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Reduction of Methane Released from Palm Oil Mill Lagoon in Malaysia and Its Countermeasures

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Abstract

Palm oil industry in Malaysia is one of the potential candidates for the CDM project because large amount of methane is emitted from the lagoons and open digesting tank of the wastewater treatment system. Therefore the first objective of the project is to investigate the actual GHG emission from the lagoons and open digesting tank in palm oil mills in order to establish the baseline for CDM project. Results indicated that methane contribution to biogas released from the open digesting tank and lagoon systems were 35% and 45%, respectively. These values are much lower than the reported value of 65% obtained by complete anaerobic condition of lab-scale experiments. Based on actual methane release measurement and information gathered from palm oil mill about wastewater treatment, significant amount of methane emission to the atmosphere can be reduced with the installation of new closed digesting tank system converted from the open digesting tank such as just by covering it with applying CDM. It is estimated that a total of RM2.6 million could be obtained from the selling of electricity generated from biogas generation and Certified Emission Reduction(CER).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, 2-4 Hibikino, Wakamatsu-ku, 808-0196, Kitakyushu-shi, Japan

    Yoshihito Shirai, Minato Wakisaka & Shahrakbah Yacob

  2. Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Food Science and Biotechnology, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang Selangor, Malaysia

    Mohd Ali Hassan

  3. EX Corporation, 17-22, Takada 2 chome, Toshima-ku, Tokyo, 171-0033, Japan

    Shin’ichi Suzuki

Authors
  1. Yoshihito Shirai
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  2. Minato Wakisaka
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  3. Shahrakbah Yacob
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  4. Mohd Ali Hassan
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  5. Shin’ichi Suzuki
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Shirai, Y., Wakisaka, M., Yacob, S. et al. Reduction of Methane Released from Palm Oil Mill Lagoon in Malaysia and Its Countermeasures. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 8, 237–252 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:MITI.0000005641.97009.14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:MITI.0000005641.97009.14

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