Bio-ethanol as an alternative fuel from palm empty fruit bunches and environmental benefits

Energy demand and environmental impact are the main driving force for alternative energy sources. Indonesia and Malaysia are the most developing ASEAN countries where the palm oil is one of the most revenue earning sectors. Oil palm plantation not only produces crude palm oil (CPO) but also a huge amount of biomass residues such as palm oil EFB, palm oil shells and fibres. Palm Empty fruit bunches (EFB) is an attractive lingo-cellulosic biomass that can be used to produce bio-ethanol or electricity/heat by using chemical or thermo-chemical conversion processes respectively. It is possible to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels and reduce environmental pollution. The bio-ethanol can easily be derived from lingo-cellulosic biomass by chemical conversion. It is estimated that possible to produce 1.7 billion gallons of ethanol by using palm oil EFB that was produce from Indonesia and Malaysia in the year 2013, and about 2 billion gallons all over the world from palm oil EFB in the same year.