Alternative Energy

and Environment
(Topic: Biomass)
“An Overview of the
Development Potential in
Turkey and Malaysia. “

Dicky Nalendra S.
(4217201004)
Background
 Energy sustainability.
 Biomass, as an energy source, has an
advantage over other sources of
renewable energy, as it can be stored
and is readily available all year round
from various sources.
Figure 1. World bioenergy use by sector and use of traditional
biomass in the new policies scenario (2010 and 2035).
Figure 2. World biomass energy quantity estimations for 2020 (Mtoe-
Million tons of petrol equivalent)
Biomass
Biomass is considered to be a
distinctive and promising type of "green"
energy source. Biomass resources have
been subdivided into three categories,
namely “wastes, forest products, energy
crops.”
Biomass
a. Wastes: agricultural production wastes, crop residues,
agricultural processing wastes, urban organic wastes,
urban wood wastes, and mill wood wastes.

b. Forest products: wood, trees, shrubs and wood

residues, logging residues, sawdust, bark, etc., from
forest clearing.

c. Energy crops: starch crops (corn, wheat and barley),

sugar crops (cane and beet), oilseed crops (soybean,
sunflower, safflower), short rotation woody crops,
herbaceous woody crops and grasses.
Historical Trends of Energy (Turkey)
Historical Trends of Energy (Turkey)
Table 1. Total energy consumption in Turkey (Mtoe)
Historical Trends of Energy (Malaysia)
Turkish Current Status
 Turkey is importing nearly 70% of its total energy
needs.
 At present, electrical consumption per head is
around 400 kWh.
 In most urban and rural regions, biomass is used in
the form of fuelwood and animal wastes mainly
for domestic purposes, e.g. heating and cooking.
 The total recoverable bioenergy potential is
estimated to be of about 16.92 Mtoe.
 The annual production of wastes in the country
amounts to 25 million tons.
Turkish Current Status
 In Turkey, the forest area occupies more than 25%
(over 20 million hectares) of all the land area.
 The total Turkish forest wood production is estimated to
approximately 30 million m3, of which about 60% is
utilized as fire wood
 In Turkey, only 13% of the population is connected to
sewage collection systems, that produce about
500,000 t of sludge per year.
 Approximately 1.5 million tons of biodiesel and 3.0
million tons of bioethanol are produced in Turkey.
 The biogas potential in the country lies around 2.5–4.0
billion m3 ( ± 25 million kWh).
Turkish Current Status
Table 2. Evaluation of plant based biomasses available in
Turkey.
Malaysian Current Status
 Malaysia produces more than 160 million tonnes of
biomass, including oil palm and timber waste, coconut
trunk fibers, rice husks, sugar cane waste and municipal
waste, yearly.
 The energy demand is expected to reach almost 100
Mtoe (million tonnes of oil equivalent) by the year 2030.
 Malaysia's biodiesel industry is successful due to the
abundancy of oil palm.
 Malaysia is world's largest producer and exporter of palm
oil.
 Besides crude palm oil (CPO) and palm kernel oil, the
palm oil industry also produces palm shell, press fibre,
empty fruit bunches (EFB), palm oil mill effluent (POME),
palm trunk (during replanting) and palm fronds (during
pruning).
Malaysian Current Status
 The largest oil palm tree plantations are located within
the states of Sabah and Sarawak, covering a vast
area of 1.200,000 ha.
 Malaysia has the potential to generate about 15 billion
m3 of biogas annually, however, it produces about 60
million tons of POME every year.
 Despite having the potential of producing more than
2400 MW of biomass and 410 MW of biogas, Malaysia
has only harnessed 773 MW (until 2011).
 Landfills are said to generate 53% of methane
emissions in Malaysia.
Table 3. Quantity of biomass produced in Malaysia in 2007 .
Figure 3. Generation of oil palm wastes biomass.
Table 4. Tabulating the world absolute bio-diesel production.
Figure 4. Renewable Energy Consumption in Turkey and Malaysia
(2011) %
Biomass Energy Policies (Turkey)
Public investment and management
have been dominant in the energy
development in Turkey since 1923 onwards.
In February 2001, legislation allowing
competition in the electricity market was
adopted. Important objectives of the
energy policy and strategy, which
encompass renewable energy, include:
Biomass Energy Policies (Turkey)
 To place more emphasis on using domestic energy
resources;
 Accelerate the development of new and renewable
resources of energy;
 Expand energy sources and avoid obtaining energy
from a single source or country;
 Promote private sector investment in energy sources;
 Prepare for the introduction of nuclear power;
 Improve the reliability of the electricity supply and
energy efficiency in the country;
 Improve and protect public health and the
environment;
 Make Turkey a geopolitical location for 'Eurasian
energy corridor'.
Biomass Energy Policies (Malaysia)
Government-linked companies, such as
Petronas and Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), are the
major actors in the Malaysian energy sector. Various
governing regulations and acts, including Petroleum
Development Act (1974), National Petroleum Policy
(1975), National Depletion Policy (1980), Electricity
Supply Act (1990), Gas Supply Acts (1993), Electricity
Regulations (1994), Gas Supply Regulation (1997)
and the Energy Commission Act (2001), are
determining the energy policies of the government
of Malaysia
Biomass Market Status (Turkey)

Table 5. Total recoverable bio-energy potential in Turkey.

