14/02/2011 (The Denki Shimbun (The Electric Daily News)) - In Malaysia, a thermal power generation project using waste from the milling of palm fruit for oil extraction as fuel has gotten on track. Initially, there was a problem with unsteady combustion temperature in boilers due to an inability to skillfully adjust the amount of moisture in the fuel, but this problem was resolved with experience, and the boiler now remains in stable operation.

The power stations are operated by the Malaysian firms Kina Biopower and Seguntor Bioenergy. The two firms constructed two power stations in the city of Sandakan in the province of Sabah, on the island of Borneo. The stations were placed into operation one after the other in January and February of 2009. Each has an output of 10 MW.

Malaysia is the world's second-largest producer of palm oil, and about 30% (about 5.4 million tons annually) of its production is sited in Sabah, where the power stations stand. A huge amount of empty fruit bunches are discarded as waste from the oil extraction process, and the two power stations taken together utilize about 10% (about 600,000 tons) of the total. The bunches undergo a process sequence consisting of removal of impurities, cutting into a fibrous form, and reduction of moisture before insertion into boilers. In addition to curtailing the generation of methane gas that occurs when the bunches are dumped, the effective use of empty fruit bunches as fuel helps to reduce use of gas oil, which fills most of the power demand in Sabah.

Japan's Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. supplied 18% of the funding for this project, and expects to receive Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) credits totaling about 2 million tons by fiscal 2012.