Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) Pellet Plant — Equipment Installation Complete, Palm Oil Mill Site in Malaysia

Installation of a 5 t/h EFB (empty fruit bunch) pellet production line has been completed at a palm oil mill site in Malaysia’s Johor state, with the equipment now positioned and connected, ahead of commissioning scheduled for the coming weeks.

EFB is the fibrous residue left after palm fruit bunches have been stripped of their fruit during oil extraction — palm oil mills generate enormous volumes of this material, and on-site disposal (often composting or incineration) has increasingly given way to pelletizing as a way to create a sellable biomass fuel product, turning a disposal cost into a revenue stream.

EFB arrives extremely wet — often 60-65% moisture straight from the mill — and has a long, stringy fiber structure that needs significant pre-processing before it can be ground and pelletized. The line includes an EFB shredder (a heavy-duty unit designed to handle the tough fiber bundles), a hammer mill for further size reduction, a high-capacity dryer (sized larger relative to throughput than most biomass lines, given the starting moisture content), ring die pellet mill, and cooler.

Finished pellet target is 8mm, intended for sale to industrial users for boiler fuel — there’s established regional demand for EFB pellets, including from cement plants and other palm oil mills that may supplement their own fiber waste fuel supply during periods of EFB shortage (similar to the bamboo pellet situation mentioned in a separate Indonesian project).

A notable aspect of this installation: because the palm oil mill operates continuously and EFB is generated as a constant byproduct stream, the buyer requested the pellet line’s receiving and storage capacity be sized to handle at least 18 hours of EFB accumulation in case the pellet line itself needs downtime for maintenance — without that buffer, EFB would simply pile up faster than it could be processed during any stoppage.

Commissioning is expected to begin within the next two to three weeks, once the mill’s own EFB handling conveyors (which connect to RICHI’s receiving system) complete their final integration testing.