Assessing water footprint for the oil palm supply chain- a cradle to gate study

Vijaya Subramaniam, Zulkifli Hashim, Soh Kheang Loh and Abdul Aziz Astimar

Agricultural Water Management, 2020, vol. 237, issue C

Abstract: Water footprint (WFP) has gained importance due to the increase of water scarcity in the world. This paper analyses the WFP the oil palm supply chain (cradle to gate) which produces oil palm fresh fruit bunch (FFB), crude palm oil, palm kernel and crude palm kernel oil. The water accounting and vulnerability evaluation (WAVE) method was used. This method analyses the water depletion index (WDI) based on the local blue water scarcity. The main contribution towards the WFP at the plantation was the production of FFB from the crop. At the mill the burden shifts to the water added during the process which consists of the boiler and process water. There was a 33 % reduction in the WFP when there was no dilution or water addition after the screw press at the mill. When weight allocation was performed the WFP reduced by 42 % as the burden was shared with the palm kernel and palm kernel shell. At the kernel crushing plant (KCP), the main contributor towards the WFP came from the palm kernel which carried the burden from upstream followed by electricity used for the process and transportation of the palm kernel. Two sensitivity analysis was carried out, first for mills with biogas capture versus no biogas capture and the WFP had no difference for both scenarios. Second was comparison between weight, economic and energy allocation Weight and economic allocation gave a 42% and 38% reduction respectively while energy allocation gave a 60% reduction to crude palm oil. The comparison when the KCPs operate in the proximity of mills as compared to those operating in the proximity of ports only gave a reduction of 6 % for the WFP. The milling stage had the most significant impact on the WFP. Mills should avoid dilution to reduce this impact.

Keywords: Life cycle assessment; water footprint; crude palm oil; crude palm kernel oil; WAVE method (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:237:y:2020:i:c:s037837741931128x

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106184

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