**2. Utilization of palm oil empty fruit bunch**

The main content of this following section deals with the utilization of palm oil empty fruit bunch as renewable energy. However, this section will provide an important information about palm oil and its plantation as well as a brief discussion about its utilization for nonenergetic purposes prior to go deeply in more detail of its utilization for energetic purposes.

### **2.1 Oil palm plantation**

There are two families of oil palm, *Elaeis guineensis* which is native to western Africa and *Elaeis oleifera* whose origin is in tropical Central America and South America. The palm family which is widely cultivated in Thailand is Elaeis guineensis. It was first introduced to Thailand in 1968 (Prasertsan & Sajjakulnukit, 2006). Nowadays, the plantation of palm oil in Thailand is continuously increased because Thai government announced the policy of producing palm oil based biodiesel as renewable energy, as already mention in Table 3. The Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE, 2010) reported the oil palm plantation area in 2009 was accounted for 3,165,000 Rai (1 Rai = 1,600 m2) which increased by 56 % from the last five years and the target of 10 million Rai should be achieved by 2029 (Yangdee, n.d.). The oil palm production is increased by 64 % from 5,003,000 ton in 2005 to 8,223,000 ton in 2009. More than 90 % of palm oil plantation area in Thailand is located in Southern part of Thailand, especially in Chumporn, Surat Thani and Krabi.

Elaeis guineensis is vertical trunk and the feathery nature of leaves. There are 20-40 new leaves, called "frond" developed each year. The fruit bunches develop between trunk and base of the new fronds. Typically the first commercial crop can be harvested after 5-6 years of plantation and can provide fresh fruits for 25-30 years (Perez, 1997). The weight of compact fruit can varies from 10 to 40 kilograms. Each fruit is sphere in shape, dark purple, almost black before it ripens and turns to orange-red when ripe (Katamanee, 2006). Figure 5 illustrates oil palm tree and fresh fruit bunch.
