Wendy Pei Qin Ng

Overview on economics and technology development of rubber seed utilisation in Southeast Asia

AbstractThis paper overviewed the potential of rubber seed biomass for its various applications and processing technologies. The rubber seed availability and supply are studied and focused on Southeast Asia region. Technologies with rubber seed and rubber seed oil processing are reviewed. Challenges over rubber seed utilisation, e.g. rubber seed biomass availability, labour issue, etc., are raised and discussed. Future developments of rubber seed utilisation, in term of its management trends and supply solutions, are proposed. Rubber seed is gaining attractions for its vast practical applications, as a result of the expansion of rubber industry.

A Process Integration Approach for Supply Chain Development

Abstract: This chapter extends the application of the Process Integration (PI) approach to supply chains, especially developing further the analogy between Pinch Analysis and the field of operational research. The first part of this chapter introduces supply chains and supply chain performance measurement. In the following parts, the chapter provides clear insight into how the PI concept brings a significant contribution to the development of supply chain design. This novel approach, Pinch Analysis for the supply chain, will be presented. After an overview of the approach, case studies are outlined for purposes of demonstration.

Waste to energy for small cities: Economics versus carbon footprint

The main activities in Waste to Energy processing include waste generation, collection, separation, transportation, conversion, energy distribution, and ultimate waste disposal. Waste to Energy carries a trade-off between energy generation and the energy spent on collection, transport and treatment. Major performance indicators are cost, Waste Energy Potential Utilisation, and Carbon Footprint. This presentation analyses the potential of small cities to substitute part of their fossil fuels use by energy derived from Municipal Solid Waste. Several factors are considered in the study. The impact of waste logistics and the losses from energy distribution systems – natural gas pipeline and electricity grid are the most significant ones on the side of the supply chain. Further, the waste processing part, including the energy recovery from the waste involves the evaluation of a number of technologies linked with each other to form a distributed integrated processing system. In this study, the options for converting waste into thermal energy include (a) biogas digestion and burning and (b) waste incineration with off-gas cleaning. It is also possible to use the biogas in advanced cogeneration systems based on engines or fuel cells. The proposed procedure takes all these options into account and derives the optimal processing configuration from the waste generation to energy supply and residual waste deposition to landfill.

Sustainable supply network design through optimisation with clustering technique integration

Network complexity between elements in large data sets reduces the group’s feasibility for single element analysis in regards to time and cost. Clustering of elements into several minor groups allows the display of clearer group’s development and introduction of simpler yet centralised industrial management. The clustering of engineering facilities, particularly, allows the analysis of industrial business development and network links among the engineering facilities in the cluster. In this work, a demonstrating case study on biomass utilisation is developed for optimised supply network design. The facilities are grouped into clusters for industrial management based on their material interactions. The material supply and process network is optimised economically and its environmental emission is taken into consideration. The processing facilities are interacted through industrial symbiosis approach. The flexibility of the model is improved with the model’s capacity to allocate external interruption (e.g., potential investments). This work incorporates the economic, environmental and social aspects in the industrial supply network design.

Biomass corridor synthesis for Malaysia green energy supply chain

The urban cities of Malaysia are enclosed by greenery, mainly oil palm plantation which it covers 4.98 Mha of the land area of the country. Due to the huge volume of oil palm availability, palm biomass appears to be one of the key concerns to the country. Space and technologies are needed to allocate the resulting palm biomass, which its volume is directly proportional to the amount of palm fresh fruit bunches (FFB) being processed. Due to the characteristics of biomass being low density, porous and low calorific value, the biomass may be integrated with other source of useful material, say waste industrial oil, to boost up its efficiency for incineration while symbiotically tackling the waste oil disposal difficulty. The Malaysian government has set a target on the biomass generated renewable energy. However, the realisation of the energy target is challenging. The crop aging and promotion of replanting policy by the government may reduce the availability of biomass, which threatens the accomplishment of the energy target. The adapted biomass with higher energy value may be able to tackle the mentioned threat, enhancing the energy security of the country. In this work, a biomass energy supply plan is proposed and a simplified supply network design is presented.

Process Heat Exchanger Network Integration and Decomposition via Clustering Approach

Abstract This paper presents a novel method for process heat exchanger network integration and decomposition: Clustering Approach. The objective of this new approach is to reduce the complexity of the integrated structure, construction and maintenance cost simultaneously. The main idea of this approach is to divide the original system into two or more clusters (subsystems) under several optimisation constrains such as piping and other investment cost, hot and cold stream matches. The results of utilities and investment cost for both original and clustered system are compared. The outcome of this study indicates effectiveness, potential and further application of the novel method.

Green potential from palm biomass in Malaysia

a Centre of Excellence for Green Technologies, University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus, Jalan Broga 43500 Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia; tel: +603 8924 8716; fax: +603 8924 8017 b Malaysian Palm Oil Council, 2 nd Floor, Wisma Sawit, Lot 6, SS 6, Jalan Perbandaran, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. c Centre for Lipids Engineering Applied Research, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai 81310 Johor, Malaysia. d Global Green Synergy Sdn Bhd, Wisma Zelan, Suite 01.12B, 1 st Floor, No 1, Jalan Tasik Permaisuri 2, Bandar Tun Razak, Cheras, 56000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. HonLoong.Lam@nottingham.edu.my

Novel Computer-Aided Approach for Biomass Operational Management

Abstract Operational management study becomes the critical chain point between the green technology and biomass industrial commercialization. The scope included the biomass value maximization, technology selection, supply chain management and decision making. This paper presents the latest development of biomass operation management by using the novel computer-aided approaches such as: Biomass Demand-Resources Value targeting Method, Biomass Characteristic Index Approach and 2-Stage Biomass Supply Chain Synthesis.