Carbon emission reduction targeting through process integration and fuel switching with mathematical modeling

Carbon emission reduction targeting is an important and effective effort for industry to contribute in controlling greenhouse gases concentration in atmosphere. Graphical approach has been proposed for CO2 emissions reduction targeting via HEN retrofit and fuel switching. However, it involves potentially time consuming manual procedures and the quality of solutions produced greatly depends on designer's experience and judgment. Besides, graphical approach hardly account for the cost factor during the design phase, thus potentially generate complex design. This paper introduces an MINLP model for simultaneous CO2 emissions reduction targeting via fuel switching and HEN retrofit. A sequential model execution was proposed along with the proposed model. The application of the model on a crude preheat train case study has demonstrated its workability to generate optimal solution for targeted CO2 emissions reduction at minimum payback period

Development of a framework for greenhouse gas emissions accounting for industry reporting

Advancement in technology has helped to increase the quality of human lives in many aspects such as transportation, manufacturing, and communication. At the same time, they also contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) to the atmosphere be it the production phase, distribution phase, end-user phase, or the waste management phase. It has been found that these GHG emissions is the dominant cause of climate change. This makes it important for organisations from all industries to record their GHG emissions to be able to monitor their GHG emissions and plan mitigation actions. There is presently a lack of comprehensive framework for organisations to use as guidance in their GHG accounting and reporting. This paper incorporates an integrated carbon accounting and mitigation (INCAM) with GHG Protocol standards and MYCarbon (National Corporate GHG Reporting Programme for Malaysia) GHG Reporting Guidelines. This method breaks down a process into several subdivisions as is done in INCAM and then the sources of emissions are divided into scopes according to the GHG Protocol. This method guides industries on the steps of carrying out a GHG emissions inventory and enables them to use their activity data to produce the organisation's total emissions. The total emissions will be broken down based on indicator, source, and scope. This would enable the industries to identify the highest contributor of emissions either by indicator or source, and to identify which scope their emissions fall under. The carbon emissions profile and carbon emissions index can be used to identify and analyse the organisation's emissions performance

Spatial biomass resource planning framework for co-firing under carbon policy scheme

Effective spatial planning is crucial for the cost-effectiveness and sustainable development of biomass energy resources due to the diffuse nature of biomass and high transportation cost. To leverage the existing capitals of the fossil fuels energy systems, portions of biomass can be integrated as fuel within the existing energy facilities through co-firing technology. Although biomass co-firing operates at a low retrofitting cost environment, this does not eliminate all the associated cost required in supplying the biomass to the power generation facilities. This paper presented the development of a spatial biomass resource planning framework which integrates several modelling tools such as Geographical Information System (GIS), Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) to investigate the level of carbon prices needed to support co-firing implementation in Malaysia in 2020. The results have been showing that carbon price range of 3 - 12 USD/t can be imposed by Malaysia in order to achieve the future national renewable and environmental targets while reducing the coal-based industrial emissions of up to 19.75 %

Melaka state climate action plan 2020 - 2030

Executive Summary The Melaka State Climate Action Plan (MSCAP) 2020 – 2030 is a state- and communitywide action plan which was based on the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) inventory data as of year 2015. It was co-developed by the team of expert from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, the officers in Melaka GreenTech and the stakeholders in Melaka state which can be a basis for Melaka Climate Governance. Six main sectors were identified from the Melaka Climate Resolution 2019, Melaka Climate Action Plan Stakeholder Workshop. The six are Public & Stakeholder Engagement, Climate Governance, Energy, Transport, Waste, Ecosystem & Biodiversity. The development of detail GHG emission sources helps agencies to determine the major sources of carbon emissions, identify the strategies for mitigation and adaptation in order to reduce these emissions and improve the overall resilience of the city. MSCAP was developed as a guide for structured and continuous action to translate the Melaka State GHG Inventory Report. It was developed to strategize the Melaka contribution towards the Nation voluntary commitment on CO2 reduction by identifying emissions from various sectors and activities in Melaka. Community- and sector-wise GHG inventory reveals the characters of carbon emitters and helps in assigning the responsibility for further climate mitigation and adaptation action. As of year 2030, Malaysia national target for carbon emission reduction is 45% and the Melaka State GHG emissions reductions target set up for 45 % or equivalent to 5,703 MT CO2e. Per capita GHG emission for Melaka State was recorded 5.09 tCO2e in 2015 based on 872,900 population. In line with the trends of energy demand, the major contributors to GHG emissions are industrial energy use with 1,590 MT CO2e (35.77 %), on-road transportation with 1,115 MT CO2e (25.09 %) and commercial / institutional buildings and facilities with 733 MT CO2e (16.49 %). Climate resolution for Melaka State (2020 – 2030) is a result of the Melaka Climate Stakeholder LONG TERM 45% reduction or 5,703 MT CO2e by Year 2030 MEDIUM TERM 30% reduction or 2,663 MT CO2e by Year 2025 SORT TERM 20% reduction or 1,252 MT CO2e by Year 203

Computational and experimental investigations on tailor-made biofuel blend properties

In regards to sustainability and environmental reasons, biomass based biofuel has emerged as promising candidates amongst other alternative vehicular fuel options. Feedstock selection contributes to diverse biofuel blend components. Through computational product design, potential candidates can be generated and screened from a large pool of fuel blends. Computational approaches minimize the search region and assist focused experimental work as conventional experimental methods are exhaustive and time consuming. Fuel blend properties need to conform with fuel regulation standards in order to be accepted as a vehicular fuel option. This paper compares computationally generated tailor-made biofuel blend properties with experimental methods. Results show notable errors for prediction of kinematic viscosity and distillation temperature of tailor-made biofuel blends associated with property models implemented in model formulation. Nonetheless, predicted and experimentally tested tailor-made biofuel blend properties complied with EN590 fuel regulation standard

