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Waste into Value: Unlocking Hidden Profitability and Sustainability in Palm Oil Processing
You have built extensive experience in separation technology and the palm oil industry. Could you tell us about your professional journey and your role as Managing Director of Flottweg Thailand?
My career has been driven by one goal—helping industries create more value from every process. For more than two decades, I have worked in process technology and water treatment, helping industrial customers optimise operations through advanced separation solutions. Working closely with the palm oil industry has shown me that the greatest opportunities often lie in creating more value from existing processes rather than simply increasing production.
Building Flottweg Thailand has been about creating strong local capability and long-term customer partnerships. We established a dedicated local sales and service organisation to provide responsive technical support and practical process solutions throughout the lifecycle of our customers' operations. Today, Flottweg supports customers in Thailand through a local subsidiary backed by Flottweg's more than 30 years of application experience in the regional palm oil sector and over 70 years of global separation technology leadership.
My role is to help customers make better use of the resources they already have. Today's challenge is no longer simply increasing production. It is about reducing losses, strengthening plant performance and generating greater value from every tonne processed.
I believe the future of the industry will be defined by how effectively we turn operational challenges into opportunities. Mills that embrace innovation, continuously optimise their operations and invest with a long-term perspective will be best positioned to succeed in an increasingly competitive market.
Climate change and changing agricultural conditions have made fresh fruit bunch supply increasingly unpredictable. How can palm oil mills adapt their operations and cost structures to remain profitable during periods of fluctuating supply?
When fresh fruit bunch (FFB) supply becomes less predictable, every tonne processed must deliver greater value. Profitability can no longer depend solely on processing higher volumes. Mills should focus on maximising oil recovery and reducing processing losses, allowing them to extract more value from every tonne of FFB, regardless of supply fluctuations.
Improving process efficiency is the most sustainable way to strengthen cost competitiveness. Rather than relying solely on cost-cutting measures, mills should optimise energy use, water consumption and resource utilisation across the production process. These improvements reduce operating costs while supporting consistent production performance.
Resilient mills are designed to perform under changing conditions, not ideal ones. Climate variability, including El Niño-related heat and drought, has been shown to reduce oil palm productivity across Southeast Asia. As feedstock quality and availability become more variable, mills need flexible processes that can consistently maintain efficiency under changing operating conditions.
The industry's future will belong to mills that create more value, not simply process more fruit. As margins tighten and sustainability expectations continue to rise, long-term competitiveness will depend on how efficiently every available resource is utilised. Improving resource recovery and process performance is becoming just as important as expanding production capacity.
Many palm oil mills prioritise expanding production capacity, while significant amounts of recoverable oil may still be lost through wastewater and processing inefficiencies. Should mills place greater emphasis on improving extraction efficiency before investing in further capacity?
Before expanding capacity, mills should first maximise the value of every tonne they already process. Improving oil recovery often delivers faster and more cost-effective returns than increasing throughput, as it extracts more value from the same volume of fresh fruit bunches (FFB).
Oil lost through wastewater should be viewed as recoverable value, not an unavoidable loss. Recovering residual oil from palm oil mill effluent (POME) not only improves profitability but also reduces the organic load entering downstream wastewater treatment.
Better extraction efficiency strengthens both business performance and sustainability. Recovering more oil from the same harvested crop improves resource efficiency, reduces waste and supports more sustainable palm oil production without increasing feedstock demand.
Capacity expansion should build on an efficient process, not compensate for an inefficient one. My advice is always to optimise the existing process first. Once recovery and operational efficiency are maximised, further investment in capacity is more likely to deliver sustainable long-term returns.
Even a relatively small improvement in oil recovery can have a significant financial impact. Based on your experience, what level of additional recovery is realistically achievable, and what could this mean for the annual revenue and return on investment of a typical palm oil mill?
Every mill is different, so the opportunity should be assessed based on actual process performance rather than a standard benchmark. The recovery potential depends on factors such as feedstock quality, existing oil extraction rate (OER), process configuration and where losses occur. That is why we always start by identifying where recoverable oil is leaving the process before estimating the business impact.
Even small improvements in oil recovery can translate into meaningful financial gains because the raw material has already been processed. Every additional tonne of oil recovered becomes incremental revenue without increasing FFB input. This is why improving recovery often delivers an attractive return compared with investments that rely solely on increasing production capacity.
