CPE 655 SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT 2: WASTE TO WEALTH

(ANAEROBIC DIGESTION)

GROUP MEMBERS:

EZZANIE BALQHIS BINTI BASIR 2019461288

NUR AQILAH BINTI KHAIRUL ANWAR 2019695568
NUR FARAH SYAMIMI BINTI ANWAR 2019467842
NUR HIDAYAH BINTI RODZI 2019542242
SITI HAZWANI BINTI MOHD RIZAL 2019892904

SUBMITTED TO:
ASSOC. PROF. AZIL BAHARI BIN ALIAS @ ALES
SCHOOL OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA
SHAH ALAM

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.0 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 4

2.0 SITE SELECTION ........................................................................................................... 6

2.1 Jeram Sanitary Landfill Site ......................................................................................... 6

2.2 Beris Lalang Waste Dumpsite ...................................................................................... 7

2.3 Tanjung Langsat landfill Site ........................................................................................ 8

3.0 PROCESS DESCRIPTION.............................................................................................10

4.0 PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM (PFD) OF ANAEROBIC DIGESTION PROCESS ...........12

5.0 PROJECT BUDGETING ................................................................................................13

5.1 Costs of Raw Materials ...............................................................................................13

5.2 Cost of Equipment ......................................................................................................14

5.3 Cost of Utilities ............................................................................................................14

5.4 Cost of Operating Laborers .........................................................................................15

5.5 Costs of Maintenance .................................................................................................15

5.6 Economic Analysis ......................................................................................................16

6.0 PROBLEMS AND STRATEGIES ...................................................................................17

7.0 CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................................19

REFERENCES .........................................................................................................................20

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Process Flow Diagram (PFD) of Anaerobic Digestion Process...................................12

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Municipal Waste Composition at Jeram Sanitary Landfill Site ...................................... 7

Table 2: Municipal Solid Waste Composition in Beris Lalang Landfill Site .................................. 8
Table 3: Municipal Solid Composition in Tanjung Langsat Landfill Site ...................................... 9
Table 4: Cost Estimation of Raw Materials ................................................................................13
Table 5: Cost Estimation of Equipment .....................................................................................14
Table 6: Cost Estimation of Utilities Expenses and Revenue ....................................................14
Table 7: Cost Estimation of Operating Labor .............................................................................15
Table 8: Total Project Cost Per Annum .....................................................................................16

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

Growing global population and economic expansion are rising the generation of municipal solid
waste on a regular basis, these scenarios have significantly increased the generation of municipal
solid waste (MSW). MSW starts out as a complex mixture of food waste, glass, metals, yard
trimmings, woody waste materials, non-recyclable paper and plastic, construction and demolition
waste, rags, and sludge from wastewater treatment. As a result, determining how to handle
human waste cleanup might be difficult. Solid waste management is one among the basic
essential services provided by municipal authorities in the country to keep urban centers clean.
Solid waste management is a challenge for governments in developing countries mainly due to
the growing amount of waste produced, the financial strain on municipal budgets because of the
high costs associated with its management (Guerrero et al., 2013). Most of the treatment and
disposal of urban garbage in the pass is through landfill and incineration. Landfill is the most cost-
effective way of garbage disposal; however, it is being phased out owing to rising methane
emissions (Aziz et al., 2010).

Malaysia generated 19,000 tonnes of waste per day in 2005, with a recycling rate of 5%. Despite
a 17.5% increase in recycling, the amount of waste generated also increased to 38,000 tonnes
per day thirteen years later in 2018 (Shahril, 2020). Due to limited landfill space and rising disposal
prices, there is increased pressure and an urgent need to address the waste management issue
in order to lessen the impact on the environment and the general well-being of the population.
Malaysia has pursued a step-by-step approach of centralizing solid waste management in order
to improve solid waste management. The standard waste management hierarchy involves five
crucial stages from dispose, treat, recycle, minimize, and avoid. Apparently, waste can be
converted to more valuable product in form of energy or wealth. Biochar, refuse derived fuel (RDF)
and biochar are some examples for waste to wealth concept. This initiative prioritizes scientific
waste processing in order to create a minimal landfill and zero waste nation (Waste to Wealth,
n.d.). However, waste to energy concept also plays important role in generating renewable power
and environmentally friendly municipal solid waste disposal.

