produce million tons of biomass waste through harvesting and mill’s processing. Towards to promote sustainability, oil palm industry must find a balance between economic and environmental needs. In this article, an oil palm eco-industrial town (EIT) is proposed to utilize oil palm biomass in totality through seven oil palm- based industries included crude-palm oil industry, bio-fertilizer industry, bio-gas industry, bio-fuel industry, livestock pellet industry, medium density fibre industry, and paper and pulp industry. The oil palm EIT promotes energy and material sharing among the industries to reduce energy and waste generation. The oil palm EIT could benefits both in economic (by producing multi products) and in environmental (by minimizing of biomass waste). A multi objectives linear programming (MILP) model is formulated to maximize economic performance and job opportunity; while, minimizing wastes generation in oil palm EIT. The proposed model considers the operational constraints such as biomass availability, material composition, environmental effect, and production yield of the individual industry. The reliability of the model is assessed based on case study in Iskandar Malaysia (IM). The model shall assist the decision maker to identify the sub-industries in the EIT in order to promote sustainability in oil palm industry.