Landfill Gas Project

Saturday May 7, 2011
Landfill gas project to generate RM12mil royalties for MPSP
Star

THE Pulau Burung landfill will generate between RM12mil to RM14mil of royalties over the next 12 years for Seberang Prai Municipal Council (MPSP) due to the proposed landfill gasification project.

The project will see the building of a gasification mechanism on 33 hectares of land at Phase I of the landfill.

It will be carried out by Bionersis Enterprise Incorporated, a French-based company which specialises in landfill gas valorisation.

Its Asia Pacific regional managing director Pascal Voisin said the company had the technology to capture and destroy biogas from landfills, which is made up of 50% methane, a greenhouse gas content which is 21 times more harmful than carbon dioxide (C02).

By destroying the biogas, the company will be entitled to receive carbon credits (CERs).

For each tonne of C02 equivalent destroyed, 1 CER is received by the company.

Bionersis sells its CERs to specialised markets or directly to compliance buyers for revenue, Voisin said.

Under the Kyoto Protocol (Global Warming) Agreement, industrialised countries are required to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2% from the levels in 1990.

Industrialised countries are allowed to meet their targets by trading emission allowances between themselves, and also by gaining credits for emission-curbing projects in developing countries.

Pascal added that the company would also be having talks with Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) on utilising the captured methane to generate renewable energy.

“However, we will need a few months to assess the quantity and quality of the gas. Once we have the required quality and quantity of gas, the engines and generators will be installed to produce electricity,” he said, adding that it was estimated to produce some 10mW/hr in power capacity.

Pascal added that electricity generation would probably only take place at the end of next year.

State Local Government and Traffic Management Committee chairman Chow Kon Yeow said as landfill gas (LFG) is a potent greenhouse gas and air pollutant, the state government and its local municipalities had decided to tackle this source of pollution.

“The company was selected from eight companies, which submitted full proposals to the state Economic Planning Unit (Upen) in 2009. After evaluation and assessment, the technical review panel and Upen on March 31 last year had shortlisted Bionersis to carry out the project, the first of its kind in Penang.”

He said among the factors considered during the short-listing process was experience in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project, royalties to the local authority, application technologies, project funding mechanism and impact assessment to the landfill.

“Financial implication to the state and local authorities and the feasibility studies of the project were also taken into account,” he said.

He was speaking after the project’s signing ceremony in Komtar on Thursday between Bionersis and MPSP.

MPSP president Maimunah Mohd Sharif described it as another step towards a cleaner, greener Penang.

Work on the gasification mechanism is expected to begin sometime in June and to be ready for commission about one year later, at a cost of around RM13.3mil.

Once ready, about four to five employees of the company will be employed to manage it.