Smokeless Oil Palm Frond Briquettes: Can Plantation Residues Provide Cleaner Fuel? – Analysis

October 21, 2026

By Rizky Putra Pratama


Key Takeaways:

Nearly 2.1 billion people still rely on solid fuels for cooking, exposing them to dangerous household air pollution and driving global forest depletion.

Oil palm fronds, often left to decompose in plantations, present an underutilized, massive biomass resource that can be converted into carbon-rich briquettes.

While carbonized briquettes offer a cleaner, high-energy alternative to traditional charcoal, their viability depends entirely on controlled production, verified emissions testing, and responsible harvesting limits that preserve soil health.

The Paradox Behind Kitchen Smoke

The aroma of grilled satay, roasted fish and freshly roasted corn is deeply embedded in culinary traditions across Southeast Asia and much of the Global South. Yet, behind these familiar meals lies a serious public health problem: the smoke generated by polluting cooking fuels. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 2.1 billion people worldwide still rely on highly polluting solid fuels, including firewood, charcoal and agricultural residues. In 2021 alone, household air pollution was linked to an estimated 2.9 million premature deaths globally.

The health risks stem largely from the pollutants released during combustion. Fine particulate matter, particularly PM2.5, can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, increasing the risk of chronic respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular disease and severe asthma. The incomplete combustion of traditional fuels also releases carbon monoxide (CO), a colorless and toxic gas that binds to hemoglobin and reduces the blood’s ability to transport oxygen. These dangers make the transition to cleaner cooking fuels an urgent public health priority, particularly in developing regions where low-income households, rural communities and small-scale food vendors continue to depend on readily available biomass fuels.

The environmental consequences extend beyond household health. Traditional charcoal production can contribute to deforestation when trees are harvested faster than forests can regenerate. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s The State of the World’s Forests 2024 highlights the continuing pressures that woodfuel consumption places on forest resources. Against this backdrop, briquettes manufactured from agricultural waste offer a potential alternative to conventional wood-based charcoal. By turning agricultural residues into usable fuel, these briquettes could help reduce dependence on harvested wood while providing a productive use for materials that might otherwise be discarded.

Oil Palm Fronds: An Underused Biomass Resource

To appreciate the scale of this opportunity, consider the volume of agricultural biomass generated across Indonesia’s extensive oil palm plantations. During routine harvesting of fresh fruit bunches (FFB), plantation workers prune palm fronds, producing a substantial amount of plant residue. Agronomic estimates indicate that a mature oil palm produces approximately 20 to 24 pruned fronds annually. At a typical commercial planting density of 136 to 143 trees per hectare, this amounts to roughly 2,700 to 3,400 fronds per hectare each year. Across Indonesia’s millions of hectares of oil palm plantations, the cumulative volume represents a significant and largely underutilized biomass resource.

Traditionally, plantation managers leave these fronds between rows to decompose naturally. A 2022 review published in Environmental Science: Advances explains the agronomic benefits of this practice. Decomposing fronds serve as organic mulch, helping retain soil moisture, reducing topsoil erosion and gradually returning essential nutrients to the soil. Their presence therefore supports important ecological functions that must be considered before any large-scale biomass recovery initiative is introduced.

However, leaving all pruned fronds to decay also presents potential challenges. Their tough, lignocellulosic structure slows decomposition, allowing accumulated plant material to persist in humid tropical conditions. These residues can also provide breeding sites for the rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes rhinoceros), a major pest capable of damaging young oil palms and reducing plantation productivity.

A more balanced approach would involve selective biomass recovery rather than the wholesale removal of plantation residues. Plantation managers could retain sufficient fronds to maintain soil protection and nutrient cycling while collecting surplus material for localized energy production. With appropriate management, this strategy could create additional economic value from agricultural waste while helping address potential pest risks. The central challenge is to establish a sustainable balance between the productive use of biomass and the ecological functions it performs within the plantation.

The Lignocellulosic Advantage: Why Fronds and Why Briquettes?

In Indonesia’s established biomass market, palm kernel shells (PKS) and empty fruit bunches (EFB) already serve important commercial purposes. Palm kernel shells are widely valued as solid fuel for biomass power plants, while EFB is commonly used for mulching and co-firing at palm oil mills. Pruned oil palm fronds, by comparison, remain a largely underutilized resource with considerable potential for further development.

The chemical composition of oil palm fronds, particularly their cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin content, makes them suitable candidates for thermal conversion into solid fuel. The quality of the resulting product depends partly on how these structural components respond to controlled heating. Recent studies on the torrefaction of oil palm fronds at temperatures ranging from 200 to 300 degrees Celsius have found that this process can reduce oxygen content and produce a more carbon-rich solid fuel with improved energy characteristics.


Producing carbonized briquettes also offers a potentially accessible pathway for decentralized bioenergy development. Unlike lignocellulosic bioethanol production, which requires processes such as biomass pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation and product separation, briquette manufacturing can rely on comparatively straightforward mechanical operations, although carbonization still requires appropriate equipment and process controls.

