Malaysia’s Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC) in Sabah state has affirmed its plans to purchase oil palm-based biomass from millers for power generation, a local government official says.
Raymond Tan, minister of industrial development, says POIC was granted financial assistance from the state government.
“The government is convinced that with the right technology, biomass such as empty fruit bunches can be used as one of the fuel sources to generate electricity for both industrial and domestic use,” Tan says.
He points out that the initiative will not coerce people to sell biomass to POIC, neither will it stop anyone else from buying the organic wastes.
As much as six million tonnes of biomass could have been generated from all the mills each year but left idle as organic waste materials.
“It makes commercial sense that instead of letting the wastes rot, the millers are making money by selling it to the government,” Tan says.
For a start, Lahad Datu-based POIC would concentrate on collecting biomass from millers in the vicinity of the industrial cluster. There are potentially 176 palm oil mills in the vicinity.
The biomass sector in Sabah is set to grow when a 23MW new biomass power plant comes on stream in late 2012 in Lahad Datu.
There are currently two biomass power plants in Sandakan of 10MW each, using steam turbines and empty fruit bunch as biofuel to produce electricity.
“Do capitalise on the emergence of new technology to produce biomass energy. We (POIC) are keen to work with them on production of renewable energy,” Tan urges.
Malaysia’s new feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme, planned to be launched in October, will see indicative rates of 0.27 to 0.31 ringgits ($0.09 to $0.10) per kWh for biomass for 16 years.
