ASSIGNMENT 1

RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES- BIOGAS

KYAIRUL AZMI BIN BAHARIN

4BEKG S2
NO NAME MATRIC NO
1 JACKY JAMU B011610264
2 MUHAMMAD SYAFIQ SYAZWAN BIN B011610205
ZULKEPLI
3 MOHD IZZAT BIN ABD GHANI B011610195
4 MOHD HISAMMUDDIN BIN KAMARUZAINI B011610220
TASK 1

INTRODUCTION-BIOGAS ENERGY

Figure 1: Biogas production process

Biogas is defined as a gas produced by the anaerobic digestion or fermentation of

indigenous organic matter under anaerobic conditions including but not limited to manure
sewage sludge municipal solid waste and biodegradable waste originating from Malaysia. Biogas
technology refers to systems that designed to turn organic waste products into usable energy.
Biogas typically consists mainly of methane, with a significant proportion of carbon dioxide, and
smaller quantities of other gases such as nitrogen and hydrogen. The gases methane, hydrogen
and carbon monoxide can be combusted. This energy release allows biogas to be used as a fuel in
a gas engine to convert the energy in the gas into electricity and heat.
S-Strengths

1.Reduce global climate change

Biogas dramatically reduces greenhouse gas emissions by avoiding the burning of fossil fuels
and is therefore a perfect way to counter global climate change. The process of biodigestion is
natural, would not require any outside resources for the generation process, and the organic
materials used in the processing are sustainable. Manure, food scraps and crop residues are
materials that will always be available, making biogas a highly sustainable option.

2. Reduces Soil & Water Pollution 

Diverting waste through biogas production is that it can improve water and soil quality.
Moreover, anaerobic digestion deactivates pathogens and parasites. thus, it’s also quite effective
in reducing the incidence of waterborne diseases. it will most likely end up in one of many
overflowing landfills. Not only are these wastelands ugly and foul-smelling, but they allow toxic
liquids to drain into and pollute underground water sources and soil

3. Prevents Health Problems & Biodiversity Loss

The leachate of toxins from landfills mentioned above also leads to health problems in
surrounding ecosystems and human and animal populations. Additionally, due to growing
population sizes, more trash is being discarded than ever before. This means that more and more
landfills are being constructed, which requires clearing areas of the wild that provide ecosystem
services and habitat to numbers of plants and animals.  This, in turn, leads to improvements in
the environment

4. Generates Organic Fertilizer

The liquid digestive after anaerobic digester process is a great alternative to chemical fertilizers
because it can accelerate plant growth and resilience to diseases, whereas commercial fertilizers
contain chemicals that have toxic effects and can cause food poisoning, among other things.  

W-Weaknesses
1. Little Technology Advancements:

Very little technological advancements have been made or introduced for streamlining and
making the process cost effective and hence the systems that are currently used are not efficient
enough. Hence, even the large scale industrial production of biogas is not shown or isn't visible
on the energy map [1]. This issue can be seen in Malaysia where fifteen biogas plants from
livestock waste were developed throughout Malaysia as at 2018 as shown in Figure 2. It was
found that only 40% of the biogas plants were still functional. 60% were dormant or non-
functional due to many factors such as poor maintenance, construction and design errors, weak
technical support and lack of technical knowledge to run the system consistently, improper
planning and monitoring as well as insufficient livestock waste to continuously produce biogas
[2].

Figure 2 : Distribution of biogas plant in Malaysia.

2.It consists of impurities:

Biogas goes through many refining processes and yet contains a number of impurities. The
metals in an engine can start corroding if this biogas full of impurities is used as a fuel after
compressing the biogas

3. Biogas is not attractive on large scale:

Large scale usage of biogas is not economically viable. Enhancing the efficiency of biogas
systems is very difficult as well. As for example, currently in Malaysia, is lacking of
underground pipelines and connections to the national grid, as well as other technical challenges
such as appropriate waste segregation, waste collection, and waste allocation and storage, create
difficulties to distribute and utilise biogas [2].

4. Biogas is unstable in nature:

When methane comes in contact with oxygen, biogas tends to become flammable in nature. This
happens because biogas is unstable and hence it is vulnerable to explosions [3].

