ASSESSING THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF SMALL-SCALE CRUDE PALM OIL PRODUCTION IN GHANA: A LIFE-CYCLE PERSPECTIVE

Palm oil is the most important edible oil in West African countries and, specifically, Ghana ranks 13th in the world and third in West Africa in terms of production quantity. Crude palm oil (CPO) is obtained from the fresh fruits of oil palms using various techniques depending on the degree of mechanisation and processing. Depending on performance and complexity, the scale of operations can be classified as traditional, small, medium or large mills. In most small-scale mills, the only mechanised operations observed are the digestion of the boiled fruits and the pressing of the digested fruits to extract the final oil. In Ghana, the palm oil processing industry is dominated by informal small-scale mills that produce about 80% of the national palm oil production. The production of 1 t of CPO by a small-scale mill requires 16 t of fresh fruit bunches (FFB). On average, the processing of 1 t FFB into palm oil in small-scale mills generates 0.3 t of empty fruit bunches (EFB) and 0.09 m3 of mill effluent (POME) among the main residues. The generation of these residues causes a significant environmental load, in particular greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In particular, in small-scale mills in Ghana, there is no end-of-life control or management of POME production co-products and GHG emissions, which do not yet meet the standards of environmental regulations. In this context, this study aims to quantify the specific environmental impacts of small-scale CPO production by applying a life-cycle approach and evaluating different end-of-life solutions for waste scenarios to ensure better environmental compliance.