Biomass Market Status (Malaysia)
82% of lignocellulosic biomass comes
from oil palm waste, it is important to build
the plant near the plantation in order to
avoid transportation costs. The proposed
capacity of bioethanol, which can be
produced by a biorefinery, is assumed to be
100 t/day.
Biomass Barriers in Turkey
 For heat and electricity production, existing
projects are focused mainly on combustion.
 The land area to replace a significant portion
of the electricity currently generated by coal
limits the use of biomass.
 It is difficult to collect large quantities of
biomass waste due to their dispersed nature.
 Biomass is also difficult and costly to transport.
Biomass Barriers in Malaysia
Some of the main impediments in developing
biomass technology on a larger scale are linked with
the risks associated with applying the latest
technology, financial matters of energy production
for greater market demand, higher cost, efficient
supply and popularity among communities and
factories of using lignocellulosic biomass to
overcome the country's future energy crisis.
Technological Aspects in Turkey
 Wood-related industries and household
users consume the main portion of
biomass energy.
 Only 7 t/ha of wood can be produced
per year.
 To obtain 1 kW of power with a wood
boiler we need 1.43 ha of planted forest.
 The efficiency of an energy forest is
estimated as ranging between 15 and 35
t/ha and the plantation period is of about
4–8 years.
Technological Aspects in Malaysia
 Most lignocellulosic biomass available in Malaysia
does not require any harvesting cost, since it mainly
originates from the waste stream of agriculture and
forestry.
 Replanting an oil palm plantation every 25 years also
generates oil palm trunks and fronds.
 Lignocellulosic biomass has to be dried in order to
facilitate transportation and storage. Since heating is
aided by the free solar resource, the cost of drying
and densification is relatively low.
 Oil palm trunks (OPT) and fibers have the potential to
produce glucose, which could be further fermented
to ethanol.
 The transportation system is well developed in
Malaysia. Major transportation means (truck and rail)
are widely available, providing reliable and
sustainable supply chain to the biorefineries.
Figure 5. Biomass conversion processes and their products
Economic Aspects in Turkey
According to the ‘Law of Priority for
Renewable Energy Sources’, tariff regulations for the
electricity obtained from biomass sources are as
follows: for the plants with a capacity lower than
500kWatts, at least 10.23 cents/kWatt, for the plants
with a capacity lower than 5MWatts, at least 9.2
cents/kWatt and for the plants with a capacity lower
than 500MWatts, at least 8.69 cents/kWatt.
Economic Aspects in Malaysia
Lignocellulosic biomass feedstock is a very
low cost raw material for the production of
bioethanol. Until May 2009, there were 246, 120 and
42 FFB mills in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and
Sarawak, respectively, with a total capacity of 93.23
million tonnes/year.
Overall, the conversion of lignocellulosic
biomass into sugar is very complicated, like that of
starch, due to complex molecular structure, hence
the cost effectiveness of the process is a big
challenge. Novozymes Biotech have developed
some novel enzymes, which reduced the cost of
bioethanol making from > US$5.00 to < 50 cents per
gallon
Alternative Proposals
Both have manifested and proven eco-
friendly characteristics and are economically
feasible feedstock for several bioenergy options.
Moreover, they can be further explored for the
production of different biofuels, such as bioethanol,
biodiesel, biogas, and biohydrogen.
For the production of biofuels, microalgal
biomass is also considered a very effective and
proven feedstock. It has been found that its
components, including carbohydrates, lipids and
proteins, can be transformed by different
procedures into various types of fuels, such as
biodiesel, bioethanol, biohydrogen and biomethane
Conclusion
Malaysia has a relatively unified biomass-
based energy strategy, Turkey, on the other hand, is
following the incremental change approach, hence
it has no unified biomass energy strategy. Malaysia is
more flexible in terms of changing policies and
strategies compared to Turkey. Malaysia is
comparably leading in terms of both efficient
strategies and policies, as well as on practical
grounds.
Refference
Ozturk, M., Saba, N., Altay, V., et. al., 2017. Biomass
and Bioenergy: An Overview of the
Development Potential in Turkey and
Malaysia. Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews 79. Pp (1285–1302).