The conventional sources of energy have been depleting at an alarming rate and hence the focus
on alternative renewable source of energy is increasing. As known, biofuel is an alternative to
diesel fuel. However, biofuel has other applications such as clean up oil, provide hydrogen and
can be used as cooking oil. Biofuels can work as an alternative in replacing energy needs from
vehicle fuel to central home heating. Waste-to-energy is a method of recovering energy through
anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic digestion occurs in the absence of oxygen when the bacteria

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break down biodegradable material (biomass or waste feedstock). Anaerobic digestion as a
pretreatment prior to landfill disposal or composting has various advantages, including bulk and
volume reduction, inactivation of biological and biochemical processes to reduce landfill gas and
odour emissions, reduction of landfill settlements, and methane energy production (Herman &
Hahn, 2009). Anaerobic digestion is a widely established technology that is used around the world
to transform the huge volumes of food waste produced every day into methane—a gas that can
then be utilised to generate heat and electricity in combined heat and power systems (Labatut &
Pronto, 2018).

Lastly, the most critical issue when considering the application of anaerobic digestion is the
selection of feedstocks. Almost any biodegradable organic material can be processed with
anaerobic digestion. Any biodegradable non-woody plant or animal matter is a potential feedstock
for a digester. However, it will slow the digester if the feedstock is complex polymer, wood
products, paper and straw since the anaerobic microorganisms cannot degrade it. Livestock
manure, food manufacturing waste, and sewage sludge are all common feedstocks. More than
80% of waste in landfills are food waste. Hence, it is a good alternative to practice this system in
Malaysia.

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2.0 SITE SELECTION

The application of anaerobic digestion (AD) has grown in recent years and finding a suitable
location for AD is a difficult task for project planners. As a result, this procedure demands the
chosen location to meet all regulatory standards, while also minimizing the active characteristic
of MSW insecurity and the associated expenses (Sin et al., 2016). In many countries, AD is
viewed as the most promising, consistent, and dependable strategy to managing municipal solid
waste (MSW). For biofuel production, Malaysia has a broad range of sources including agricultural
and animal wastes as well as home garbage, crops, and household waste. In addition to reducing
the use of fossil fuels, using these materials as biofuel sources may enhance farmer income and
create new jobs (Muda, 2016). Therefore, we suggest three distinct landfills for anaerobic
digestion biofuel production.

2.1 Jeram Sanitary Landfill Site

Kuala Selangor District's Jeram Sanitary Landfill is situated at Lot No. 1595, 2958, 2959.
Agriculture was formerly the primary usage of this terrain. Construction, management, and
maintenance of a 160-acre site are being contracted out to a private concessionaire for a period
of 25 years. Municipal solid waste is sent to the dump at a rate of around 2100 metric tons per
day. Only household garbage, bulky waste, and garden waste are accepted. Klang Valley's seven
biggest municipalities (Kuala Selangor, Subang, Klang, Petaling Jaya and Shah Alam) are served
by the landfill. There is a 16-year life expectancy for JSL, depending on the quantity of garbage it
receives (Agamuthu et al., 2011). In addition, Jeram sanitary landfill with the area 160 acres and
with the capacity 2500 tons/day. Jeram landfill is expected to be closed in 2018, although it was
planned to be in operation till 2023. Selangor state government is forced to cut short the lifespan
of the Jeram Sanitary Landfill (JSL) to 11 years from the estimated 16. Without land use change,
per capita emissions of each Malaysian were reported to be 5.7 tons of CO2 in 2005 making the
nation the 67th largest per capita generator of GHG emission (久保 et al., 1996). Paper, wood,
leather, and textiles make up 62% of the MSW (Table 1). Metals, glass, gypsum/asbestos from
building, and other minerals make up the remainder. According to the findings, organic waste
(such as food scraps) accounts for the vast majority of the garbage dumped in JSL (32.4 %).