Holistic approach for design of minimum water networks using the Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) technique

Minimum fresh water consumption and wastewater generation in a facility can be achieved when all options for water minimization including source elimination, reduction, reuse/recycle, outsourcing, and regeneration have been considered. This work presents the development of a new generic mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model to holistically minimize fresh water consumption and wastewater generation for systems involving multiple contaminants where the various options for water minimization are simultaneously considered in order to ultimately generate a minimum water utilization network. The MILP model proposed in this work can be used to simultaneously generate the minimum water targets and design the minimum water network for global water-using operations for buildings and industry. This work also includes cases where fresh water concentrations for all contaminants are assumed to be either zero or non-zero. The approach has been successfully implemented in case studies involving an urban building (Sultan Ismail Mosque, UTM) and a manufacturing plant (a chlor-alkali plant)

Techno-economic assessment of integrated power plant with methanation

Greenhouse gaseous (GHG) emissions increment is driven by economic and population growth which are getting higher. This has led to the increase of atmospheric concentration of CO 2. Due to this situation, carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) seems to be promising approach to reduce emission of CO 2. Among all the carbon utilisation strategies available, methanation is promising. In the perspective of integrated power plant with methanation, the process is appropriate and relatively simpler due to availability of hydrogen as its main constituent. Prior to the goal of abatement of greenhouse gases emission, hydrogen production by using renewable energy technology which is electrolysis seems to be one of the solution towards future energy security. This study performed a techno economic assessment of integrated power plant with methanation with a case study in Iskandar Malaysia. From the economic assessment results, highest profit is generated when PEM is used in electrolysis process and CIS is used as solar panel due to its high efficiency and low capital expenditure (CAPEX). This cost competitiveness can be enhanced selling O 2 by product produced from electrolysis process and recycling the catalyst for methanation process. Further studies can be extended by including variation of parameter for a better optimisation superstructure

Superstructure-based synthesis and optimization of oil palm eco-industrial town: case study in Iskandar Malaysia

Malaysia is one of the world’s top edible oil producers, having more than 5.23 million hectares of palm oil plantations and more than 400 palm oil mills. The oil palm industry produces millions of tonnes of biomass waste during harvesting and mill processing. This paper presents an oil palm eco-industrial town (EIT) that integrates a palm oil mill with nine downstream oil palm-based industries, as well as a community. The downstream industries produce various types of products such as crude palm oil, bio-fertiliser, bio-gas, bio-diesel, bio-pellet, medium-density fibreboard (MDF), and are also involved in the paper industry, and livestock production. Through the concept of industry symbiosis, the oil palm EIT promotes energy and material sharing among the industries and the community to reduce energy consumption, virgin material consumption, and waste generation. Therefore, this concept could provide economic and environmental benefits to upstream industries (utilisation of biomass), downstream industries (conversion of biomass to valuable products), and the community (job creation). In this work, a multi-objective linear programming model is formulated to maximise economic performance, while minimising waste generation in the oil palm EIT. The applicability of the model is demonstrated using a case study in Iskandar Malaysia (IM). The optimised model suggests that the most efficient way to utilise abundant oil palm biomass is via the production of crude palm oil, MDF, bio-paper, paper, bio-gas, and bio-diesel. The model could assist decision makers to identify the sub-industries in the EIT that would promote sustainability in the oil palm industry

Ultimate and proximate analysis of Malaysia pineapple biomass from MD2 cultivar for biofuel application

MD2 pineapple is a highly demanded hybrid pineapple other than Josephine and Sarawak. The decomposition process of the pineapple biomass by burning may contribute towards carbon emission and increase the greenhouse effect. To address these negative impact, this biomass can be used as a raw material for the alternative solid biofuel to coal and substitute coal for the application in heavy industry or domestic use. The aim of this study is to investigate the characteristic of the MD2 pineapple biomass for their use as a feedstock for biofuel and energy production. The ultimate analysis was carried out by using CHNS Elemental Analyser, where the proximate analysis was identified by the thermo-gravimetric (TGA) analysis under dynamic condition. The results of the conducted study were compared with other biomass reported in the past literature. The ultimate analysis of the MD2 pineapple (i.e. 43.43 wt% C, 6.69 wt% H for leaf and 41.09 wt% C, 6.705 wt% H for stem) appears to correlate with the ultimate analysis range of the other biomass which is used as a raw material of the solid biofuel. The thermo-gravimetric analysis showed that each single part of the MD2 pineapple had pyrolysis and combustion characteristic based on its own main pseudo-components (hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin). The characteristics of the MD2 pineapple had ensured the potential of biomass as raw materials for alternative solid biofuel

Optimal planning of renewable energy-integrated electricity generation schemes with CO2 reduction target

This paper presents a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model that was developed for the optimalplanning of electricitygenerationschemes for a nation to meet a specified CO2 emission target. The model was developed and implemented in General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) for the fleet of electricitygeneration in Peninsular Malaysia. In order to reduce the CO2 emissions by 50% from current CO2 emission level, the optimizer selected a scheme which includes Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC), Natural Gas Combined Cycle (NGCC), nuclear and biomass from landfill gas and palm oil residues. It was predicted that Malaysia has potential to generate up to nine percent of electricity from renewableenergy (RE) based on the available sources of RE in Malaysia