SARAWAK’S first Biogas Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project
using the closed continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR) anaerobic system
is 60% completed and expected to be operational within three months.
The CDM project was successfully registered with the United Nations
Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) in February last year.
Construction began in November last year and was targeted for
completion in eight months.
“The facility’s main objective is to
trap and destroy methane gas by flaring before it is emitted into the
air. Methane is 21 times more harmful than carbon dioxide (CO2),” said
Konzen Clean Energy Sdn Bhd (KCE) chief executive officer Mike Teo Su
Kiam in Mukah recently.
The Shah Alam-based KCE has partnered
Rinwood Pelita (Mukah) Plantation Sdn Bhd (RPP) in developing the
RM7.5mil CDM project near its mill about 30km from Mukah town.
Making
progress: The RM7.5mil CDM project at the Rinwood Pelita.
Teo said that RPP was chosen for this pioneering project after
taking into consideration that it was strategically located in the
Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy and had met all the risk mitigation
criteria.
One of the most important criteria was the commitment
of oil palm plantation owners to reduce the emission of harmful gases
from the mills.
“At the very first meeting, Datuk Hii Yii Peng,
the managing director of RPP, and his son King Chiong, agreed to
implement the CDM project. They were serious in protecting and improving
the environment,” Teo added.
With total area of 24,000ha
producing 500,000 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches per year, RPP’s
production will support operations at the CDM project for many decades.
Teo said that research and development on the CDM project begun more
than three years ago by KCE’s in-house engineers.
The concept
and design met the strict registration criteria of UNFCCC.
Under
the project, a developing country like Malaysia can generate certified
emission reductions (CERs) by implementing emission reduction projects.
These CERs can be traded and sold to industrialised countries to meet or
offset their emission reduction targets.
The estimated CERs from
the RPP project is 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. At the
current price of 12 euro (RM51) per tonne, the company stands to earn
more than RM2mil annually.
Teo said that palm oil mill effluents
discharged from mills in Sarawak were dumped into a series of open
lagoons for treatment.
“This open lagoon anaerobic process emits
offensive odours and harmful methane gas into the atmosphere and has an
adverse effect on the climate,” he added.
Kuching-born Teo is a
chemical engineer by training.
His career in the treatment of
industrial waste water has taken him to major countries across Asia in
the past 15 years.
He said that KCE and RPP were planning the
RM6mil CDM project second phase which would commercially produce
electricity using biogas.
“We are in talks with Sarawak Energy
Bhd (SEB) to look into the possibility of supplying them with 2.5MW of
electricity,” he said.
He said that eight other palm oil mill
owners in Sarawak had signed a letter of intent with KCE to build the
CDM projects in the next three years.
Source : The Star by Philip Hii
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