The global demand for palm oil has been increasing during the past two decades. As a result, there has been an expansion of oil palm plantations and palm oil production, in particular in South East Asia. This contributes to a number of environmental problems. In this study, we focus on non-CO₂ greenhouse gas emissions from palm oil production in Thailand, the third largest palm oil producing country in the world. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is typically emitted during fuel combustion in production processes. In addition, methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) are emitted during palm oil production. We quantified current and future emissions of CH₄ and N₂O based on future projections for palm oil production in Thailand. Our analysis distinguishes between emissions from oil palm plantations and palm oil processing mills. Our study shows that nitrogen fertilizers are the main source of N₂O emissions, while CH₄ is emitted mainly from inappropriate management of empty fruit bunches and wastewater management. We also analysed the effect of possible options to reduce emissions of CH₄ and N₂O, illustrating the potential for emission reduction in the future.

在过去的二十年中，全球对棕榈油的需求一直在增长。结果，油棕种植园和棕榈油生产有所增加，特别是在东南亚。这导致许多环境问题。在这项研究中，我们重点研究泰国（世界第三大棕榈油生产国）的棕榈油生产中产生的非CO ₂温室气体排放。在生产过程中的燃料燃烧过程中通常会排放二氧化碳（CO ₂）。此外，在棕榈油生产过程中还会排放出甲烷（CH ₄）和一氧化二氮（N ₂ O）。我们量化了CH ₄和N _2的当前和未来排放O基于泰国棕榈油产量的未来预测。我们的分析区分了油棕种植园和棕榈油加工厂的排放量。我们的研究表明，氮肥是N ₂ O排放的主要来源，而CH ₄的排放主要来自对空果串的不当管理和废水管理。我们还分析了减少CH ₄和N ₂ O排放的可能选择的效果，从而说明了未来减排的潜力。