Aug 17, 2007

Recycler to build wood waste-fired power plant here

LOCAL wood waste recycler Biofuel Industries yesterday signed a preliminary agreement with Industrial Power Technology (IPT) to build what could be Singapore’s first on-grid power plant using waste wood as a fuel source.

The co-generation plant, expected to be ready by the start of 2009, will consume about 600 tonnes of waste wood a year and generate 14.9 megawatts (MW) of electricity.

Of this, 9.9 MW will be sold to the grid and 5 MW will be used for the plant’s internal consumption. The plant, which will cost more than $30 million to build, will also produce steam for Biofuel’s downstream processes, such as to treat waste wood.

According to the Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources, waste- to-energy plants have contributed 2 per cent of Singapore’s energy supply since 2000.

Four existing incineration plants — at Ulu Pandan, Tuas, Senoko and Tuas South — now process about 8,200 tonnes of waste daily, generating more than 250 MW of electricity In the process.

Keppel Corp is building a fifth waste-to-energy plant that will process 800 tonnes per day of municipal waste and generate some 20 MW of green electricity when ready in 2009.

Burning wood waste is more efficient than burning municipal waste that Includes wood because of the various components of municipal waste, said Biofuel chief executive Eugene Lee.

The company, founded in 2003, gets waste wood from disposal companies or construction sites and collects timber or horticultural waste.

Last year, it completed a $20 million plant to treat the wood and cut it into chips, which are sold as fuel overseas. Singapore produces about 1,000-1,500 tonnes of wood waste daily. Mr Lee said.

For its own plant, Biofuel will have to increase its collection of waste wood — for which it is paid $40-$60 per tonne — and use it internally, rather than selling it abroad. The company is also working with consultants to register the plant with the United Nations to earn carbon credits, which could be worth $1 million a year.

IPT chairman Idris Bin Abdullah said his firm has completed six biomass power stations of 6 MW to 10 MW capacity around South-east Asia.

In Thailand, these include two plants for rice mills that burn rice husks and a co-generation plant for a textile manufacturer that burns wood chips bought from external sources. In Malaysia, IPT has completed a co-generation plant for a palm oil refinery that uses empty fruit bunches — the waste left behind after oil is extracted from the fruit.

The firm licenses technology for boilers from German firm ERK, which it manufactures in China.