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NOR AISHAH SAIDINA AMIN: Since the Industrial Revolution
began 250 years ago, people have been
burning fossil fuels like coal and oil
to generate electricity.
Hi, I'm Professor Nor Aisha Saidina Amin,
professor of chemical engineering,
and a visiting fellow with the MIT UTM Sustainable Cities
Program.
My research is focused on renewable energy,
and today I am going to talk about climate
change and renewable energy.
The primary product of burning of fossil fuels
is carbon dioxide.
For centuries, the amount of carbon dioxide emissions
in the atmosphere was 300 parts per million.
But carbon dioxide have increased dramatically
and reached an unprecedented value
of about 400 parts per million.
High levels of carbon dioxide emissions
are linked to climate change, which
has led to increasing temperatures, melting glaciers,
rising sea level, changing rain and snow patterns,
and also drought, floods, and other extreme events.
Climate change is an important issue,
and reducing carbon emission is a challenge.
In December 2015, world leaders convened in Paris
to discuss the reduction of carbon emissions and climate
change impacts at a United Nations Global climate
conference.
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SPEAKER 1: There is no doubt that the global climate change
agreement we seek must be part of what Paris has become.
NOR AISHAH SAIDINA AMIN: Even Hollywood
is taking a public stand on this issue.
SPEAKER 2: And the Oscar goes to Leonardo DiCaprio.
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LEONARDO DICAPRIO: Climate change is real.
It is happening right now.
It is the most urgent threat facing our entire species.
NOR AISHAH SAIDINA AMIN: One of the ways
to address climate change is to replace
fossil fuels with renewable energy for electricity
production.
Carbon emissions from renewable energy power plants
are much lower compared to those that run with fossil fuels.
According to the Energy Information Administration,
although there are plenty of renewable resources
available on Earth, only 10% of the world's energy output
is from renewable sources.
Types of renewable energy include
solar, geothermal, wind, and biomass.
There are many lessons that can be
learned from Malaysia's success with using renewable energy.
Given Malaysia's tropical biodiversity,
conversion of biomass to energy is a promising approach
to establishing sustainable energy production.
JOHN WOODLEY: Malaysia will also be
an excellent example where there is
plenty of agricultural waste.
And it could be a wonderful idea to try
to use that waste in a way which brings a little bit of value
to your community, to the country, but at the same time,
can help us to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
NOR AISHAH SAIDINA AMIN: Situated in Johor,
the most southern state in peninsula Malaysia, Iskandar,
Malaysia is a new development region that
advocates low carbon emission.
Most of its carbon dioxide emission
are from the electricity and heating sector.
As documented in their low carbon plan.
Iskandar, Malaysia is projected to be a sustainable
city by 2025 with only $18.9 million tons of carbon dioxide
emissions, a 40% reduction from 2005 levels.
How can this Iskandar, Malaysia achieve this target?
One of the methods is to utilize waste
from the oil pump industry to generate heat and electricity.
Iskandar, Malaysia is easily accessible to large areas
of oil palm plantation.
The oil pump industry produces waste such as empty fruit bunch
and palm oil mill effluent.
Empty fruit bunch is the residue you produced when palm fruit is
taken from a fresh fruit bunch in the initial process
of a palm oil production.
Palm oil mill effluent is the voluminous liquid waste
that comes from the sterilization and clarification
processes in milling oil palm.
By utilizing waste, carbon dioxide emissions
can be significantly reduced and make the air
in the region cleaner and healthier.
One way to measure carbon dioxide emissions
is to use an integrated model that
takes into account direct and indirect carbon dioxide
emissions.
The concept of the model used to probe
quite a systematic and comprehensive carbon accounting
to evaluate carbon performance, as well
as to determine the potential carbon emission
reduction in the process.
The model calculates carbon dioxide emissions from three
by biomass power plants-- the bio-xcell plant, Kulim group
plant, and Ronser biogas plant.
Initially, carbon accounting centers for each process
is divided into smaller units.
Next, the total monthly carbon emission equivalent
is determined, followed by calculation of the carbon
dioxide emissions and carbon emission index
across the carbon performance indicators.
Strategies for reduction of carbon emissions
are then implemented.
The five main emission contributors
are identified as carbon performance indicators.
These are fuel, water, and electricity consumption.
And also waste water and solid waste generation.
Empty fruit bunch is fed into Bio-Xcell Plant
to generate steam and electricity.
Empty fruit bunch is shredded and then formed
as solid pellets.
The pellets are used as fuels for the boilers
to produce steam.
The steam turbine then generates electricity.
Meanwhile, Kulim and Ronser utilize palm oil mill effluent.
The effluent is retained in an anaerobic digester
to produce bio gas.
The gas runs the turbine to generate electricity.
The total monthly carbon dioxide emissions
before and after the implementation
of the reductions strategies are exhibited in figure one,
showing a 27% emissions reduction at Bio-Xcell,
15% at Kulim, and 41% at Ronser.
Figure two compares the carbon emission index
after implementing the reduction strategies.
In general, all performance indicators
show reduced emissions after innovative strategies
are implemented.
In Bio-Xcell, the carbon emission index
for fuel and water consumption decreased significantly
after solid, empty fruit bunches replaced the shredded ones.
In addition, a reduction of solid waste generation
in runs of bio gas was also registered
after water from the effluent is recycled.
Carbon dioxide emissions can be easily predicted
using the income model.
A power plant that utilizes biomass contributes
less to climate change since the carbon dioxide released
is absorbed by trees through photosynthesis.
The process is cyclical.
The industry could play a big role
in reducing carbon dioxide emissions
by switching to renewable energy for generating electricity.
[MACHINERY MOTOR]
HO CHIN SIONG: The key players-- the key players
for CO2 reduction has to be also from the private sector.
NOR AISHAH SAIDINA AMIN: Globally electricity generation
from renewables, and particularly from biomass,
is increasing.
Biomass supplies such as pump or mill effluent
is steady due to the number of oil pump mills in the region
as stated by Dr. Azhar Aziz of Gait Rungkai company.
AZHAR AZIZ: I will say it's very, very valuable Very
significantly valuable because based on the number of palm oil
mills in the country, as of 2014, there
are at least 480 mills in the country, including [INAUDIBLE].
So from this huge number of oil mills, there are [INAUDIBLE].
It's just a matter of how we are going to maximize this.
Because to me, it's not being maximized in terms of effort
to reducing the carbon emission in the country.
NOR AISHAH SAIDINA AMIN: The significant decline
in capital costs for electrical generation
suggests that investment in renewable energy
is economically viable.
The utilization of renewable energy waste
for re-powering power plants could help realize Iskandar,
Malaysia's low carbon goals.
Since biomass emits less carbon dioxide
compared to fossil fuels, the move to clean energy
could reduce the magnitude of climate change risks.
Renewable energy is the way forward
to a wonderful more sustainable world.
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