LCA applied to palm oil

The Purpose is to assess environmental impact of Malaysian palm oil and palm oil at United Plantations Berhad and to identify and assess improvement options : capturing and utilisation of methane from oil mill effluent, utilisation of biomass (EFB) for electricity generation and mineral soils versus peat soils. The modelling of the study is consequential : actual affected/marginal suppliers included and allocation is avoided by system expansion. There is a good data availability, for the plantation: fertiliser, pesticides, fuels, yield profiles, capital goods (United Plantations Berhad); for the oil mill & refinery: energy balance, stack emissions, methane measurements, capital goods (United Plantations Berhad); for the emissions: parameterised model based on nutrient balances, and emission factors: mainly IPCC methodology reports. The used method : LCIA-method Stepwise v1.1 (www.lca-net.com).