Zarina Ab Muis

Grid-connected distributed energy generation system planning and scheduling

ABSTRACTConservation of fossil fuel energy, energy management (peak shaving), energy economic and pollution of energy sector has been among the recent topics of discussion. This paper examines possibilities of achieving the said topics through an integrated energy system also known as distributed energy system (DES) consisting of renewable energy and energy storage devices. With aim to minimise system cost while abiding to carbon footprint reduction target and pollutant emissions limit, a mixed integer linear programming model is developed for optimisation and planning of a DES. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, in planning to become an eco-campus, is taken as a case study for this research work. The model reveals that with a target of 40% carbon footprint reduction and 30 tonne of total nitrogen oxides emissions (in a year), an annual cost of 5,687,000

Optimal low carbon cement production cost via co-processing and carbon capture and storage

/y is required, achieving a reduction of 17.3%.

Sustainability framework for palm oil mill

Cement production is recorded to have released about 5 % of current global man-made CO2 emissions. They came from the burning of fossil fuel in kiln, electricity usage from grinding of raw and finished materials, and from the calcination of main raw material; limestone to produce clinker. This paper objective is to find the best minimized solution of cement production cost while reducing CO2 emission and without compromising the quality of cement product. This is achieved by developing mathematical optimisation model that will be executed using General Algebraic Modelling System (GAMS). Some of data used in this research will be costs to install the technologies, costs of raw materials and fuels, properties of raw materials, CO2 emission improvements from CO2 reduction technologies and others. CO2 reduction technologies for cement industry considered in this study are co-firing (co-process) and carbon capture and storage. This paper also discusses the best combination of energy efficient technologies to meet the CO2 reduction target and product specification.

Centralised sewage treatment plant assisted by geographic information system for electricity generation

Palm oil mill has been regarded as a profit making industry for the past decades. Besides revenue from the palm oil production itself, the abundance of biomass could generate high economic return to the palm oils mill by converting it to value added products. However, the palm oil industry currently suffered various criticisms and negative reports from the international non-government organisations on the sustainability issue. This paper presents the development and the applicability of sustainability index (SI) for palm oil mill in order to enhance the competitiveness of the industry. The methodology will include the index development and identify area of weaknesses (hotspot). The index will be able to identify performance of the mills in sustainable aspect against benchmarks and differentiate every mills performance. By this, the mills can easily identify its hotspot and take necessary steps to improve. The system will also benefit the marketing team to market its products (CPO, PKO etc.) to niche markets that seek uptake from mills with lowest footprints (Carbon, water, energy etc.). The results can be used not only to evaluate the performance of an operating process against standard benchmarking but also to establish the best sustainable practices among palm oil industry. It is anticipated that the development of sustainable index will be an important instrument for supporting sustainable operation for palm oil mill.

Technical & economic evaluation of district cooling system as low carbon alternative in Kuala Lumpur City

Municipal wastewater or sewage management is crucial as it is one of the major contributors for greenhouse gas (GHG). The biogas yield from biological treatment in sewage treatment plant (STP) contains about 60 % methane. Existing plant in Malaysia are lacking in capturing this by-product. There is a great potential for capturing biogas and combust it to harness energy. Centralised sewage treatment plant (CSTP) is suggested as long term solution for the increasing number of population and environment concern. Optimum location is an important criterion in building new CSTP in order to keep up with rapid development. The main objective of this study is to develop multi-period planning of centralised sewage treatment plant (CSTP) for electricity generation in Iskandar Malaysia. It can be divided into 5 stages; data gathering, problem formulation and superstructure construction, mathematical modelling, General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) coding and result analysis. In this study, GIS is used as preliminary step to generate and prepare data for mathematical model. It should plot the sources, substation and new location of CSTP. The software provides the distance between sources of sewage and new plant plus. The plant is able to produce 8 GWh/y of electricity. The model is capable of proposing location of new centralised sewage treatment plant, technology selection and its capacity.

Cost Benefit Analysis of Composting and Anaerobic Digestion in a Community: a Review

Kuala Lumpur (KL) city which has started its initiatives to become one of the low carbon cities in Malaysia, has the potential of implementing District Cooling System (DCS) in its existing energy system. Nowadays, most office buildings in Malaysia are utilising the conventional air-conditioning at each individual premise for space cooling purpose. In the development into a low carbon city, DCS could replace the conventional air-conditioners as it is more energy-efficient and subsequently reduces carbon emission to the environment. This study aims to compare and evaluate on four different cooling systems that are suitable to be implemented in KL city. A case study is created where a cooling load of 250,000 kWh/month of five office buildings in the same vicinity in KL city is to be met. Three parameters are studied to evaluate the cooling systems, namely energy consumption, costing and carbon emission, on a yearly basis. The result shows that centralised DCS is expensive in term of its initial investment and operational costs compared to individual air-conditioner. However, the type of energy source in DCS is an important factor to determine the total energy consumption and carbon emission of the cooling system. DCS that combines biogas-fired steam boiler and absorption chiller is the best option to be implemented. The system can generate own electricity to be used on-site, while the use of biogas effectively can achieve a carbon-neutral electricity production.

