Sie Ting Tan

Potential Biogas Generation from Food Waste Through Anaerobic Digestion in Peninsular Malaysia

Malaysia’s rising energy demand and increasing generation of municipal solid waste (MSW) has made a linkage to the implementation of Waste to Energy (WtE) strategy. On the supply side, waste segregation at source was first implemented in Malaysia during September 2015, where the organic food waste is separated from other waste. Food waste is a potential feedstock for biogas generation. However, there is lacks of study to identify its potential. Even on the demand side, where biogas is utilized as one of the renewable energy sources, the palm oil mill effluent (POME) is given more attention as feedstock when compared to the other organic waste, for instance, food waste. This is obvious when biogas facilities are constructed in palm oil mills to utilize biogas generated instead of other places like landfill sites. This paper aims to identify the potential ofbiogas generation from food. It is concluded that approximately 60 Mm3 of CH4, which is equivalent to 16.3MW electricity can be produced yearly based on food waste generated on year 2010. The amount is calculated based on Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Cange (IPCC) methane gas emission from biological treatment equation. A revenue of approximately 42 M MYR is estimated by selling the electricity through Feed- in-Tariff (FiT) scheme. The opportunities and challenges of such implementation is discussed following the finding.

Carbon emission pinch analysis for sustainable landfill

Renewable energy, energy efficiency and carbon capture and sequestration, are among several initiatives to reduce global carbon emission as an effort to mitigate global warming. Apart from reducing carbon footprint, another alternative to combat global warming is through effective solid waste management for landfill. While landfill is the most common solid waste treatment options in most parts of the worlds, however in densely populated area, as land availability may be scarce, careful planning and targeting is therefore required to reduce the landfilling rate. It is envisaged that an effective solid waste management strategy can reduce the amount of waste channeled to landfill. Since different waste management technologies requires different size of land area and have different carbon emission reduction impact, question that are often asked in correspond to this aspect includes; What is the suitable waste management technology that should be practiced to reduce the carbon footprint? How much land footprint is reduced? What are the carbon emission intensity of a landfill and how much it may contribute to global warming? In order to answer these questions, a new targeting technique based on carbon emission pinch analysis is developed. This technique aims to identify the optimal landfill waste management technologies based on specify carbon emission reduction target. It can also target the footprint of landfill area through graphical representation.

Successful biogas implementation a mini-review on biogas utilization, energy policies and economic incentives

Biogas is considered as a renewable energy resource and its demand is increasing due to environmental concern and energy security. However, in some countries where they rely heavily on the non-renewable fossil fuels as energy source, government subsidies and dropping oil prices have made biogas a less favourable option to the market. This paper reviews successful biogas implementation as a source of energy with effective government policy support. It is concluded that integrated planning and effective policy enforcement among the government departments are the major factor to the success. The government departments included those that have direct influence on the supply and demand chain of biogas. For example, the energy department, transport department, agricultural department, waste management department, science and technology department and finance department. Economic incentives are one of the policy tools that is frequently used. Besides, strategic collaborations and strong network between the like-minded countries is also the driving factor to the success.

SMART: An Integrated Planning and Decision Support Tool for Solid Waste Management

Solid waste management (SWM) system combined waste streams, waste collection, treatment and disposal methods are critically important to a regional, to achieve environmental economic and societal benefits. Decision-makers often have to rely on optimization models to examine a cost effective, environmentally sound waste management alternative. This paper presents a new systematic framework for long term effective planning and scheduling of SWM. This framework has been converted into software called Solid Waste Management Resource Recovery Tool (SMART). SMART is a first-of-a-kind SWM tool to facilitate the tradeoffs analysis between technical, economical, and environmental at national, regional, state, province, or community level. This simple tool is useful for decision makers for the selection of MSW technology including incineration, landfill, composting and recycling are while minimising the costs and meet CO2 reductions target. The developed tool was applied in Iskandar Malaysia as a case study.