Page 9 - Malaysia Exporters of Biomass & Related Services Directory

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A conservative scenario of utilising an
additional 20 million tonnes of oil palm
biomass by 2020 for higher-value uses
has the potential to contribute significantly
to the nation’s economy. In addition to a
significant incremental contribution to
GNI of RM30 billion by 2020, the National
Biomass Strategy 2020 offers Malaysia a
way to meet its renewable energy target,
reduce emissions and create about
66,000 incremental jobs. This strategy
also offers an opportunity for Malaysia
to build several biofuel and biobased
chemical downstream clusters to ensure
the nation benefits from the downstream
value creation potential.
From a supply-side perspective, by 2020
Malaysia’s palm oil industry is expected
to generate about 100 million dry tonnes
of solid biomass. This includes not only
the empty fruit bunches (EFB), mesocarp
fibres (MF) and palm kernel shells (PKS),
but also the oil palm fronds and trunks.
Excluded from this figure is palm oil mill
effluent (POME). On current course,
most of this solid biomass will remain in
the plantations as fertiliser, with a small
but increasing amount being utilised for
bioenergy given the introduction of a
renewable energy feed-in-tariff system.
Biomass should not be removed from the
field without consideration of its nutrient
value and protection to the top-soil.
However there is the potential to retain in
the field the portion of the biomass that
has the highest nutrient value but the
lowest downstream value, as represented
by its carbohydrate content, and replace
the balance with inorganic substitutes.
Moreover, converting the mostly unused
POME into biogas for either powering the
mills or selling power into the national grid
would contribute towards the renewable
energy target of Malaysia – 410 MW of
installed biogas capacity by 2030.
This initiative alone would reduce the
nation’s carbon dioxide (CO2 ) emissions
by 12% and free up significant biomass
for higher value-added uses. Taken in
combination, this has the potential to
free up 20% - 30% of the available solid
biomass for higher value-added uses
without affecting palm oil yields. This of
course must be an industry led decision of
each palm oil mill, based on its long-term
commercial and sustainability merits.
Assessing the various costs of mobilising
oil palm biomass today – harvesting,
collection, pre-processing, substitution
and transportation to a downstream hub
– on the order of 25 million tonnes of
biomass can be mobilised at globally
competitive costs, i.e., at a cost of less
than RM250 per dry-weight tonne. On
current course (i.e., business as usual)
approximately 12 million tonnes of solid
biomass will likely be utilised for for
non-fertiliser uses by 2020, primarily
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