Looking to the sun and biomass

Date : 070804
Source : Sun2surf (The Sun Online)
Title : Looking to the sun and biomass by Sharon Kam

Quantum H2's industrial engineer Chaizul Shamsuddin checks the hydrogen production chamber (HPC) system before starting the car. Though it can only be driven up to 50km per hour and is sometimes jerky, it is only the beggining.

BLESSED WITH generous reserves of oil and gas, Malaysia is painlessly able to meet its current energy needs. These fossil fuels, which are mainly sourced off the coast of Terengganu and Sarawak, provide 80% of the national primary energy supply.
Today, natural gas is the mainstay of our energy regime, fuelling 70% of power plants in the country.

However, electricity suppliers are turning increasingly to imports of coal, a cheap but polluting energy source. This trend will continue as the energy sector moves away from an over-dependence on oil, which provided almost 80% of the power generated at one point.
However, fossil fuels are finite and gradually depleting. Hence, the world is looking at renewable energy (RE) to power the future.

Major power and fuel companies in the world are vigorously looking into alternative sources of energy. Not to be left behind, Petronas, too, has embarked on a RE research programme.
Estimating our oil reserves is a subjective matter, as it can change with the discovery of new fields.
For now, Petronas expects the country's oil reserves to last another 18 years while gas reserves would last another 34 years.

"It is difficult to quantify when our oil and gas resources will be depleted," says Lim Cheong Chuan (pix), principal assistant secretary of the International and Sustainable Energy Division of the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications.

"Natural gas is estimated to last about three to four times longer than oil but we will never know exactly when. Maybe deep down in the ocean somewhere, there may still be large sources of oil which are still undiscovered."

However, one thing is for sure: oil will cost more in future as drilling for the resource gets more expensive, the deeper and more inaccessible the deposit.

According to the 2002 report on the National Energy Balance of Malaysia, oil consumption stood at 21.9 million tonnes and production at 33.6 million tonnes. Energy consumption is currently growing at a rate of 8% annually. Considering the fact that demand is constantly growing against finite conventional energy resources, it would be wise to diversify into renewable forms of energy. Furthermore, not only are fossil fuels finite, emissions from their combustion processes are also major contributors to greenhouse gases, the cause of global warming. Malaysia is a signatory to the UN Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol which commit it to take steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Besides being replenishable, another plus for renewable energy is that it is generally cleaner than fossil fuels.

To ensure sustainability of energy resources and to reduce the generation of greenhouse gases, the government in the 8th Malaysia Plan (2001-05), gave RE the status of a fifth fuel after gas, hydro, coal and oil in its energy supply mix. The energy policy emphasises the importance of energy efficiency and RE initiatives. In line with this policy, efforts have been undertaken to encourage the use of renewable sources of energy, including solar, mini-hydro, municipal waste and agricultural biomass.

The present policy is to encourage the private sector to take the lead in RE development and application. Under the Small Renewable Energy Power programme (SREP) launched in May 2001, small power operators that use renewable sources can sell electricity to Tenaga Nasional, each providing up to a maximum of 10MW into the national distribution grid system.
To date, 59 applications have been approved with a capacity of 352MW, says Lim. "The bottom line is to encourage more RE power plants." The government's main focus at present is on biomass and solar (thermal) energy in view of their availability and huge potential. The main biomass resource in the country comes in the form of agriculture wastes, such as oil palm waste and rice husk, and municipal solid waste.

As the largest palm oil producer in the world, the country has more than 300 palm oil mills producing an estimated 19 million tonnes of crop residues per year. Empty fruit bunches, fibre and even palm oil mill effluent or wastewater can be used for the generation of steam and electricity. What is needed is to determine the viability of this resource use on an industrial scale.
The project, called the Biomass-based Power Generation and Cogeneration in Malaysia Palm Oil Industry (Biogen) Project undertaken by Pusat Tenaga Malaysia (PTM) with financing from the United Nations Development Programme-Global Environment Facility and the government, kicked off in October 2002. The five-year project aims to be a model plant to demonstrate the viability of palm oil waste as a power generation source.

The programme's developers hope that financial institutions will be convinced about the viability of RE projects as a lack of finances is a major hindrance to their development, says PTM chief executive officer Dr Anuar Abdul Rahman (pix).

More recently, however, other uses for oil palm waste have emerged in the fertiliser and the pulp and paper industries, creating competition for the raw material.
"Oil palm waste is no longer a waste considering its use in other industries. It is no longer as freely or as regularly available as it was before, so there is a problem there," Lim explains.
Solar power is another important option, particularly for rural electrification and water heating.
Solar water heaters are commonly used by the urban population. It is estimated that some 10,000 units of domestic solar water heater systems have been installed nationwide.
However, solar photovoltaic (PV) power supply has been limited to some special applications in remote locations.

