97th Professorial Inaugural Lecture Series by Professor Dr. C. Shreeshivadasan

Waste Management through Anaerobic Digestion – Opportunities and Challenges from Malaysia’s Perspective

Abstract

The waste management using anaerobic digestion (AD) not only help protect the environment but also produces useful biogas for energy production. For this regard, the interest in the AD process has increased rapidly worldwide, particularly in Malaysia. Depletion of fossil fuels and environmental deterioration has led to extensive research and development activities to explore renewable energy such as biogas generation from anaerobic digestion of waste for power generation. It has been proven to be a promising alternative to waste disposal and a valuable technology for renewable energy recovery. Although anaerobic digestion is proven to be a feasible and economically viable technology for renewable energy generation of wastes, there are challenges in implementing this technology in Malaysia. This presentation reviews the opportunities and challenges from Malaysia’s perspective the potential for biogas production from various wastewater treatment and waste management industries in Malaysia. It also discusses the benefits and barriers for anaerobic digestion technology deployment to harness the biogas energy potential to support the renewable energy target in Malaysia. In the past, the technical competence and high capital investment required for industrial-scale anaerobic digesters have limited their uptake, but recent advances have made smaller-scale systems more viable through a greater understanding of optimising bacterial metabolism and productivity. Broader issues such as life cycle assessment and energy policies to promote AD are also discussed. Moreover, the application of AD in palm oil mill’s in Malaysia has shown tremendous potential for electricity generation and emission avoidance. Biogas generated from AD of palm oil mill effluent (POME) can replace palm kernel shell and mesocarp fibre which has higher economic value as boiler fuel; upgraded to be used in the gas engine for power generation. This presentation also included the elaboration on the potential of POME as a source of renewable energy and the challenges faced by the palm oil mills in Malaysia which deter the development of biogas plants in the mill.