Coconut and mango waste could help power Asia

DHAKA -- Researchers in the United States say agricultural waste from coconut and mango farming could generate significant amounts of off-grid electricity for rural communities in South and South-East Asia.

Many food crops have a tough, inedible part which cannot be used to feed livestock or fertilise fields. Examples of this material — known as 'endocarp' — include coconut, almond and pistachio shells, and the stones of mangoes, olives, plums, apricots and cherries.

Endocarp is high in a chemical compound known as lignin. High-lignin products can be heated to produce an energy-rich gas that can be used to generate electricity.

The researchers identified high-endocarp-producing regions of the world – and noted that coconut and mango agriculture account for 72 per cent of total global endocarp production. Coconut production alone accounted for 55 per cent.

Most coconut endocarp comes from South and South-East Asian countries, including Bangladesh, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam.

They then overlaid these findings with energy consumption data to identify communities with little access to electricity, who could benefit from endocarp-based energy.

'We noticed that production was unevenly distributed around the globe, which could make a very significant contribution to the energy budget in some countries like Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Philippines, [as well as] regions of India,' Tom Shearin, co-author and a systems analyst at University of Kentucky, United States, told SciDev.Net.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences (February 21), the researchers said endocarp bioenergy could meet up to 30 per cent of total energy needs in Sri Lanka, 25 per cent in the Philippines, 13 per cent in Indonesia, and 3 per cent in India.

Shearin said endocarp was preferable to crop-based biofuels as it had no value as a food item. 'Its exploitation as energy source does not compete with food production,' he said.

Wais Kabir, executive chairman of the Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute, told SciDev.Net that most of the country's agricultural waste, including non-edible by-products, was already used to generate bioenergy.

'I don't think that supply of adequate volumes of coconut shell, [for example] to run a power plant, is possible at this stage until we go for its production in a planned way,' he said.

The researchers acknowledged that efforts to scale up infrastructure to deliver decentralised bio-energy in developing countries would face economic, technical and social challenges.

Advocates of an endocarp-based energy sector would also have to persuade investors that it would be financially viable.

Abser Kamal, managing director of Grameen Shakti, a renewable energy firm in Bangladesh, said: 'We have to check if these are cost-effective or not'.

Islam Sharif, CEO of the Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL), a state-run renewable energy financing firm in Bangladesh, said IDCO would encourage investment in endocarp-based energy production if it was found to be financially viable.

'Bangladesh needs more energy sources to meet its power needs,' Sharif told SciDev.Net.

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Coconut Shell Charcoal Briquette

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Mango Pits and Coconut Shells Could Generate Electricity

More than 1.5 billion people don't have access to electricity, according to the United Nations Development Program. That means, among other things, that school children with homework to do are left in the dark.

But some poor, rural areas that lack electricity may find they can generate it from something many do have plenty of: coconut shells and fruit pits.

'Very little waste'

University of Kentucky plant scientist Seth DeBolt and colleagues wanted to find a fuel that people in poor, rural areas could use to generate electricity. While on a study trip in rural Indonesia, he was struck by something he saw everywhere he went:

“The incredible efficiency at which agricultural products are used in Indonesia," DeBolt says. "There’s very little waste.”

Little waste means little left over that could be used for fuel. Farmers grew mangoes and jackfruit above coffee bushes and livestock fodder. Everything they grew was used for something. Even the scraps of fruit were fed to chickens. So growing a separate fuel crop would take land away from food crops, something DeBolt definitely wanted to avoid.

“The people at most risk with respect to energy poverty, typically they’re the same people who have food insecurity issues as it is," he says. "And any change in availability would be most detrimental to that group of people.”

Lots of energy

But there is one promising item DeBolt found in abundance that would not create competition between food and fuel.

“It’s the shell of a coconut, or the pit of a mango. And these are generally thrown out.”

Though you can’t eat it and you can’t feed it to livestock, DeBolt says a coconut shell or mango pit has a lot of energy in it.

“It compares roughly to low- to moderate-grade coal in its heating value," he says, "which is excellent.”

The same is true for the pit of an olive, peach or cherry, or the shell of an almond or walnut. All that is needed is a way to release the energy.

Turning rice hulls into electricity

DeBolt says a company in India called Husk Power is using small generators in local villages to turn rice hulls into electricity. They use a process called gasification: heating plant matter in a low-oxygen chamber releases gases that can be burned in an engine that spins a power-generating turbine.

DeBolt says his team saw the possibilities for coconut shells and mango pits.

“Hey, well these crops are growing here and these are the areas where there is potential for energy poverty to be alleviated at least in part by these small-scale production systems.”

In a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DeBolt and his colleagues used some rough calculations of coconut, mango and other fruit production and the efficiency of the gas generators. And they found in a country like Indonesia, for example, these systems could provide as much as 13 percent of the national energy needs.

Sustained energy supply

“If that’s concentrated on rural, decentralized facilities - not the big cities, which generally have a sustained energy supply - then it may have a more sustained impact on those communities.”

Other tropical countries with significant crops of coconuts, mangoes or other similar fruits could benefit, too.

