Life cycle assessment to evaluate the green house gas emission from oil palm bio-oil based power plant

The objective of this study is to assess the green house gas (GHG) emission for the production of bio-oil from oil palm biomass and its utilization for 10 MW power generation by evaluating the life cycle carbon footprint analysis. The life cycle GHG emission assessment includes four main stages, which cover the oil-palm cultivation, palm oil mill operation, biomass transportation and pyrolysis process for the production of bio-oil and its utilization for 10MW power generation. The results obtained suggest that the palm bio-oil has potential as a carbon neutral renewable energy source in the future. More importantly, it has no negative impact on the environment as the amount of CO2 emitted to the atmosphere during combustion of this fuel is lower than that of the CO2 absorbed from the atmosphere during cultivation stage.