Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques 2020, Volume 8, Issue 3, Pages: 1163-1167 J. Environ. Treat. Tech. ISSN: 2309-1185 Journal web link: http://www.jett.dormaj.com Estimating Water Footprint of Palm Oil Production: Case Study in Malaysia 1, 2 1, 2* 1, 3 Noor Salehan Mohammad Sabli , Zainura Zainon Noor , Kasturi Devi Kanniah , Siti Nurhayati Kamaruddin 1 1 Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Water Security (IPASA), Research Institute of Sustainable Environment (RISE), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Takzim, Malaysia 2 School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia 3 Department of Geoinformation, Faculty of Geoinformation & Real Estate, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia Received: 06/02/2020 Accepted: 19/07/2020 Published: 20/09/2020 Abstract Malaysia is currently facing some issues in fulfilling the high demand in palm oil production, which inevitably led to a rapid expansion of palm oil industry in Malaysia. Therefore, water-related problems have become a major concern in environmental and social issues associated to palm oil industries. Inevitably, it is very important that the water consumption in this sector be analysed. Water footprint is one of the methods that can be used as a tool for sustaining appropriate freshwater resources. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate water footprint at palm oil mill from fresh fruit bunches to the production of crude palm oil. Water footprint revealed that the main potential impacts within the system boundary are dominated by water usage at the process through producing crude palm oil and wastewater effluent. At this stage, the total water input mainly comes from the nearest water resources such as rivers and lakes. In one operating day, the mill can produce wastewater of 3.81 m3/tonne of CPO. This amount is equivalent to 0.74 m3/tonne of average production rate of POME for each t of FFB process. At the end of this paper, strategies to optimise the use of water in palm oil mills are presented. Keywords: Agricultural Industry, Water degradation, Water footprint, ISO 14046, Sustainable Palm Oil Plantation Introduction 1 vision for a sustainable development in which food and 1 agriculture, people’s livelihood and the management of natural resources are addressed as one (7). Following this trend, all stakeholders including companies should ensure that the palm oil industry is sustainably structured to enter global market. Malaysia, one of the members of Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), is regularly associated with some sustainability issues including carbon emissions, deforestation, biodiversity loss, habitat fragmentation, reduction of freshwater and soil quality. Freshwater reduction and pollution have become some of the major problems related to oil palm industries. To evaluate and connect the performance of an oil palm industries under the outlook of three sustainability pillars In Malaysia, oil palm plantation area production has markedly increased from 5.23 million ha in 2013 to 5.85 million ha in 2018 (1). Currently, after Indonesia, Malaysia is the second largest oil palm producer in the world with an oil palm planted area of 5.85 million ha. As one of the main contributors to the economic growth, annual high export of this industry was RM 77.85 billion in 2017, which has increased from RM 67.92 billion in 2016 (2). Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is cultivated in humid tropical regions in the world such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand Columbia and Nigeria (3). This plant requires 100 mm of precipitation monthly or annual rainfall of 2000 mm and is able to tolerate drought period no longer than three months (4, (economic, social and environmental pillar), quantitative 5). Moreover, palm oil is semi-solid and can stand high indicators have been proposed as a suitable and effective mean. Among the indicators concerning the assessment of environmental impacts, water footprint describes the impacts of a system or product on water resources from quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The water footprint (WF) is a useful indicator to report on total water consumption, water scarcity level and reduction achieved after implementing response strategies. Hoekstra et al. (2011) introduced this concept, which was implemented through Water footprint Assessment (WFA). WFA is divided into three sub-indicators of WF: temperature (6). Overcoming the obstacles faced by the world, FAO has made the sustainability of food production as 2030 Agenda’s Coresponding author: Zainura Zainon Noor, (1) Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Water Security (IPASA), Research Institute of Sustainable Environment (RISE), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Takzim, Malaysia. (2) School of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia. E-mail: zainurazn@utm.my • Green WF - water from rainwater is stored in the root zone and used by plants through evaporation, transpiration and 1163 Journal of Environmental Treatment Techniques 2020, Volume 8, Issue 3, Pages: 1163-1167 incorporation in the biomass. consumption in each step of palm oil mill. It was analysed using water balance approach by (12). In estimating this data, material bl b (13) l dF i di i i l • Blue WF - irrigation water uptake by plants. G WF ff h i d i il h