Assalamualaikum and greetings to all..
Here are our mini project. :)
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| Main Entrance Felda Palm Industries Sdn. Bhd. |
On this visit,
our group has joined with other groups for mini project purpose. We interviewed the officer of Felda Serting Hilir to gain our knowledge in biogas industry. The Felda Serting Hilir
convey or brief us a little bit about the process of producing electricity through biogas processes by use palm oil as the primary source.
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| From right: Nur Athirah, Nur Syahidah, En.Omar, Anis Najihah, Hanis Amirah, Nia Afiera |
Exactly at 3 pm, Mr. Omar
as biomass executive
has told a little bit about the background of the company and the
process used to obtain electricity
from oil palm. Firstly, FELDA
Palm Industries SDN BHD is an integrated palm oil company that operate 71 palm
oil mills and it one of Malaysia’s leading producer of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and
Palm Kernel Oil (PKO). Processed Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) predominantly comes
from its own plantation and partly from smallholder plantations. Here is an overview of
the FELDA Serting Hilir mill is presented in table below.
Parameter
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Description
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Location
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Negeri Sembilan, West Malaysia
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Commissioned
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August 10th 1987
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capacity
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54 mt/hour
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POME treatment method
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Anaerobic and aerobic pond
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DOE Licence
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60 mt/hour
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SterilizerType
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Compact Modular Concept (CMC)
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Mill area
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15.59 hectare
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Effluent Treatment
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Biogas Plant/Effluent Treatment Plant
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Boiler
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✓ 1 unit WTB Daelim (45 mt/hour)
✓ 2 units WTB Takuma (18 mt/hour)
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The
method that had been use to produce electricity in this site is by using biogas
technique. It consists of 5 units Bioreactor such as gas purifications and
flaring. The purpose of this biogas plant is to obtain methane gas from
anaerobic digestion process producing synthetic diesel for generating electricity.
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| Biogas Plant Process Flow |
For the processing of FFB, steam is
used for sterilization and hot water for dilution. All these steam will produce
waste water with high organic content, known as Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME). To produce methane, they used to 2 system which are pond and tank. For pond system, the frequency for using
this system is
70% because it is easier to maintain
the pond but it will cause the high maintenance. While for tank system, the
frequency for usage this system is 30%. This system will use wide-scale land and also can produce more biogas.
The parameters that involves in POME are VFA, CO2, pH, biogas
production and the stability of residual water.
After one hour of briefing the details of the biogas process and everything that related to biomass gasification, Mr. Omar brought us to vicinity of the biogas plant site. We went to site that have full of oil palm fresh fruit. Next, we
were taken to the sterilizer area. Here the fruit of the oil palm has been
cooked in high temperature to remove bacteria and softens the fruit structure of the palms.The remaining palms that have been cooked are moved to the Thresher machine to remove/ dislodge the fruit bunches of oil palm until only the empty palm bunches (fibre) is removed from the Thresher Machine. The oil palms fruit is brought to Digester and to the Compressor. the oil palm fruit cannot be compressed too strong or too low because if the fruit is compressed too low, the oil cannot be extract.
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| Process Flow Chart |
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| Bakground details Felda Palm Industries Sdn. Bhd. |
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| We are moving to another sites |
Empty bunch fibre will be collected and processed to
produce fertilizer. The interesting fact that we got from these site visit is if your
nose is being exposed in long period in
this area, our sense of smell will slowly disappears and you cannot smell anything. During the separation process
is run, it will produce EFB
juice or in
other words is
palm oil that has not been filtered yet.
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| The bunches of Oil Palm Fruits |
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| Empty Bunch Press |
Moreover, waste than palm oil will be channel
into the POME pond. The temperature waste is extremely high because there is the
steam coming out or produce rather than waste through drains that connected with
pool. Finally, the palm oil that has not been processed was stored in the oil tank. As the result,
from the palm oil that has been processed we can get biodiesel fuel. Next, the
tanker will carry out the biodiesel fuel
for sale.
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| Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) Pond |
Our next destination
was biogas plant. Here, we get a detail explanation about anaerobic processes, where bacteria
methanogens will be put into a tank which
contains POME. Methanogens
is a kind of good bacteria which will eat
POME produce methane gas. The pH in the tank will be checked by
the workers every day to ensure the pH value in the range of 7-7.6. If the pH value is below 6.6,
the tank will
be bio acid and causing
the tank smelled sour plus the smell
may also turn off
our sense. This
happens because the tanks
exceed the allowable quantity feeding of
POME. Thus, to
solve this problem, we have to remove half the volume and
add new methanogens.
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| Bioreactor |
Besides, the next destination is Main Control Room where this room is operating 24 hours per days. The biogas(methane gas) produced before were transferred to the Bioscrubber Tank and the biogas (methane gas) will flows into the Steam Turbine. The Steam Turbines spins the blade of the Turbine and will make the Gas Engine or Generator to generate electricity. The electricity produced will be channel to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) of 500kW
per hour and
per 1kW value
is RM 0.21.
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| Bioscrubber Tank |
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| Main Control Room |
Here is the video of the interview session.
That's all about biomass gasification or biogas. Thank you to all who are participated/ involved directly or indirectly in this mini project for Introduction Renewable Energy with entitled of Production of Biomass Gasification/Biogas.
Special thanks to our lecturer, Miss Zuraidah Rasep and the staff or officer in Felda Palm Industries Sdn. Bhd.We hope you enjoy it. :)
Special thanks to our lecturer, Miss Zuraidah Rasep and the staff or officer in Felda Palm Industries Sdn. Bhd.We hope you enjoy it. :)
