Sustainable bio-economy that delivers the environment-food-energy-water nexus objectives::the current status in Malaysia

Biomass is a promising resource in Malaysia for energy, fuels, and high value-added products. However, regards to biomass value chains, the numerous restrictions and challenges related to the economic and environmental features must be considered. The major concerns regarding the enlargement of biomass plantation is that it requires large amounts of land and environmental resources such as water and soil that arises the danger of creating severe damages to the ecosystem (e.g. deforestation, water pollution, soil depletion etc.). Regarded concerns can be diminished when all aspects associated with palm biomass conversion and utilization linked with environment, food, energy and water (EFEW) nexus to meet the standard requirement and to consider the potential impact on the nexus as a whole. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the detail interactions between all the components in the nexus once intended to look for the best solution to exploit the great potential of biomass. This paper offers an overview regarding the present potential biomass availability for energy production, technology readiness, feasibility study on the techno-economic analyses of the biomass utilization and the impact of this nexus on value chains. The agro-biomass resources potential and land suitability for different crops has been overviewed using satellite imageries and the outcomes of the nexus interactions should be incorporated in developmental policies on biomass. The paper finally discussed an insight of digitization of the agriculture industry as future strategy to modernize agriculture in Malaysia. Hence, this paper provides holistic overview of biomass competitiveness for sustainable bio-economy in Malaysia

Sustainable bio-economy that delivers the environment-food-energy-water nexus objectives: the current status in Malaysia

Biomass is a promising resource in Malaysia for energy, fuels, and high value-added products. However, regards to biomass value chains, the numerous restrictions and challenges related to the economic and environmental features must be considered. The major concerns regarding the enlargement of biomass plantation is that it requires large amounts of land and environmental resources such as water and soil that arises the danger of creating severe damages to the ecosystem (e.g. deforestation, water pollution, soil depletion etc.). Regarded concerns can be diminished when all aspects associated with palm biomass conversion and utilization linked with environment, food, energy and water (EFEW) nexus to meet the standard requirement and to consider the potential impact on the nexus as a whole. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the detail interactions between all the components in the nexus once intended to look for the best solution to exploit the great potential of biomass. This paper offers an overview regarding the present potential biomass availability for energy production, technology readiness, feasibility study on the techno-economic analyses of the biomass utilization and the impact of this nexus on value chains. The agro-biomass resources potential and land suitability for different crops has been overviewed using satellite imageries and the outcomes of the nexus interactions should be incorporated in developmental policies on biomass. The paper finally discussed an insight of digitization of the agriculture industry as future strategy to modernize agriculture in Malaysia. Hence, this paper provides holistic overview of biomass competitiveness for sustainable bio-economy in Malaysia

Renewable, local electricity generation from palm oil mill residues : a case study from Peninsular Malaysia.

The potential for generating renewable electricity from palm oil mill residues (POMR) has received policy support from the Malaysian Government for almost two decades. However, uptake of the technology is still relatively low. A significant issue dominating the discussion for many years is how to translate the renewable electricity generation potential from POMR into actual implementation. The research seeks to understand the opportunities and barriers for the use of POMR for a Renewable Electricity System (POMR-RES) in Peninsular Malaysia by assessing the technical, techno-economic and environmental feasibility of generating renewable electricity from palm oil mill residues focusing mainly on empty fruit bunches (EFB) and biogas. A combination of mathematical analysis and simulation using Aspen PlusTM software was employed to assess the technical feasibility of the system. Techno-economic analysis was combined with Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to integrate the environmental impact perspective into the POMR-RES evaluation. The results show that EFB has better technical and techno-economic performance than the biogas. Furthermore, the on-site POMR-RES with an installed capacity of 5.70 MW or greater is technically feasible, economically viable and environmentally favourable. The electricity generated from a POMR-RES of this scale is sufficient to meet a mill’s operational electricity demand, the parasitic load of the POMR-RES and provide surplus electricity to the national grid. An economically feasible size POMR-RES are expected to provide: 1. a 20% return on investment (ROI) with five to seven-year payback period (PP). 2. a positive net present value (NPV) with break-even point (BEP) of five to seven-year. The electricity generated in POMR-RES emits 95% less GHG emissions compared with current Malaysian electricity grid average when the emission from LUC is excluded from the electricity generation process. Thirty-five mills in Peninsular Malaysia were identified as having sufficient EFB supply to operate at or above this economically feasible size with the total accumulated generation capacity of 200 MW. This accumulated capacity would account for 25% of the 2020 target for palm oil biomass under National Renewable Energy Policy and Action Plan. This research provides a positive case for generating local, renewable electricity from EFB that can be used as evidence and practical recommendations for various actors such as prospective investors, analysts, stakeholders, mill owners and policymakers and government agencies such as the Sustainable Energy Development Authority Malaysia (SEDA) for efficient and sustainable utilization of POMR. This study also makes a positive contribution towards achieving the national renewable energy target for additional renewable power supplies and as a contribution towards improved global sustainability

Role of bioenergy, biorefinery and bioeconomy in sustainable development: strategic pathways for Malaysia

Malaysia has a plethora of biomass that can be utilized in a sustainable manner to produce bio-products for circular green economy. At the 15th Conference of Parties in Copenhagen, Malaysia stated to voluntarily reduce its emissions intensity of gross domestic product by upto 40% by 2020 from 2005 level. Natural resources e.g. forestry and agricultural resources will attribute in achieving these goals. This paper investigates optimum bio-based systems, such as bioenergy and biorefinery, and their prospects in sustainable development in Malaysia, while analyzing comparable cases globally. Palm oil industry will continue to play a major role in deriving products and contributing to gross national income in Malaysia. Based on the current processing capacity, one tonne of crude palm oil (CPO) production is associated with nine tonnes of biomass generation. Local businesses tend to focus on products with low-risk that enjoy subsidies, e.g. Feed-in-Tariff, such as bioenergy, biogas, etc. CPO biomass is utilized to produce biogas, pellets, dried long fibre and bio-fertilizer and recycle water. It is envisaged that co-production of bio-based products, food and pharmaceutical ingredients, fine, specialty and platform chemicals, polymers, alongside biofuel and bioenergy from biomass is possible to achieve overall sustainability by the replacement of fossil resources. Inception of process integration gives prominent innovative biorefinery configurations, an example demonstrated recently, via extraction of recyclable, metal, high value chemical (levulinic acid), fuel, electricity and bio-fertilizer from municipal solid waste or urban waste. Levulinic acid yield by only 5. wt% of waste feedstock gives 1.5 fold increase in profitability and eliminates the need for subsidies such as gate fees paid by local authority to waste processor. Unsustainable practices include consumable food wastage, end-of-pipe cleaning and linear economy that must be replaced by sustainable production and consumption, source segregation and process integration, and product longevity and circular economy