O-Opportunities

1. Reduces waste volume by 90% and replace fossil fuel combustion.

Livestock waste is one of the significant source of water and air pollution . Waste management at
farm has been an issue to solve organic waste disposal problem. By using biogas as fuel to
generate enegry it can reduce waste volume and replace fossil fuel combustion.[2]

2. Additional income for farmers who sell agricultural waste

The government involvement is important as support networks, especially in providing incentive

to all farmers such as proposing the distribution of subsidy to all farmers that build biogas plants
in the future, hence, helping to preserve and save the environment.[2]

3. Treated bottom ash can be used as organic fertilizer

After all the process in Biogas power plant are finish, the waste the been used as fuel combustion
can be used as organic fertilizer for plant. Ashes contain potassium, a major plant nutrient plus a
number of minor nutrients. Ashes contain all the mineral elements that were in the wood, except
for nitrogen and sulfur which are lost through the burning process.

4. Biogas plant keep the household and surroundings clean and green
Biogas system helps to minimise environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions as
methane is 30 times more harmful than carbon dioxide. Methane is the major compound in
biogas which enable to trap heat in the atmosphere that can cause climate change.[3]

T-Threats

1. Lack of required knowledge and technical expertise.

- Due to lack of knowladge lead to poor maintenace, lack of tehcnical support and
thecnical knowledge to run the system.[4]

2. Lack and/or inadequacy of means of transport for feedstock and byproduct.

- The lack of transport will lead either the organic waste is not continuously fed or
over fed into the biogas plant will lead to less or no generation of biogas and
results in feeding the Inoculum (cow dung) again in order to make the plant
function.[5]

3. Lack of support from the goverment and the relevent authorities.

- Some of the relevent stakeholder believe that biogas project is high risk and have
a long payback period.[5]

4. High cost of biogas production, transportation, clean-up, and upgrading.

- Biogas plant have high cost in construction, upgrading and clean-up. Besides that,
the long term costing is trasnportation of feedstock that will always non-stop
supply the feedstock and the cost of the transportation will increase base on the
distance of the feedstock.[5]

TASK 2
 The current irrational use of fossil fuels and the impact of greenhouse gases on the
environment are driving research into renewable energy production from organic resources and
waste. The global energy demand is high, and most of this energy is produced from fossil
resources. However, with the latest advancement of technology, biogas has gained popularity as
the source of renewable energy resource. In the last few years, the production of biogas
renewable has shown significant increment in 2016 with installed capacity of 16GW in the
Europe. However, in the Asian region, only able to generate 1.5 GW due to many factors such as
poor maintenance, construction and design errors, weak technical support and lack of technical
knowledge to run the system consistently, improper planning and monitoring as well as
insufficient livestock waste to continuously produce biogas. Currently biogas production is
dominated by Germany with 8000 of biogas power plant unlike Malaysia which used to have 15
biogas power plant and only 40 % still remain fuctioning. Germany has successfully utilized the
renewable energy resources from biogas by successfully producing clean biogas with (99%
methane) that can be fed directly into the natural gas networks. In order for Malaysia to sustain
the implementation of biogas power plant, biogas company in Malaysia must be improved in
term of technology, technical knowledge and management.

Figure 3: Biogas production around the world

REFERENCES
[1] G. Y. S. Mtui, “Trends in industrial and environmental biotechnology research in
Tanzania,” African J. Biotechnol., vol. 6, no. 25, pp. 2860–2867, 2007.

[2] M. Journal et al., “Current status of animal waste based biogas plants in Malaysia,”
Malaysian J. Vet. Res., vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 117–121, 2018.

[3] S. Bhardwaj, “A Review : Advantages and Disadvantages of Biogas,” pp. 890–893, 2017.

[1] “Advantages and Disadvantages of Biogas | HomeBiogas Help Center.” [Online].

Available: https://intercom.help/homebiogas/en/articles/1653449-advantages-and-
disadvantages-of-biogas. [Accessed: 11-Mar-2020].

[2] M. Journal et al., “Current status of animal waste based biogas plants in Malaysia,”
Malaysian J. Vet. Res., vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 117–121, 2018.

[3] H. Zhuh et al., “Electrical Performance Analysis of Biogas Fuelled Generator with
Purifier,” vol. 2, pp. 8–9.

[4] CURRENT STATUS OF ANIMAL WASTE BASED BIOGAS PLANTS

IN MALAYSIA
NURUL AINI M.Y.1, SUHAIMI D.2, NURSHUHADA S.1, ROSLAN M.Y.1 AND
NORAZEAN M.F.1 (Volume 9 No. 2 July 2018 MALAYSIAN JOURNAL OF
VETERINARY RESEARCH • pages 117-121

[5] Renewable Energy Policy Status and Challenges of POME-Biogas Industry

in Malaysia
Wong, SIEW YIEN,aAmir, HAMZAH SHARAAI,b*Faradiella, MOHD KUSIN,a
& Mohd, MANSOR ISMAIL,c