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 Table 1: Municipal Waste Composition at Jeram Sanitary Landfill Site

Type of Solid Waste Weight percentage (%)

Organic 32.4
Paper 13
Plastics 20
Soft Paper 7.2
Debris 6.2
Glass 6
Textile 5.6
Tin Alloy 3.7
Polystyrene 2.4
Aluminum cans 1
Electronics (wires) 0.3
Metal 0.3
Sanitary waste 0.7

2.2 Beris Lalang Waste Dumpsite

The waste landfill in Beris Lalang is Kelantan's biggest, serving the whole district of Kota Bharu.
Palm oil plantations surround Beris Lalang, a peat swamp region that has a tiny creek that finally
drains to Kandis Beach in Bachok. Each day, it gets around 350 metric tons of garbage. There
are 30.5 hectares of Beris Lalang dumpsite. The Telong sub-district of Bachok, Malaysia, has the
typical mukim (sector) of Beris Lalang. It is also located along the South China Sea coast, that
this agriculturally based region may be found (Huat et al., 2012). There are palm oil fields around
the dump, which has a little stream flowing to the Gali River, which finally drains to Bachok's
Kandis Beach (Fadhullah et al., 2019). 400 meters from the closest dwelling, 1 kilometer from two
schools, Sekolah Kebangsaan Beris Lalang and Sekolah Menengah Ugama Darul Iman, and 7
kilometers from the renowned tourist destination Tok Bali separate this area from the rest of the
population. The eventual landfill will be built in two phases (Fadhullah et al., 2019). In 2010, the
city administration handed management to the commercial trash business. The second phase
started in May 2018 and will last through 2030, according to the contract. According to the(Yusoff
et al., 2018) , the largest proportion of organic waste is 33.13%, which is disposed of at a landfill
site as shown in the table below.

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 Table 2: Municipal Solid Waste Composition in Beris Lalang Landfill Site

Type of Solid Waste Weight percentage (%)

Organic 33.13
Paper 22.01
Tetrapak 12.26
Plastics 16.89
Napkins 4.36
Textiles 2.95
Rubber and Leather 4.29
Wood waste 1.14
Garden 1.11
Glass 0.74
Metal 0.74
Household hazardous waste 0.37
Others 0.74

2.3 Tanjung Langsat Landfill Site

It is situated in Pasir Gudang, Johor state, Malaysia. It is 35 kilometers from Johor Bahru to Pasir
Gudang, an industrial town east of Johor Bahru. In 2010, there were more than 200,000 people
living in Pasir Gudang Johor Malaysia, according to Iskandar Malaysia. Pasir Gudang had a
significant rise in population "between the years 2000 and 2010" in Johor (Kalantarifard & Yang,
2011). As a result, the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) created per inhabitant is between
0.5 and 0.8 kg per day. The quantity of municipal solid garbage generated has likewise increased.
Solid garbage produced in residential, commercial, and industrial regions is being dumped into
this landfill at a rate of 350 tons per day. 25 acres of the landfill's 50 acres are used for waste
disposal, while the rest is used for treatment and maintenance. 80% of the waste-disposal sites
have fewer than two years left in their working lives, while landfills still cover 60-90% of the
serviced regions and are expected to cover 75% shortly. Table 3 shows that 50% of all food waste
is thrown away each year. Textiles and other solid garbage are among the waste types with the
lowest stated weight. The largest amount of food waste was 50%, followed by 15% of plastic
trash, 10% of wood waste, and 5% of paper, glass, rubber, and metal waste. Other wastes, such
as textiles and other solid trash, have been found to have the lowest waste weight(Sabeen et al.,
2016).

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 Table 3: Municipal Solid Composition in Tanjung Langsat Landfill Site

Type of Solid Waste Weight percentage (%)

Food waste 50
Paper 5
Plastics 15
Wood waste 10
Glass 5
Rubber and leather 5
Metal 5
Textiles 3
Others 2

Tanjung Langsat was chosen as the best alternative over a third dump site, the Jeram Sanitary
Landfill, as well as the Beris Lalang Landfill. This is simply due to the fact that more than 50% of
the weight composition fits the criteria for anaerobic digestion, while the remaining 32.4% and
33.1% composition do not match the requirements for anaerobic digestion, respectively. This is
owing to the fact that the larger the overall composition of food waste, the higher the moisture
content. As a consequence, the rate of microbial deterioration during processing is enhanced.
This is because to the fact that increased N availability as a result of more interaction with soil
particles or a higher moisture level would stimulate low-N substrate, hence enhancing the
potential of N-diffusion. The Tanjung Landfill Site is also a precautionary step since it is located
away from sensitive receivers such as people and ecosystems.

