Overview of Palm Oil Mill Industry in Sabah
Sabah is one of the states formed Malaysia which is located in the north of Borneo Island. The land size of Sabah is 74,000 km2, most of which is covered by tropical forest and received high rainfall with an average of 3,000 mm annually. In the past, before the 1980s, the economy of Sabah relied on timber.
From the mid of the 1980s up to today, Sabah has transformed into the largest palm oil producer in Malaysia and the 3rd largest in the world. 2016 statistic shows that about 1.55 million hectares of land in Sabah has been planted with oil palm. The total oil plant planted in Malaysia was 5.74 million hectares. The reason for the fast-growing of Sabah's palm oil plantation compared to the other states in Malaysia is due to the abundant land space and fertile soil.
A total count of 126 palm oil mill is registered in Sabah alone as of 2015. The total production of crude palm oil produced is about 5.5 million metric tonnes per year. The production capacity usually ranged from 30 – 120 tonnes of fresh fruit bunch (FFB) per hour, where a conventional palm oil mill here runs at a capacity of 40 – 60 tonnes of fresh fruit bunch per hour.
However, the most significant factor is the slightly higher percentage of oil extract from the fruit bunch compared to that planted in West Malaysia. As a consequence of its large production scale, the palm oil industry has also been identified as the largest contributor to Malaysia's pollution load, by discharging a large volume POME into the environment. The large production of palm oil has exposed Sabah to high generation of wastewater which is produced during the extraction of crude palm oil from fruit bunches.
Due to its large generation and without proper treatment and management, wastewater produced from palm oil industry has been reflected as the most polluting industry in Sabah. This has led to many news reports and has increased public concern. Consequently, the government authority responsible to maintain environmental quality, the Department of Environment (DoE) has decided to make the standard discharge limit more stringent, changing it from Standard B to Standard A. Despite the change of discharge limit, minimal improvement has been seen in wastewater discharge from palm oil mills. One of the possible reason is the conventional wastewater treatment is unable to respond correctly due to the inconsistent weather condition in Sabah, especially during heavy rainfall season, a large volume of wastewater and very high BOD.
The conventional and currently utilized a ponding system to treat wastewater derived from palm oil mill can be considered as an outdated technology as other new technologies are readily available. However, most palm oil mill is reluctant in adopting new technologies mostly due to the high capital cost involved for the installation of new technology and low maintenance cost of the existing technology.
Recently, the palm oil industry has shown a positive development where some of the palm oil industries have started to venture into new technologies such as biofuel production from biomass and wastewater. This technology is attractive not only because it is able to reduce solid waste production and wastewater discharge, but it is also able to reduce operational cost and generate extra income for the company. The biofuel and biogas can be utilized in power generation, eliminating the need for diesel purchase.
If this positive trend proceeds, effluents from palm oil mill will no longer be categorized as wastewater, but rather a source of income for the mills. Therefore new technologies such as microalgae bioremediation and biofuel production as well as membrane utilization are beneficial to the palm oil industry. This will allow the industry to lower operational cost as it will be paid off through the production of by-products in the form of biofuel.