This relative simplicity could create opportunities for rural farmer cooperatives, village enterprises and local entrepreneurs to establish small-scale bioenergy operations near oil palm plantations. Locating production facilities close to the source of the raw material could help reduce transportation requirements while creating new economic opportunities from agricultural residues. With suitable technical support, quality standards and access to markets, oil palm fronds could become a more valuable resource within Indonesia’s rural energy economy.

The Smoke Reduction Mechanism and Production Chain

Compressing biomass into uniform briquettes does not automatically make it a clean-burning fuel. Smoke from raw wood and low-quality charcoal is largely associated with the release of volatile compounds during heating, while excessive moisture can lower combustion temperatures and contribute to incomplete combustion and smoldering.

Properly carbonized oil palm frond briquettes can reduce visible smoke, but their performance depends on several factors, including carbonization conditions, binder composition and stove design. During ignition, residual moisture and volatile compounds released from the fuel and its binder may still produce visible emissions. As combustion progresses, a stable, glowing carbon-rich fuel may burn with substantially less visible smoke under suitable conditions. However, reduced visible smoke should not be confused with zero emissions; actual performance must be assessed through appropriate testing of particulate matter, carbon monoxide and other combustion products.

A practical, localized production chain typically follows five sequential stages:Chopping and Initial Drying: Fresh fronds are cut and dried to reduce moisture, targeting below 15 percent for optimal processing.

Controlled Carbonization: 

The dried material is heated in an oxygen-limited reactor to create a carbon-rich char, requiring strict monitoring of temperature and emission controls for released gases.
Grinding and Sieving: The char is ground into a uniform powder, typically around a 50 to 60 mesh size depending on the pressing equipment.
Binder Formulation: The powder is blended with a plant-based binder, such as 5 to 10 percent gelatinized tapioca starch, to ensure structural integrity.
Mechanical Pressing and Final Drying: The mixture is compressed using mechanical or hydraulic presses and dried to a controlled final moisture content before durability and emissions testing.

From Plantation to Stove: Who Benefits the Most?

Standardized, high-density briquettes could improve the operational efficiency of small businesses that depend on heat for their daily activities. For street-food vendors, satay sellers and traditional restaurants, fuel consistency is particularly important. Unlike irregular pieces of conventional charcoal, properly manufactured briquettes can offer more uniform dimensions, predictable burning characteristics and consistent heat distribution. These qualities could help vendors manage fuel consumption, control operating costs and maintain more stable cooking conditions.


Commercial poultry farming presents another potential market. Young chicks require reliable heat, particularly overnight, to maintain suitable temperatures during their early development. Some farmers rely on conventional solid fuels for heating, potentially exposing poultry and farm workers to carbon monoxide and particulate matter when combustion occurs under poorly ventilated conditions. If oil palm frond briquettes can demonstrate stable overnight heat output and lower harmful emissions under controlled testing, they could offer an alternative for rural poultry operations while supporting improved animal welfare.

Other rural industries, including traditional tofu production, kerupuk frying and brickmaking, may also benefit from access to alternative solid fuels. For these enterprises, fuel expenditure can represent a significant component of daily operating costs. However, the commercial viability of oil palm frond briquettes will ultimately depend on their ability to compete with existing energy sources. Key considerations include the cost of collecting and transporting feedstock, the efficiency of carbonization equipment, the proximity of production facilities to customers, and the final selling price relative to conventional charcoal and other available fuels.

The transition will therefore require more than the technical ability to manufacture briquettes. Producers must demonstrate consistent fuel quality, reliable heat output and competitive pricing, while ensuring that production processes meet appropriate environmental and safety standards. Establishing these conditions will be essential if oil palm frond briquettes are to move beyond a promising biomass innovation and become a commercially sustainable energy option for Indonesia’s rural enterprises.
How Sustainable Are Oil Palm Frond Briquettes?

The ultimate sustainability of this alternative fuel must be judged by its holistic impact on ecosystems, public health, and local economies. The long-term viability of oil palm frond briquettes rests on three practical tests:Verified Environmental and Health Performance: Direct testing must establish that these briquettes genuinely reduce CO and PM2.5 emissions compared to the wood or coal they replace, especially in poorly ventilated spaces.
Economic Competitiveness: Cost assessments must accurately reflect collection, transport, carbonization, and equipment maintenance. The economics will heavily depend on the logistical distance between plantations and end-users.
Responsible Biomass Harvesting: Diverting biomass for energy cannot come at the expense of soil health. Research at a large oil palm plantation in Jambi, Indonesia, confirmed higher soil organic carbon, nitrogen, and microbial biomass in areas where fronds were stacked. Plantation managers must establish strict collection limits to preserve these ecological functions.

With rigorous testing, sound economic planning, and responsible plantation management, oil palm frond briquettes could become a vital pillar of a more circular biomass economy.



About Rizky Putra Pratama
Rizky Putra Pratama is an Indonesian researcher and chemical engineering scholar at the Indonesian Palm Oil Technology Institute (ITSI), funded under the national SDM Sawit initiative. His work centers on biomass valorization, thermochemical conversion, and scalable waste-to-energy pathways within tropical agricultural systems. Alongside his technical research, he serves in the editorial division of the student press organization LPM SIGMA, frequently writing on the intersection of plantation resource economics, air quality engineering, and circular bioeconomy transition in Southeast Asia.
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