10/12/2012 (Borneo Post) - Kubota Corporation’s (Kubota) Anaerobic and Aerobic Membrane Bioreactor System will spur more efficient biogas production and better utilisation of land in the state via its design which significantly reduces the size of ponds used to collect palm oil mill effluent (POME).

Kubota, which made headlines last month with the joint announcement of an ongoing development of a biogas plant in Sarawak (the first of its kind in the world), would construct the plant in tandem with the construction of a new oil palm mill by BBC Palm Oil Mill Sdn Bhd (BBC Oil Palm Mill).

Via a media presentation, the corporation’s biogas group divisional manager Masashi Moro had illustrated that the membrane bioreactor (MBR) system would produce ‘20 per cent more biogas yield’ while the final POME discharge would be of ‘high quality’ with the entire operation taking up a smaller carbon footprint.

Specifically, the biological oxygen demand (BOD) level would be less than 20 parts per million (ppm) which was the maximum threshold level specified by the state’s authorities, namely the Department of Environment and that the Natural Resources and Environment Board In addition, the Kubota biogas plant and sludge pond to be built alongside the mill would take up a land area of about 1.5 hectares (ha), effectively taking up less than 30 per cent of a larger footprint of more than five ha required for a conventional effluent pond system, Moro stated.

BBC Oil Palm Mill director Christopher Yek told The Borneo Post that the construction of the oil palm mill and biogas plant involved clearing of existing oil palm trees but the new design helped reduce the number of trees felled which in turn would help preserve revenue for the plantation.

When asked if the practice of using MBRs could be widely accepted in the oil palm industry, Yek responded positively while adding that at a recent conference in Kota Kinabalu, the government had given indications of encouraging biogas plants of this nature in oil palm mills across Malaysia.

Upon completion, BBC Oil Palm Mill would be capable of processing 60 metric tonnes of oil palm fruits while emitting about 624 cubic metres per day (average) of POME per day and 936 cubic metres per day at peak crop and according to Moro.

The POME in turn would be turned into biogas which a net calorific value of 500,000 mega joules per day while the final resultant discharge would have a BOD of less than 20ppm.

Kubota, a company listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is the world’s No. 1 supplier of membranes for MBR systems, having completed more than 3,800 installations worldwide.

The corporation reported a net income of 30.63 billion yen from a turnover of 546.5 billion yen for the six month-period ended September 30, 2012.

For the financial year ending March 31, 2013, the corporation is anticipating a net income of 65 billion yen on the back of a turnover of 1.15 trillion yen (up 14.1 per cent year-on-year).