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3.0 PROCESS DESCRIPTION

Anaerobic digestion is one of the biological treatments of waste, which will convert the waste from
the municipal solid waste to energy such as electricity and heat energy, as well as producing high
nutrient of fertilizer in the digestate form, collected from the wet and biodegradable waste streams
(Badi et al., 2018) Anaerobic digestion is a biological process which breaks down the complex
chemical components into their backbone constituents which is a simpler chemical components
with the absence of oxygen. This process is focusing on treating the organic waste that consists
of sewage sludge, organic farm waste, municipal solid waste, green or botanical waste and
organic industrial or commercial waste.

The process starts with the variety of pre-treatment processes according to the types of the
feedstocks. According to Charles Banks, Sonia Heaven, Yue Zhang and Urs Baier (2018), pre-
treatment process can be divided into three techniques. The first one is sorting technique, which
is focusing in removing the non-biodegradable or inert materials which can affect the downstream
process and eventually degrade the digestate quality. Second technique is the separation
method, for example mechanical separation and densitometric separation. Mechanical
separations are frequently used downstream, for further contaminant removal. One of the
examples is de-packaging equipment which is designed to remove the outer packaging from the
food waste, while the densitometric separation is for high level of contaminants followed with
particle size reduction. The last technique is homogenization, which is claimed as an important
method to promote degradation and prevent any clogging, settling or formation of floating layers
inside the digester. One of the steps is the size reduction using shredders, screw cutters or mills
for drier types of material. The chopped material is then converted into a slurry via macerator
pumps and recycles digestate to make the pumping and mixing easier before feeding to the
digester.

Anaerobic digestion takes place in the digester, where the microorganisms will digest the organic
matters, without the oxygen, to produce carbon dioxide and methane as the by-products, or also
known as biogas. The technology of anaerobic digestion can be a: wet digestion, where the
substrate must have a dry matter content below 10% or dry digestion, in which the substrate
should have dry matter content more than 20%; and dry matter digestion intermediate, also
defined as semi-dry (Gkamarazi N & Gkamarazi, 2015) Generally, there are four phases in
anaerobic digestion process, namely hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and
methanogenesis. In hydrolysis phase, the most complex organic matters such as proteins, amino

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acids and carbohydrates are break down into simpler chemical components such as mono and
disaccharides as well as converting lipids into long chain fatty acids and glycerin. The process
takes place via the activity of hydrolytic microorganisms including Clostridia, Selenomonas, and
Streptococcus which requires the production of exo-enzymes excreted by the fermentative
bacteria (Náthia-Neves et al., 2018). The products from the hydrolysis stage will then undergo
acidogenesis stage, aims on converting them into volatile fatty acids, alcohols, lactic acid, carbon
dioxide, hydrogen, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide with the presence of microorganisms’ activities
from the acidogenic fermentative microorganisms such as Lactobacillus, Bacillus, and
Salmonella. (Náthia-Neves et al., 2018) During this stage, the pH value of the system will
ultimately drop due to the conversion of organic materials into organic acids. In the third stage
which is acetogenesis, the compounds from previous phase will convert and produce hydrogen,
carbon dioxide and acetate. The acetogenic microorganisms are slow in terms of growth and have
high sensitivity towards the fluctuations in organic loadings and environmental changes (Náthia-
Neves et al., 2018). The last stage of the anaerobic digestion process is known as
methanogenesis stage. The microorganisms involved in this phase are known as methanogenic
archae which can be further divide into two different groups. The first one is acetoclastic, which
is mainly to degrade acetic acid or methanol to form methane while the second one is
hydrogenetrophic, which consuming hydrogen and carbon dioxide to produce methane. Based
on the past research, hydrogenotrophic methanogens has higher resistant to environmental
changes compared to acetoclastic methanogens.

