7.

8 Malaysia

In Malaysia, biomass resources are mainly from the palm oil, wood and agro-industries. All
of these residues come in many forms such as palm oil mill residues, bagasse, rice husks and
wood/forest residues. Major sources of biomass come from the oil palm residues in the form of
empty fruit bunches (EFB), fibers, shells, palm trunks, fronds and palm oil mill effluent
(POME). The energy content in each residue is different to each other. This is mainly because
the caloric value, moisture content and some other parameters that are different.
As shown in table below, the palm oil residues accounts for the largest biomass waste
production in the country. This is because the palm oil mill residues are easily available and
are presently requiring cost effective means of disposal. Currently, most of these residues are
disposed of through incineration and dumping. A small portion is used as fuel for the mills' heat
and power requirement in a very inefficient manner.

Table 7.8.1. Biomass and energy resource potential.

Potential Annual Potential Capacity
Sector Quantity kton / yr
Generation (GWh) (MW)
Rice Mills 424 263 30

Wood Industries 2177 598 68

PalmOil Mills 17980 3197 365

Bagasse 300 218 25

POME 31500 1587 177

Total 72962 5863 665

7.8.1 Biomass energy utilization in Malaysia

The abundant biomass resources coming mainly from its palm oil, wood and agro-industries
are used mainly to produce steam for processing activities and also for generating electricity.
Biomass fuels contribute to about 16 percent of the energy consumption in the country, out of
which 51 percent comes from palm oil biomass waste and 27 percent wood waste. Other
biomass energy contributors are from plant cultivations, animal and urban wastes. There are
currently about 400 palm oil mills in operation, which self generates electricity from oil palm

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wastes not only for their internal consumption but also for surrounding remote areas. Studies
also found that 75.5 percent of the potential biomass that can be harnessed in Malaysia is
unutilized and wasted.

7.8.2 Oil palm residues

The oil palm industry generates residues during the harvesting, replanting and milling
processes. The residue that comes from the milling processes are fruit fibers, shell and empty
fruit bunches (EFB). Other residues including trunks and fronds are available at the
plantation area. Currently shells and fibres are used as boiler fuel to generate steam and
electricity for the mill’s consumption. The EFB is return back to the plantation for mulching.
This is only practiced in bigger plantations. For old palm oil mills, the EFB is burned in the
incinerator to produce fertilizer. However, there are still palm oil mills disposing the EFB
through landfill method particularly the mills without enough plantations or estates.
Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is the wastewater discharged from the sterilization process,
crude oil clarification process and cracked mixture separation process. The amount of POME
generated depends on the milling operation. For a palm oil mill with good housekeeping, it is
estimated that 2.5 tonnes of POME are generated from every tonne of crude palm oil produced.
The average value for Malaysian palm oil mill is 3.5 tonnes for every tonne of crude palm oil
produced. The POME contains high chemical and biological oxygen demand, total solids and
require a treatment system before it can be discharged to the environment. Biogas is generated
from the biological treatment of POME. The composition is mainly methane (60-70%) and
carbon dioxide (30-40%). The calorific value is between 4740-6560 kcal per Nm3 and the
electricity generation is 1.8 kWh/cm3 of biogas. Some plantations practice zero waste
management system.

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 Table 7.8.2. Residue product ratio and potential power generation from palm oil
mill residues.
Production Residue Residue Potential
Potential
Type of Year 2002 Product Generated Electricity
Residue Energy
Industry (Thousand Ratio (Thousand Generation
(PJ)
Tonnes) (%) Tonnes) (MW)
EFB at
59,800 21.14 12,640 57 521
65%MC
Fiber 12.72 7,606 108 1032

Oil Palm Shell 5.67 3,390 55 545

Total Solid 16,670 220 2098

POME @ 3.5m3 per ton
38,870 320
CPO or 65% of FFB)

7.8.3 Paddy residues

There are two seasons of paddy planted in Malaysia. The main season refers to the period of
paddy planting from 1st of August to 28th February and off season covers the period of paddy
planting from 31st March to 31st July of the year. The total paddy planted areas for Malaysia in
the year 2000 was about 600,287 hectares and producing 2,050,306 tones of paddy. Malaysia is
about 65% self sufficient in rice supply and another 35% is imported from Thailand and
Vietnam. Paddy straw and rice husk are generated as biomass residue during the harvested
and milling processes. The paddy straw is left in the paddy field and the rice husk is generated
in the rice mill. Both of the biomass are discharged by landfill and open burning. Only a small
quantity of rice husk is used for energy generation and other application such as silica
production and composting.
It is assumed that only 2% of the rice husk is used for energy production. The balance is
treated as landfill method. The paddy straw is usually burned in the open burning areas. The
amount of rice husk and paddy straw generated in future are dependent on the planted area,
the paddy yield and government policies on agriculture. The government plans to increase the
yield from the existing rate to 10 metric tonne per hectare in the future. With this target value
more rice husk and paddy straw is available for biomass CHP plant. The issue of solid
biomass is difficulties in transportation and handling due to very low density and abrasive
nature of the material.

