The economic potentials of Malaysian oil palm empty fruit bunch are realized by several motivating factors such as abundance, cheapness and are generally feasible to produce multi-products that range from energy, chemicals and materials. Amid continuing supports from the government in terms of policies, strategies and funding, manufacturing planning and decision to utilize this biomass resource requires a decision-support tool. In this regard, biomass supply chain modeling serves as the supportive tool and can provide economic indications for guided future investments. Sequential steps in modeling and optimization of the supply chain that utilized empty fruit bunch were shown. In a form of superstructure, the supply chain consisted processing stages for converting the biomass into intermediates and products, transportation networks that used truck, train or pipeline, and the options for product's direct sales or for further refinements. The developed optimization model has considered biomass cost, production costs, transportation costs, and emission treatment costs from transportation and production activities in order to determine the annual profit. By taking a case study of Peninsula Malaysia, optimal value showed a profit of $ 713,642,269/y could be achieved which has assumed a single ownership for all of the facilities in the supply chain. Besides, the tabulated values of yields and emission levels could provide comparative analysis between the processing routes. Sensitivity analysis was then performed to perturb the approximated parameters or data that have been used in this study. KeywordsEmpty fruit bunch (EFB); palm oil industry; biomass supply chain optimization; superstructure; bioproducts. Highlights• Malaysia is to value the potentials of oil palm's biomass-based industries.• EFB has obvious advantages and could be utilized for manufacturing products.

The demanding uses of fossil fuels and their associated environmental footprints are driving researches into renewable energy productions from organic resources and waste. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is an environment-friendly and cost-effective method to produce biogas from biomass. This biogas can be used in power generation, heating systems and in a combined heat and power (CHP) system. Nevertheless, biogas produced from AD contains a big fraction of CO2 and less methane purity. Aspen Plus simulation model was developed for the AD process to produce biogas, highlighting the economical potentials and environmental benefits. Four steps of AD including hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and methanogenesis with eight reactions were simulated based on the respective stoichiometries. Optimization has involved the search to identify optimum feed flow rate and operating pressure to produce the maximum amount of pure methane. The obtained results showed that optimum feed rate was 0.36 l/day and operating pressure of 3 bar with hydrogen flow of 180 l/day. By using these optimum conditions, maximum amount of methane with high purity was achieved. Otherwise, through biomass natural decomposition, the methane would escape to the atmosphere as one of those significant greenhouse gases.

In Malaysia, palm oil industries have played significant roles in the economic sectors and the nation’s developments. One aspect of these industries that is gaining growing interest is oil palm residue management and bio-based product generations. EFB has been identified to be a feasible raw material for the production of bio-energy, bio-chemicals, and bio-materials. In this paper, our previous deterministic mathematical programming model was extended to include decisions for selecting optimal transportation modes and processes at each level of the processing stage in the supply chain. The superstructure of alternatives was extended to show states of produced products whether solid, liquid, or gaseous, and for which truck, train, barge, or pipeline would be possible modes of transportation. The objective function was to maximize profit which accounts for associated costs including the emission treatment costs from production and transportation. The optimal profit was USD 1,561,106,613 per year for single ownership of all facilities in the supply chain.

Biomass-based pyrolysis is a thermo-chemical conversion of biomass feedstock with low oxygen supplied level to produce bio-char, bio-oil and bio-syngas products via slow, intermediate and fast pyrolysis, respectively. The specific yields from pyrolysis process depend on operating conditions to maximize outputs. Bio-char can be used as soil improvement, animal feed supplements, filter material, carbon storage, and energy source. This study has focused on the development a simulation model for slow pyrolysis process utilizing biomass from oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) in Aspen Plus software. The facts that EFBs are abundant in Malaysia and have huge feedstock potentials could be realized, among them, through process design dan analysis in the Aspen Plus. Simulation model was developed based on EFB proximate and ultimate analyses and aimed for optimal product fraction yields and for the elemental composition of the pyrolysis products, considering several factors or effects such as pyrolysis temparature, pressure and inert gas flowrate. Simulation results showed the optimal value of bio-char yield was 68.6 wt. % at 9 bars, 300 °C, and 0.1 kg/min of inert gas flow rate. Eventhough the developed simulation model was an equilibrium-based one, it is useful especially in determining the optimal values of the key effects for the slow pyrolysis process.