However, DeBolt cautions that it is not a cure-all. There are technical issues, including how to safely handle the hazardous waste by-products of gasification. And startup funds can be hard to come by in the countries that could most benefit.

Still, he sees potential for coconut power to at least help in alleviating rural poverty. - VoAnews

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Biomass Resources in Malaysia

Malaysia is gifted with conventional energy resources such as oil and gas as well as renewables like hydro, biomass and solar energy. Malaysia’s commercial demand for energy is projected to continue its upward trend, from 1,244 PetaJoule (PJ) in 2000 to an estimated 2,218 PJ in 2010. This consumption growth is mainly driven by industrialisation.

Taking into account the growing energy consumption and domestic energy supply constraints, Malaysia has set sustainable development and diversification of energy sources, as the economy’s main energy policy goals. The Five-Fuel Strategy recognises renewable energy resources as the economy’s fifth fuel after oil, coal, natural gas and hydro. Being a major agricultural commodity producer in the region Malaysia is well positioned amongst the ASEAN countries to promote the use of biomass as a renewable energy source.

Biomass feedstock has long been identified as a sustainable source of renewable energy particularly in countries where there is abundant agricultural activities. Malaysia has tremendous biomass and wood waste resources available for immediate exploitation. This energy potential of biomass wastes is yet to be exploited properly in the country. Intensive use of biomass as renewable energy source could reduce dependency on fossil fuels and significant advantage lies in reduction of net carbon dioxide emissions to atmosphere leading to less greenhouse effect. However, increased competitiveness will require advances in technologies for converting this biomass to biofuel efficiently and economically.

Major Biomass Resources

• Agricultural crops e.g. sugarcane, cassava, corn
• Agricultural residues e.g. rice straw, cassava rhizome, corncobs
• Woody biomass e.g. fast-growing trees, wood waste from wood mill, sawdust
• Industrial wastes e.g. rice husks from rice mills, molasses and bagasse from sugar refineries, residues from palm oil mills
• Municipal solid waste
• Livestock manure

Palm Oil Biomass

Malaysia is the world’s leading exporter of palm oil, exporting more than 13.75 million tonnes of palm oil in 2007. The extraction of palm oil from palm fruits results in a large quantity of waste in the form of empty fruit bunches shells and fruit fibre. In 2004, more than 25 million tons of oil palm biomass was generated. Apart from palm biomass waste, two other products from this industry can mitigate climate change – palm biogas and biofuel. Processing crude palm oil generates a foul-smelling effluent that, when treated using anaerobic processes, releases biogas. The industry generated 42.7 million tonnes of effluent in 2007 which can produce around 1,230 million m3 of biogas.

Rice Husk

Rice husk is another important agricultural biomass resource in Malaysia with very good energy potential for power cogeneration. An example of its attractive energy potential is biomass power plant in the state of Perlis which uses rice husk as the main source of fuel and generates 10 MW power to meet the requirements of 30,000 households.

Municipal Solid Wastes

The per capita generation of solid waste in Malaysia varies from 0.45 to 1.44kg/day depending on the economic status of an area. Malaysian solid wastes contain very high organic waste and consequently high moisture content and bulk density of above 200kg/m3. The high rate of population growth is the country has resulted in rapid increase in solid waste generation which is usually dumped in landfills.

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Palm Kernel Shells as Biomass Resource

Biomass residue from palm oil industries are attractive renewable energy fuel in Southeast Asia. The abundance of these biomass resources is increasing with the fast development of palm oil industries in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. In the Palm Oil value chain there is an overall surplus of by-products and the utilisation rate of these by-products is low.

Palm kernel shells (or PKS) are the shell fractions left after the nut has been removed after crushing in the Palm Oil mill. Kernel shells are a fibrous material and can be easily handled in bulk directly from the product line to the end use. Large and small shell fractions are mixed with dust-like fractions and small fibres.

Moisture content in kernel shells is low compared to other biomass residues with different sources suggesting values between 11% and 13%. Palm kernel shells contain residues of Palm Oil, which accounts for its slightly higher heating value than average lignocelluloses Biomass. Compared to other residues from the industry, it is a good quality Biomass fuel with uniform size distribution, easy handling, easy crushing, and limited biological activity due to low moisture content.

Press fibre and shell generated by the Palm Oil mills are traditionally used as solid fuels for steam boilers. The steam generated is used to run turbines for electricity production. These two solid fuels alone are able to generate more than enough energy to meet the energy demands of a Palm Oil mill. Most Palm-oil mills in the region are self-sufficient in terms of energy by making use of kernel shells and mesocarp fibers in cogeneration.

The problems associated with the burning of these solid fuels are the emissions of dark smoke and the carry-over of partially carbonized fibrous particulates due to incomplete combustion of the fuels can be tackled by commercially-proven technologies in the form of high-pressure boilers. Dual-fired boilers capable of burning either diesel oil or natural gas are the most suitable for burning Palm Oil waste since they could also facilitate the use of POME-derived biogas as a supplementary fuel. However, there is a great scope for introduction of high-efficiency CHP systems in the industry which will result in substantial supply of excess power to the public grid.

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