Although solar power has tremendous potential, especially for remote areas in Sabah and Sarawak, the cost of PV panels and technology is still too expensive for mass power generation, says Anuar. "Currently, about 400 kilowatts-peak (kwp) of solar power supply is grid connected with 362kwp coming from Technology Park Malaysia," he says. However, this cost equation is set to change.

The Malaysian Building Integrated Photovoltaic (MBIPV) Project, also undertaken by PTM, aims to reduce the cost of solar PV power supply in the long term by 20%, through its application in building designs. The full project is scheduled to begin early next year. "We aim to achieve a 20% reduction in cost which will make it comparable with the current cost of electricity," says Anuar. PTM is also the coordinator for the National Steering Committee on Solar, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell. The committee is currently drafting a road map for the next 20 years on the development of the new RE resources. It is expected to be completed at the end of the year.
The road map will chart out the problems and direction towards the successful development and application of these three RE resources in the country.

Hydrogen and fuel-cell technology, where energy is converted into electricity and heat without combustion have been identified as potential alternative sources of energy. "Hydrogen is the "in" thing because it is very clean as the only emission you get is water. Unfortunately, it is still very expensive and one would need to build suitable infrastructure for commercial usage," Anuar explains.

Other RE resources include household waste through landfill gasification, and mini-hydro plants.
Academic and research institutions are given opportunities to develop RE technology while RE fiscal incentives were given in the 2003 Budget.

Malaysia is currently working on hands-on applications of RE in a number of projects.
It is estimated that by achieving 5% share of RE in electricity generation, Malaysia can save RM2.8 billion over a 20-year period just by reducing coal imports. It would also result in a reduction of 70 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2020.

To date, less than 1% of electricity is RE-generated. "We are still at a very preliminary or academic stage. We are heavily dependent on fossil fuels but we have to start somewhere because it may take decades to achieve even 10% of RE-generated power for the country," says Lim. There are several barriers to the development and application of RE in the country, including the lack of awareness on the benefits of RE and the high cost of investments.
"The urgency lies in the fact that we may be a net importer of oil in the years to come," says Lim.

"We cannot afford to keep on pinching the technology from the other more developed countries because we have to pay for it, so we have to try to develop our local expertise," he says.
There is a lot of research on RE going on in the country but full-scale applications are lacking. This is mainly due to the ringgit and sen factor. RE developers who want to sell their power to TNB may find the tariff rates too low while financial institutions are still sceptical about financing RE projects.

Those who think that using RE is expensive probably forget to consider the cost to the environment compared with conventional fuel. As Lim says, "Unlike the haze, we cannot see greenhouse gases, so maybe that is why people do not feel the urgency."Have water will travel
IT WON'T BE too long before we see cars running on the road spewing water vapour instead of deadly exhaust fumes. theSun team had an opportunity to experience that future during a ride in one such vehicle recently. The test car was jerky at times, but overall it was smooth. It could be driven up to 50kmh, not very fast, but this is only the beginning of greater things to come, hopefully.

Chief engineer Chaizul Shamsuddin of Quantum H2 said the fuel cost of the car is 30-40% less than petrol and generates hardly any pollution. The company is not hoping to produce a car that runs on water, but rather the technology which allows not only the car but everything else which needs energy, to run on water. More accurately, the new energy source is hydrogen harvested from water. The car used for the experiment was fixed with the company's prototype HPC or hydrogen production chamber system.

This "breaks" water up to produce hydrogen gas which is regulated to serve as the fuel source for the car engine. The electricity produced from the HPC also powers the company's showroom. Hydrogen is safe, clean and abundant. After all, it is present in the air we breathe. Although hydrogen is known as a very efficient fuel (three times more efficient than petrol), it is not widely used as hydrogen extraction and production methods are very expensive. Thus, its use is limited to experimental needs.

Multi-million dollar research and development is being carried out around the world to find the best way to harness the gas as an alternative fuel. Locally, however, Quantum H2 Sdn Bhd, a small company with only a capital investment of a little over US$1 million (RM3.8 million), has over five years succeeded in inventing a system which can produce on demand hydrogen cheaply.

Company marketing director Yee K.P. (pix) says the HPC system is able to produce an unlimited amount of clean energy using water of almost any kind without external fuel and at a relatively low cost. In a process similar to cold fusion where energy can be produced using low heat, hydrogen gas is produced via a reaction between a specially concocted compound combined with water of any kind.