The by-product of anaerobic digestion, which is basically the biogas consisting of methane,
carbon dioxide, small amount of hydrogen sulphide and ammonias as well as some traces of
hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon monoxide and oxygen is stored in a gas holder before send to the
generators to produce electrical energy. This biogas can be utilized as an alternative energy, for
example, for heating from boilers. Other than that, it can also be used in combined heat and power
(CHP) units, where the gas engines required the same quality of gas in boilers. Another utilization
of biogas is to substitute as a fuel of vehicle. However, the biogas needs to be upgraded since
the gas quality demands are stricter so that it can yield minimal impact to the human health and
environment. On the other hand, the digestate will undergo pasteurization, to kill all the pathogens
before using it as fertilizers since it is rich in nutrients. Another option for the digestate is by
processing it into compost. This can ensure a complete breakdown of the organic components
and reducing the nitrogen loss by fixing the mineral nitrogen onto humus-like fraction.

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4.0 PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM (PFD) OF ANAEROBIC DIGESTION PROCESS

Figure 1: Process Flow Diagram (PFD) of Anaerobic Digestion Process

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5.0 PROJECT BUDGETING

In order to ensure efficient and feasible design of this anaerobic digestion treatment plant, a
project budgeting is carried out. The costs analysis includes the costs estimation for raw materials,
equipment, utilities, maintenance, as well as labor costs. Generally, the budget analysis was
performed based on data and information reported previously by (Sabeen et al., 2016).

The treatment plant is assumed to operate for 330 days per year.

5.1 Costs of Raw Materials

Based on the selection process conducted, the most suitable raw materials for this
anaerobic digestion treatment plant are as suggested by (Kumaran et al., 2016)and listed
as follows:

a) Food Waste
b) Chicken Manures and Slurries
c) Sewage Sludge

According to a report by (JGC Corporation, 2012), the total capacity determines the
estimated amount of municipal solid waste accumulated in Tanjung Langsat Sanitary
Landfill Site which is 719 tonnes per day with a collection rate of 0.90. Such that, it is
assumed all three raw materials for the anaerobic digestion plant are included.

Table below list the estimation costs of raw materials for this project.

Table 4: Cost Estimation of Raw Materials

Cost per Quantity Total Costs

Component Source
Tonnes (RM) (Tonnes) (RM/Year)
Food Waste 7,778,521.00 18333 7,778,521.00 (Mel et al.,
2015)
Chicken
7,778,521.00 18333 7,778,521.00 (Mel et al.,
Manures and
2015)
Slurries
Sewage Sludge 7,778,521.00 18333 7,778,521.00 (Mel et al.,
2015)
Total Cost of Raw Materials (RM/Year) 23,335,563.00
5.2 Cost of Equipment

The costs analysis for involving equipment in this anerobic digestion plant were done
according to data provided by an e-commerce and retail online website such as
“Alibaba.com”. This website provides numerous and wide options of products including
industrial equipment and instrumentation from verified suppliers.

For this project, the estimation of equipment costs was done for the main equipment of
anaerobic digestion plant as tabulated in Table 5 below.

Table 5: Cost Estimation of Equipment

Cost per Unit Total Cost

Equipment Quantity
(RM) (RM)
Shredder 85,374 1 85,374
Anaerobic Digester 34,149.60 1 34,149.60
Digestate Storage 42,687 1 42,687
Tank
Total Cost of Equipment (RM) 162,210.60

5.3 Cost of Utilities

In order to determine both expenses and revenues from the plant utilities, data and
information we obtained from an economic analysis performed by Yong et al. in 2021.
Other than that, the utility tariff plan for both electricity and water consumption is based on
standard provided by Tenaga Nasional Berhad (Mel et al., 2015).

The following table summarized the estimation of utilities expenses and potential revenues
for this anaerobic digestion treatment plant.

Table 6: Cost Estimation of Utilities Expenses and Revenue

Parameter Cost
(RM/Unit)
Water 0.00053/m3
Electricity 0.337/kWh

Therefore, from the tariff plan provided by local authorities, the total cost for this anaerobic
digestion plan can be estimated of around RM 941,737.50 per year.