In practice, successful recovery projects deliver more than additional oil, they improve the overall economics of the mill. Better separation reduces product losses while improving process stability and making better use of existing assets. The long-term value comes from improving the efficiency of the entire operation, not simply increasing production.
The best return on investment is measured by sustainable operational improvement, not a single recovery figure. Our objective is to help mills achieve consistent performance year after year. When higher recovery is combined with stable operation, lower losses and improved resource utilisation, the financial benefits become both measurable and sustainable.
For readers who may not be familiar with separation technology, could you explain how the Flottweg Tricanter® works and why it is able to recover oil that conventional gravity settling systems leave behind?
The challenge is not separating oil from water; it is recovering the fine oil that conventional systems cannot efficiently capture. In palm oil processing, a portion of the oil remains emulsified or attached to fine solids, making it difficult for gravity settling alone to recover. This is where advanced mechanical separation becomes particularly effective.
The Tricanter® applies centrifugal force to separate oil, water and solids continuously in a single process. Unlike traditional gravity settling or standard two-phase separation, the Flottweg Tricanter features an adjustable impeller that can be tuned dynamically during operation. This compensates for fluctuating feed-stock qualities to cleanly extract pure oil, a clarified liquid phase, and dry solids simultaneously, enabling finer oil droplets to be recovered more efficiently while maintaining continuous operation.
By removing more oil before wastewater treatment, mills can reduce product losses, lower the oil content entering downstream treatment and make better use of existing resources.
Ultimately, the technology should be judged by the value it creates for the mill. For mill operators, success is measured by recovering more saleable oil, reducing losses and operating more efficiently. The Tricanter® is designed to help achieve those outcomes consistently, making it a practical investment in both profitability and sustainability.
How can improved oil recovery and more resource-efficient processing support Thailand’s Bio-Circular-Green Economy Model? Can these improvements also strengthen the international competitiveness of Thailand’s palm oil industry?
Thailand's greatest opportunity is not simply producing more palm oil but creating more value from every tonne processed. That is the principle behind the Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) Economy Model. By recovering more oil, reducing losses and making better use of by-products, mills can increase productivity without expanding cultivation or consuming more raw materials.
Better oil recovery strengthens both business resilience and environmental performance. Every tonne of oil recovered from existing process streams generates additional revenue while reducing waste. This helps mills improve profitability and aligns with growing expectations for more responsible and sustainable production.
Greater efficiency will also strengthen Thailand's position in an increasingly competitive global market. Thailand is the world's third-largest producer of crude palm oil, after Indonesia and Malaysia. As buyers place greater emphasis on operational efficiency and sustainable production, mills that maximise recovery and minimise losses will be better positioned to compete internationally.
The future of Thailand's palm oil industry will be shaped by how efficiently it converts resources into value. Technology alone is not the answer. The real opportunity lies in combining engineering, operational expertise and continuous improvement to help mills produce more value from existing resources. That is how Thailand can strengthen both industry resilience and long-term competitiveness.
Looking ahead, what advice would you give palm oil mill owners who are planning their next investment, and what technologies do you believe will have the greatest impact on the palm oil industry over the next five to ten years?
My advice is to invest in technologies that create measurable business value, not simply increase production capacity. The most successful mills will be those that maximise the performance of their existing assets before expanding. Every investment should deliver tangible improvements in productivity, operating costs, product recovery or process reliability.
The next generation of palm oil mills will be increasingly data-driven. Digital monitoring, automation and real-time process analytics will enable operators to make faster, better-informed decisions, improve process consistency and respond more effectively to changing operating conditions. These capabilities will become increasingly important as the industry evolves.
The greatest opportunities will come from making existing operations smarter, not simply bigger. Future investments should prioritise stronger process control, automation, and continuous optimisation to maximize existing asset efficiency. As margins tighten, mills that consistently reduce losses and enhance plant performance will be better positioned to compete.
Ultimately, the industry's leaders will not necessarily be the mills that process the most fruit—they will be the ones that create the greatest value from every tonne they process. I believe the future of palm oil will be shaped by continuous innovation, stronger engineering capabilities and smarter operational decisions. Technology will continue to evolve, but the real differentiator will always be how effectively people use it to build more productive, resilient and competitive businesses.