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 Table 7.8.3. Residue product ratio and potential power generation from rice mill
residues.
Production Residue Residue
Potential Potential
Type of Year 2000 product Generated
Residue Energy Power
Industry (Thousand Ratio (Thousand
(PJ) ( MW )
Tonne) (%) Tonne)
Rice
Rice 2,140 22 471 7.536 72.07
Husk
Paddy
40 856 8.769 83.86
Straw
TOTAL 2,140 1327 16.305 155.93

7.8.4 Sugar cane residues

Basically in Malaysia, there are only 2 out of 5 sugar factories, which use sugar cane as raw
materials for refined sugar production. The other plants would use solely brown sugar as raw
materials for sugar production. The main objectives of the industry are for food security supply,
creation of jobs, development of industrial projects in rural areas and reducing foreign
exchange.
Bagasse is the residue after sugarcane has been processed to remove the sugar juice. On
average, about 32 % of bagasse is produced from every tonne of sugar cane processed. The
amount of sugar cane processed in 2002 is about 1,111,500 tonnes. Thus, the amount of bagasse
produced is 355,680 tonnes. This bagasse is not wasted as it acts as a biomass residue fuel to
the boiler for its cogeneration plant. This saves the factory expenditure in boiler fuel oil and
electricity expenses.
At the current rate of usage, all of the bagasse is used as fuel for its cogeneration
plant. In fact there is insufficient bagasse for the sugar mills. Thus, they are buying
other biomass residues such as rice husk, wood off cuts and palm oil residues to be used
as fuel.

7.8.5 Wood residues

Total forest areas in Malaysia are about 5.9 million hectares. Only 1.29% of the total area is
allowed for logging industry. The balance is mainly for permanent forest estate, forest
plantation, state land, and wildlife reserve and annual coupe for permanent forest estate. Wood
industries are mainly referred to the logging industry, saw milling industry, the panel product
industry (plywood, veneer, particle board, and medium density fibre board), the moulding

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industry and the furniture industry. The forest industries are rapidly moving away from
manufacturing low value products to value added products. These industries generated
different type of biomass residues namely sawdust, off cut and wood barks. A waste
minimization program is implemented in the wood based industries due to shortage of tropical
wood supply. A value added such as particle board and finger joints are manufactured from the
wood waste for the furniture industry.
The wood industries maximized the biomass residues into the value added products. The
residue such as off-cut from the saw mills is used as fuel for the kiln drying or sold as boiler
fuels. The middle portions of the log from the plywood and veneer mills are used as boiler fuels.
The remaining wastes are mainly the bark and the saw dust. In the isolated areas they are
burned in the incinerator or boiler to produce heat.
The generation of biomass residues from the wood based industry is declined due to limited
supply of logs and maximization of residues into value added product. The biomass from the
processing plants is used as fuel for their combined heat and power plant or sell to the potential
users such as brick manufactures. The chart below shows the estimated potential energy and
electricity from the waste generated from the saw mills, plywood and moulding plants.

7.8.6 Municipal solid waste (MSW)

The Malaysian population has been increasing at a rate of 2.4 % per annum or about 600,000
per annum since 1994. With this population growth, the MSW generation also increases, which
makes MSW management crucial. Currently, the MSW is managed mainly through landfill.
However, due to rapid development and lack of new space for it, the big cities and islands are
considering incineration to tackle this problem.

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 Composition of Solid MSW in Malaysia

Commercial/
Institutional
16% Industrial
24%

Construction
9%

Domestic Municipal
49% 2%

Fig. 7.8.1. Pie Chart of Typical Malaysian MSW Composition.

Further information
Norasikin A. Ludin, Mazlina Hashim, M. Azwan Bakri. Country Report – Workshop on Information for
the Commercialisation of Renewables in ASEAN (ICRA). 25 – 27 August 2004
Biomass Resource Inventory Report, BioGen Project Pusat Tenaga Malaysia
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, The U.S. Department of Energy
BioGen News – Issue 2, November 2004
Economic Planning Unit, Eighth Malaysia Plan (2001 – 2005)
CDM Energy Secretariat, Pusat Tenaga Malaysia: www.ptm.org.my/CDM_website/

7.9 Philippines

7.9.1 Fundamental energy policy

The Philippine Energy Plan is focused on its primary goal of energy independence and power
market reforms.
As a major reform agenda of the Arroyo Administration, the objective of the energy
independence package is to reach an energy self sufficiency level of 60% by 2010 and beyond. To
realize this goal, five major strategies have been identified and this includes two major
strategies directly related to renewable energy (RE) to include biomass energy. The two major
strategies are the following: 1) intensifying renewable energy resource development and

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