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5.4 Cost of Operating Laborers

A total of 18 competent personnel is expected to be involved for efficient and effective

plant operation. The significant roles required for this plant consists of general manager,
operation manager, production manager, engineers, maintenance technician, as well as
operators. The cost of operating laborers was estimated according to general salary
suggested in Salary Explorer (2021).

The table below shows the cost estimation of hiring laborers for this treatment plant.

Table 7: Cost Estimation of Operating Labor

Salary Per Total Salary

Role No. of Worker Person
(RM/Month)
(RM/Month)
General Manager 1 11,400.00 11,400.00
Operation Manager 1 8,400.00 8,400.00
Production Manager 1 7,890.00 7,890.00
Engineer 2 3,500.00 7,000.00
Maintenance Technician 3 2,500.00 7,500.00
Operators 10 1,600.00 16,000.00
Total Cost (RM/Month) 58,190.00

Therefore, assuming the plant to operate for 330 days per year, the total labor cost is
estimated as shown below.

𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐿𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑟 𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑡 = 𝑅𝑀 58190 × 11 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑠

𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐿𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑟 𝐶𝑜𝑠𝑡 = 𝑅𝑀 640,090

5.5 Costs of Maintenance

According to Sabeen et al. (2016), the minimum frequency for an anaerobic digestion
treatment plant maintenance is twice per year. It was expected that the cost of one-time
plant maintenance can reach around RM125,000. Thus, the plant is estimated to prepare
a budget of around RM1,500,000 per year for maintenance operation.

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5.6 Economic Analysis

Based on the estimation above, the total capital investment per annum of this project can
be determined as tabulated in Table 8 below.

Table 8: Total Project Cost Per Annum

Component Value per Year

Raw Materials RM 23,335,563.00
Equipment RM 162,210.60
Facilities RM 113,284.00
Utilities RM 941,737.50
Operating Labor RM 640,090.00
Plant Maintenance RM 1,500,000.00
Annual Operation Cost RM 26,530,674.50
Total Revenues RM 31,612,501.33
Annual Profit RM 5,081,826.82
Payback Period 5.22 years

Therefore, in order to build this anaerobic digestion plant at Tanjung Langsat Landfill Site,
the total operating cost is estimated to be around RM 26,530,674.50. The estimation of
all costs required for this plant involves the costs of raw materials, equipment, facilities,
utilities, operating labor as well as yearly plant maintenance. This plant is assumed to
produce 29,737,378.60 m3/year of biofuel. Hence, the total revenue of this project is
expected to reach RM 31,612,501.33 with annual profit of RM 5,081,826.82 and payback
period of 5.22 years.

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6.0 PROBLEMS AND STRATEGIES

To decrease reliance on fossil fuels and minimize the country's carbon footprint, the Malaysian
government is eager to established renewable energy capacity especially for electricity generation
for grid sale. A lofty goal of increasing planned renewable energy capacity from 41.50 MW in 2009
to 985 MW in 2015 has been set by the government, with biogas plants contributing 100 MW of
that total (Kumaran et al., 2016). Despite this, only 11.74 MW of biogas installed capacity had
been commissioned as of March 2014 (Kumaran et al., 2016). Therefore, it is possible to
conclude, even though various opportunities to generate biogas exist, the growth of biogas plant
installation in Malaysia is still in its early stages, yet there are still a lot of barriers to development.

The first barriers that has been identified is that, when compared to the current waste treatment
practice, the investment cost to build the infrastructure of a biogas plant with electricity generation
facilities is high. To promote renewable energy development in Malaysia, the Malaysian
government has established several financial schemes including the Renewable Energy Business
fund (REBF) and the Green Technology Financing Scheme (GTFS). GTFS has accepted 109
projects which have received RM1.50 billion in financing from 22 banks (The Edge Markets,
2014). Even though the loan application rate has increased according to an Asian Institute of
Finance (AIF) study, however, there is still a lack of participation from Malaysian-based banks in
financing renewable energy projects regardless of the existence of GTFS.

