Enhancing sustainability in palm oil industry: reinforcement learning for renewable energy management considered climatic variability

Abstract

Energy sources are critical in the industrial sector, particularly as population growth intensifies the pressure on industries to scale up production to meet increasing demands. Integrating renewable energy sources such as biomass, biogas, and photovoltaic systems in the palm oil production process can be considered a pivotal strategy for mitigating carbon emissions. However, load fluctuations due to mill size and insufficient supply of biogas and photovoltaic are significant challenges in energy management for the palm oil industry. Adopting renewable energy solutions is hindered by process disturbances and climatic variability caused by weather, ambient temperature, relative humidity, and solar radiation. These factors pose constraints on the implementation of renewable energy solutions. Therefore, this study aims to fill the gap in terms of renewable energy management within the palm oil industry by applying reinforcement learning to achieve effective energy management and reduce carbon emissions under five climatic scenarios. The result shows that reinforcement learning effectively combines renewable energy sources to generate electricity and steam while efficiently managing energy storage without exceeding predefined levels. Additionally, deploying a photovoltaic system contributes to energy savings from biomass and biogas of 2.9% and reduces average daily carbon dioxide emissions by 3137 kg. The proposed method has proved beneficial across all climate scenarios for energy savings and emission reduction.