1.

Availibility of Oil Palm Trees in Johor, Malaysia

Johor is the third largest of oil palm plantation in Malaysia after Sabah and

Sarawak. Due to the huge amount of biomass generated yearly, Johor has the potential
to utilize the biomass efficiently and effectively to other value added products. Table 1.1
and Figure 1.1 summarize the availability of oil palm biomass in Johor.

Table 1.1: Oil Palm Planted Area in Johor as at December 2015 by MPOB
Johor

Mature

Immature

Total

Hectares

665,795

90

73,788

10

738,583

Amount of tress (135-

93,211,300

90

10330320

90

103,541,62

145 treess per hectar)

[14]
Average monthly FFB

0
1.55 tones/hectares

yield/hectares (Jan-Jun
2015)
Average monthly FFB

1,031,902 tons of FFB

yield (Jan-Jun 2015)

Figure 1.1: Oil palm biomass avaibility from oil palm trees [15,16]

2.1

Bioethanol

Bioethanol is an alternative fuels to reduce the worlds dependence on nonrenewable resources. Bioethanol can be synthesized from cellulose and hemicelluloses
that originated from many sources of biomass. Microscopic yeast cells break down the
starch and water and creating bioethanol and carbon dioxide as end products [1].
Currently, most of the ethanol derived from corn grain (starch) and sugar cane (sucrose)
[2]. However, these food based raw materials can negatively affect the price system of
the food supply.

Presently million hectares of land in Malaysia is occupied with oil palm

plantation generating huge quantities of biomass. In this context, biomass from oil palm
industries appears to be a very promising alternative as a source of raw materials. The
abundance sources of biomass from oil palm in Malaysia provide an impetus for
sustainable generation of bioethanol as the competition with the food-based raw
materials is alleviated.

Bioethanol can be produced via two reaction key steps, enzymatic hydrolysis and
fermentation. .In the first step, hydrolysis converts complex polysaccharides in the raw
feedstock to simple sugars. Then, the sugar is converted to bioethanol by fermentation
in a series of bio-catalyzed reactions. From the reaction, bioethanol yield is 51.1%[3].
Bioethanol and carbon dioxide are produced as the sugar is consumed. The equation 1
(Eq1) shows the reaction of sugar(glucose) to bioethanol.

C6 H 12 O6 2 C H 3 C H 2 OH
(Eq 1)

C O6

2.1.1

Bioethanol Demand

Ethanol production is commercially insignificant in Malaysia, even though

abundant of biomass from oil palm is available. The process is not yet scientifically
feasible nor economically viable.

Table 2.1: Annual fuel ethanol 2013 estimates in Malaysia (million liters)[4]
Year
Production
Consumption
Export
Import

2010
0
0
0
0

Malaysia
2011
0
0
0
0

2012
0
0
0
0

2013
0
0
0
0

2014
0
0
0
0

Table 2.2: Annual fuel ethanol 2013 estimates in other countries (million liters)[5]
Country
China
Japan
South Korea
Taiwan
Pakistan
Indonesia
Philipines
Thailand

2.2

PHA

Production
7832
91
173
16
525
194
95
1452

Consumption
7821
1194
469
109
24
133
395
1435

Export
11
0
0
0
501
61
0
17

Import
0
1103
295
93
0
0
300
0

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are thermoplastics with additional advantage of

being completely biodegradable, biocompatible and produce from renewable resources
like sugars and fatty acids [6].

It has similar mechanical properties to those of

polypropylene. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are accumulated as a carbon and/or

energy storage material (Fig. 1) in various microorganisms. There are 150 different
hydroxyalkanoic acid monomers have been identified as building blocks for PHAs [6,7].
PHA subunits can be broadly subdivided into short-chain length (3-5 carbon atoms; scl)
or medium-chain length (6-14 carbon atoms; mcl) monomers, with most as 3-hydroxysubstituted fatty acids [8].

Figure 2.1: The general structure of PHAs and its representatives[6]

2.2.1

PHA Demand

Global demand on bioplastic is increase annually. However, Until now the cost
difference between synthetic plastics and PHAs has been the main obstacle for its
replacement in market (/ kg for PHAs vs. /kg for synthetic plastics)[11]. Hence, there
is a potential for widening the market for PHAs, provided that their cost decreases

Table 2.3:World bioplastics demand (thousand metric tons)[9]

Country\year
North America
Western Europe
Asia/Pasific
Other Regions
Global demand

2005
34
60
33
3
130

2010
80
125
83
12
300

2015
242
347
320
115
1025

Figure 2.2: Global bioplastic packaging market by product types, 2010[10]

2.2.2

Conversion Technology

According to W.S. Lee et al.(2015), the yield of PHA from volatile fatty acids
(VFA) of fermented POME is 59%. It was found that the composition of PHA is 77% of
P(3HB) and 22% of P(3HV).

While the yield of VFA from fermented POME is

summarized in Figure 2.3. According to M.A.K.M. Zahari et al (2014), P(3HB) can be

yield as high as 40% from renewable sugars as shown in Figure 2.4.

Figure 2.3: Various products in bioprocesses using POME as substrates[12]

Figure 2.4: Overall mass balance for the production of renewable sugars from oil palm
frond (OPF) from 10 palm oil mills[13]

REFERENCE
[1] production of bioethanol from oil palm empty fruit bunch
[2] Bioethanol Kevin A Gray1, Lishan Zhao1 and Mark Emptage2
[3] Optimization of saccharafication and fermentation eka triwahyuni
[4]Biofuel annual kuala lumpur
[5] http://www.slideshare.net/greenpoolcommodities/global-ethanol-outlook
[6] Turning waste to wealth-biodegradable plastics polyhydroxyalkanoates from
palm oil mill effluent e a Malaysian perspective
[7] Steinbchel, A., 2001. Perspectives for biotechnological production and utilization
of biopolymers: metabolic engineering of polyhydroxyalkanoate biosynthesis
pathways as a successful example. Macromol. Biosci. 1, 1e24.
[8] Madison, L.L., Huisman, G.W., 1999. Metabolic engineering of poly (3hydroalkanoates): from DNA to plastic. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 63, 21e53.
www.metabolix.com Metabolix-Bio-industrial evolution
[9]http://www.greenerpackage.com/bioplastics/world_demand_bioplastics_exceed_1_mi
llion_tons_2015
[10] http://www.smitherspira.com/news/2010/december/bioplastic-packaging-drivers-to2020
[11] Biby, G.D., 2002. Degradable plastics. http://www.icma.com/info/polymers.htm
[12] Microbial Biopolymerization Production from Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME)
Zaini Ujang, Salmiati and Mohd Razman Salim
[13] Case study for a palm biomass biorefinery utilizing renewable
non-food sugars from oil palm frond for the production of
poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) bioplastic
[14](Asma et al, 2010)
[15]MPOB
[16]Abdullah et al 2015