Overview of Carbon Reduction, Capture, Utilization and Storage: Development of New Framework

Currently, population and urbanisation are rapidly growing which causes a tremendous amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) being generated. The MSW management in Malaysia can be considered relatively poor and disorganised. The most preferred MSW disposal method in Malaysia is through landfilling. To address this and to respond to increasing global environmental concerns, composting and anaerobic digestion have been hailed as an environmentally and economically friendly alternative besides landfilling. By capturing the organic materials from MSW and putting it to a more beneficial use as feedstock for composting and anaerobic digestion sounds very ideal. Focusing on the waste landfilling prevention for a small community, this paper discusses on whether composting or anaerobic digestion might be a feasible alternative to landfilling. Both solutions differ in various aspects. The purpose of this study is to know whether composting or anaerobic digestion is more beneficial by performing cost benefit analysis on both situations. In this study we estimated the cost benefit analysis of three different scenarios. First scenario is the baseline for the current practice of solid waste management where the wastes are dumped to landfill. Second scenario is the installation of composting plant and the third scenario will be estimated on the installation of anaerobic digester.

Sustainable multi-period electricity planning for Iskandar Malaysia

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the provisional technologies to mitigate the rise of greenhouse gases emission which comes from carbon dioxide (CO2) emission. The growth and development of CCS technology leads to existence of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies due to immature technologies of CO2 storage. Criticality of carbon reduction attracts researchers to study the efficiency of implementing CCS and CCUS latest technologies with economic and environmental goals. This paper discusses the overview of the technologies and the work done by researchers on strategies of implementation of CCS and CCUS. This paper also focuses on the optimal planning of CCS and CCUS technologies. A new framework for carbon reduction, capture, utilization and storage (CARSUS) is introduced for future development. CARCUS is expected to present the best route for carbon dioxide avoidance.

Multi-period Planning of Centralized Sewage Treatment Plant for Electricity Generation in Iskandar Malaysia

This paper presents the current situation and projected planning of the electricity generation sector for Iskandar Malaysia by implementing a model to optimise the cost, utilise the usage of available renewable energy sources, and achieve carbon dioxide reduction targets. This Mixed Integer Linear Programming model was developed with the main objective of minimising the total cost of electricity generation, taking into consideration energy demand, reserve margin, electricity generation, peak and base generation, resource availability, and CO2 emission. Data for the year 2013 were forecasted until 2025 to illustrate the analysis for this study, and are represented via four scenarios. This optimal model is capable of balancing types of fuel and switching coal plants to natural gas power plants. It also enhances the use of renewable energy (RE) to meet CO2 emission targets. The model is further integrated with several other considerations related to energy systems, such as suitability of power plants as peak or base plants, RE resource availability, intermittency of solar power, losses during transmission, fuel selection for biomass, decision to retrofit existing coal power plant to NG power plant, and construction lead time of power plants. The results for this study determined that the optimal scenario is Scenario 3 (CS3). This research proves that Iskandar Malaysia can reduce CO2 emission by 2025 via utilisation of RE. This model is generic and can be applied to any case study, which would be useful for assisting government policy-making.

Electric System Cascade Analysis (ESCA): Cost and efficiency trade-off and optimization

Electricity has become one of human basic needs beside food and water. The demands increase significantly with rapid industries and advance technology development. Currently, Malaysia is depending mostly on fossil fuels to generate electricity particularly from natural gas which will eventually deplete soon. However, the process of generating electricity extensively from fossil fuels produce greenhouse gas especially carbon dioxide. Therefore, a sustainable electricity generation is required. One sources of energy that started to get attention is biogas release from sewage treatment plant (STP) which contains up to 70 % methane. Unfortunately, the biogas is commonly flared or release to atmosphere. The main objective of this study is to develop multi-period planning of centralized sewage treatment plant (CSTP) for electricity generation in Iskandar Malaysia. It can be divided into 5 stages; problem formulation and superstructure construction, data gathering, mathematical modelling, General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) coding and result analysis. This model is used to propose the optimal network and location to build CSTP which can meet electricity demand.