The hydrogen gas produced can then be used to generate electricity or heat, or as gas.
"You can use normal tap water, sewage water, milk, Coke, any kind of water and it will work just as well," says Yee. On the secret formula of the compound created, Yee would only divulge that it is made up of inexpensive yet abundantly available natural materials."It is something you can get very cheaply anywhere," he said.

Since the HPC produces hydrogen on demand, it also eliminates the conventional way of hydrogen storage in compressed containers making it safer as well. The HPC is also portable as it runs on the energy it produces. All you need is a little water and the special compound.
Samples of the hydrogen gas produced from the HPC were tested at the Environmental and Energy Technology Centre in Sirim and it was found that the hydrogen standard of purity produced was 99.9%.

One litre of water and 26 sen of the formulated material can produce about one kwh of electricity, heat and additional gas to operate a one-burner cooking stove for one to one-and-a-half hours. Yee said the company is working on refining the technology for various applications, including as vehicle fuel. "Imagine, instead of searching for a petrol station all you need is a little bit of water or anything else containing water, to run your car.

"Fishing boats need not store petrol or diesel on board, they just use sea water," he said.
However, it will take some time before the technology reaches that stage. Nevertheless, the company feels the technology is ready to be commercialised, at least to produce the energy needs for industries and office buildings.

"We would be able to sell electricity to the end- user at 40% less than what your regular energy cost. Large commercial buildings which spend hundreds of thousands of ringgit every month on their electricity bill should give this alternative a try," said Yee. He said a few companies have voiced interest in using the HPC-produced electricity supply for their buildings while a foreign government has also proposed a business arrangement with the company.
For information, e-mail quantum_h2@yahoo.com

Benefits of using palm diesel

THE Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), in collaboration with national oil company Petronas, has developed a patented technology to transform crude palm oil into a diesel substitute. Palm diesel has been systematically evaluated as diesel fuel substitute from 1983 to 1994. These included laboratory evaluation, stationary engine testing and field trials on a large number of vehicles including taxis, trucks, cars and buses. Field trials with Mercedes Benz of Germany on buses have been successfully completed with each bus covering 300,000km, the expected life of the engines.

No modification of the engines is required, there is cleaner exhaust emission and fuel consumption is comparable with petroleum diesel. The patented palm diesel technology is now exported to a company in South Korea. A more recent initiative is to use palm olein (or cooking oil) as an alternative fuel. It is used directly in blends with petroleum diesel. Many MPOB vehicles have been using the B2, consisting of 2% of palm olein in petroleum diesel. Hydrogen fuel cell carsFuel cell technology has been available for decades. Every major carmaker has been researching and developing some type of fuel cell vehicle. DaimlerChrysler, General Motors, Ford, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan predict that full commercialisation for the public will begin in a decade.

The toughest challenge is in making them cheap enough for everyone.
In 2002, Honda's FCX was the first fuel-cell car to be certified for use in the US. There are 12 Honda fuel-cell cars on the road in the United States to date. Recently, Associated Press reported DaimlerChrysler loaned five Mercedes-Benz A-class "F-Cell" cars to companies and a government department in Singapore for two years of road testing. Since 1994, Daimler-Chrysler has invested US$1 billion (RM3.8 billion) in the technology, which powers vehicles with compressed hydrogen.

The engines emit no pollutants, as the only waste material is pure water. Prototype hydrogen-fuelled vehicles typically cost US$1 million to US$2 million (RM3.8 million to RM7.6 million) each.

It'll cost Singapore S$50 (RM110) to refuel the car with a tank that can travel 160km. Refueling can be done at a specially equipped gas station in the eastern part of Singapore. The eco-house is developed by the director of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Advanced Engineering Centre Prof Kamaruzzaman Sopian and architect Shah Jaafar. It is the world's first self-sustainable house powered by hydrogen.

The house was constructed to showcase the viability of solar hydrogen technology for residential buildings. Instead of conventional electricity, the eco-house uses hydrogen as fuel to generate electricity to operate household appliances. PV panels are mounted on the rooftop and the solar power is used to convert ionised water into hydrogen through electrolysis, which breaks down compounds using electricity. The hydrogen tank is located some distance from the house and a pipe connects it to the utility gas line in the house. The gas operates a fuel cell to produce electricity.

The design of the house incorporates low energy features such as shades and daylight and natural ventilation to lower temperature. Technology Park Malaysia uses solar energy to power its IT server rooms and network equipment for TPMNet. The solar powered, grid connected system with a UPS battery bank and a generator backup ensures uninterrupted and secure power supply for TPM. This is the largest solar array project in the Asia Pacific. TPM's Solar Research Centre has also embarked on an R&D project which involves the production of silicon cells and solar module manufacturing. Future projects by TPM include harnessing solar energy for its Computer Integrated Farm to ensure continuous power supply for its Biotechnology Division.