Next, currently, there are no legal regulations in Malaysia governing the release of biogas into the
atmosphere. To ensure the advancement of anaerobic digester deployment and the development
of the biogas industry, a practical regulatory framework for enforcement should be developed.
The installation of anaerobic digesters in all waste treatment facilities will reduce the methane
(CH4) emissions and the carbon footprint through biogas substitution. Moreover, policymakers are
unaware of the opportunities and benefits of renewable energy due to a lack of specialized,
knowledgeable worker in renewable energy.

A critical human capital barrier that slows the deployment of biogas plants is a lack of talented
and qualified local personnel to handle, operate, and maintain anaerobic digestion plants. As a
result, the government should work with educational institutions to develop local expertise by
providing skill training and knowledge on anaerobic digesters and biogas power. With the
participation of government regulators, employers, and renewable energy experts, the available
workforce can be trained to become qualified workers in the renewable energy industry. The
reduction of the reliance on foreign human capital for the management, operation, and

17
maintenance of anaerobic digesters and related technologies can be achieve by implementing
these actions.

Market barriers associated with the structure of the Malaysian electricity market are also
preventing biogas plant developers from participating. This is because the financial viability of
biogas projects is uncertain due to unsatisfactory Feed-in Tariff (FiT) pricing arrangements. For
example, the FiT rate for biogas is only RM0.3184 per kW.h in 2014 compared to RM1.0184 per
kW.h for solar photovoltaic (Sustainable Energy Development Authority, 2014). Hence, biogas
plant developers’ participation is limited, even though biogas plants have ahigh potential in
Malaysia. Malaysia, on the other hand, heavily subsidies fossil fuel consumption (Mustapa et al.,
2010). Besides, additional allocation for renewable energy usage should be applied by
progressively eliminating subsidies for conventional fuel sources although the Malaysian
government gas prioritized renewable energy in the fuel mix. Then, shifting them to renewable
energy resources in effort to enhance renewable energy and promote greater market penetration.

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7.0 CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS

In conclusion, anaerobic digestion is utilized in the treatment of biodegradable waste and sewage
sludge. Anaerobic digestion, as part of an integrated waste management system, minimizes
landfill gas emissions into the atmosphere. The biodegradation and stabilization of complex
organic matter with a biodegradation of bacteria in the absence of oxygen is known as anaerobic
digestion. This process results in the generation of energy-rich biogas. As a result, anaerobic
microbial research has become a major focus of study in the food waste industry. Anaerobic
digestion is undergoing few steps which is hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and
methanogenesis, with each stage being studied separately (Mir et al., 2016).

Tanjung Langsat Landfill Site has been selected for the anaerobic digestion process because it
meets the requirements required for AD, one of which is the largest weight percentage in food
waste, which is more than 50% among the three proposed landfills. This is because the higher
the weight proportion of food waste, the higher the moisture content, and the more microbial
degradation may occur as a result.

Estimated annual operation costs for constructing this anaerobic digestion plant is equal to RM
26,530,674.50. All costs including the raw materials, facilities, utilities, operating labor and yearly
plant maintenance are estimated for this plant. The expected total revenue of this project is RM
31,612,501.33 where the plant is expected to generate 29,737,378.60 m 3 of biofuel per year. The
annual profit is calculated to be RM 5,081,826.82 with payback period of 5.22 years.

To ensure a high process efficiency performance, there are several specific condition or treatment
for the anaerobic digestion of the solid waste. The quality of the feedstock is critical in optimizing
anaerobic digestion bio-kinetics. The quality of solid waste feedstock is ideally determined by
organic matter separation, solubilization, and biodegradability. Hence, in order to improve and
maximize the digestion activity, the municipal solid waste feedstock will be pretreated and
activated. The determination of the effectiveness of the pre-treatment method is typically by the
biodegradability of the waste mixtures. Next, the AD process benefits from continuous digestion
at thermophilic temperature between 30 to 60 degrees Celsius (Zamri et al., 2021). Because of
variability of solid waste characteristics, plug flow and CSTR reactors are the most dependable
options for controlling biological conditions. Furthermore, the process ensures that the product is
recovered consistently. Besides, the optimum conditions for AD of solid waste require specific
parametric conditions including pH of 6.5 - 7.5, temperature pf 50 – 55oC, and the C:N ratio of 20-
30 (Zamri et al., 2021).

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