Agricultural residues continue to attract interest for energy recovery purposes as a renewable, CO2 neutral and increasingly cost competitive alternative to traditional fossil fuels. The possibility of trigeneration in already established industries such palm oil mills and coconut processing plants is very attractive especially when residues that otherwise represent a disposal problem can be utilized efficiently.

The use of these residues in rural areas or in small islands could certainly represent an advantage as the use of expensive fossil fuels represents an additional burden to foster development. Different technical scenarios for the production of electricity, process heat and biodiesel are analyzed using these residues Environmental aspects are also included in this analysis.

Studies were done considering certain scenarios to evaluate the feasibility of using these residues for energy purposes. Residues were considered to be combusted directly in boilers and steam turbines were used as prime movers to generate electricity. Biodiesel is produced by transesterification of palm oil/coconut oil. The required process heat for palm oil or coconut oil processing is supplied by the residues as well as the steam required for biodiesel production.  The advantage is that biodiesel is a more flexible and easy-to-distribute fuel that can be used for power generation or for transportation. The results shown that palm oil mills/coconut processing industries can be independent of fossil fuels.  Furthermore, they can contribute positively to the energy balance of the communities by helping reduce the dependence on fossil fuels and reducing at the same time greenhouse gas emissions.