Malaysia’s POIC to Purchase Palm Biomass for Power Generation

Malaysia’s POIC (Palm Oil Industrial Cluster) in the state of Sabah has confirmed its plans for purchasing biomass based on palm from millers for the purpose of power generation. POIC has been granted financial assistance by the state government.

By using the right technology, biomass sources like empty fruit bunches could be used as a fuel source towards generating electricity in the domestic as well as the industrial sector. This initiative will not be coercing people into selling biomass to POIC nor will it prevent people from buying organic wastes.

Biomass generation from mills could amount to six million tonnes annually but instead they are left over as organic waste matter. Therefore, it makes logical sense for millers to make money by way of selling such organic wastes to the government. There are 176 numbers of palm oil mills in the industrial cluster vicinity. A novel biomass power plant with 23 MW capacity is anticipated to come up by 2012 in the location of Lahad Datu, while two 10-W biomass plants are already operating in the Sandakan area.