7.14.1 Policies, mandatories, and targets

One of the key tasks of energy policy in Taiwan is to stabilize energy supply to increase energy independence. The installed capacity of power generation from renewable energy is identified to be 12% in total to enhance energy self sufficiency, and the target of 10% in total is set to be reached in 2010. Power generation from biomass and wastes is set to be the third largest sources of renewable energy, which is 1.44% in total (741MW) in 2010. In order to promote the utilization of renewable energy, the “Renewable Energy Development Bill” has been drafted and submitted to the Legislative Yuan for approval.

The application of biofuels to transportation sector is in growing trend in recent years. The pilot project started by Environmental Protection Administration is to blend 20% of biodiesel (B20) to garbage truck from 2004. Since then, the Bureau of Energy proceeded the demonstration project with four stages. Firstly, the Green Bus Project was started in 2006, which 2% of biodiesel (B2) is blended to bus fleet operated by public sector. Secondly, test sales of B1 at gas station of Taoyuan county,

Chiayi city, and Chiayi county was started in 2007, which is called Green County Project. Thirdly, the target of B1 sales at all gas station will be reached in July, 2008. Finally, the target of B2 applied in nationwide area, which is estimated to be 100 dam3/year (100,000 kL/year) in total will be reached in 2010.

The application of bioethanol was started in 2007, test sales of E3 at 8 gas station in Taipei city is focused on official’s car, and private car is also encouraged to use. The target of E3 at all gas station of Taipei and Kaohsiung city will be started in January, 2009. It is expected to use E3 in nationwide area in 2011, which is estimated to be 100 dam3/year (100,000 kL/year) in total.

Up to now, subsidizing for biomass utilization is still inevitable. The related mandatories are listed below:

• Measures for purchasing electricity from renewable energy sources

• Measures for rewarding methane power generation in landfill

• Measures for subsidizing energy crop green bus projects

• Measures for subsidizing green county promoting projects

• Measures for subsidizing green official’s car pilot projects

Considering the area of farm to cultivate energy crops is limited, it is possible to import biofuels from abroad. The “Petroleum Administration Act” should be revised to enhance the management of imported renewable energy, such as bioethanol, biodiesel etc.

Since agriculture is of much importance for the economies under development, it is desirable that sustainable agriculture leads to improvement of farmers’ standard of living as well as their income. Education of people is important, since the literacy rate in the rural area of developing countries is expected to be not so high. In this sense, it is important to supply proper information on this technology to the farmers. What is important for the biomass utilization for farmers to be effective is the accessibility of the biomass plant or biomass collecting site from farmers. Even if farmers possess or produce biomass feedstock, it is nothing if they do not have access to the sites where it can be made use of.

The genus name Jatropha derived from the Greek iatros (doctor) and trophe (food) which implies medicinal uses. Jatropha curcas L. belonging to the Euphorbiaceae or spurge family. Curcas purgans Medic. Vernacular/common names — English — physic nut, purging nut; Thailand — sabudam, Indonesia — jarak pagar, Chinese — yu-lu-tzu; the Philippines — tubang-bakod, Brazil — mundubi-assu, Tanzania — makaen. By definition, it is a perennial small tress or large shrub which can reach a height of up to 6 m. The plant, originating in Central America, is mainly grown in Asia and in Africa, where it is known as Pourghere. It is cultivated in the tropics and semi tropics as a living fence. The seeds, however, are toxic to humans and many animals, and this species is a

resistant to a high degree of aridity and as such does not compete with food crops. It can grow without protection and can be used as a hedge to protect fields and farmer housings. Jatropha, the wonder plant produces seeds with an oil content of 37%. When the seeds are crushed, the resulting jatropha oil can be processed to produce a high-quality biodiesel fuel (between 30-35% of oil yield can be produced from one kg of seeds) without being refined and can be applied to a standard diesel engine. The by-products are press cake a good organic fertilizer, oil contains also insecticide. Glycerine byproducts from biodiesel production offer a valuable additional income stream to refiners.

Other uses :

Leaves — The young leaves may be safely eaten, steamed or stewed. Cooked with goat meat, they are said to advantageously counteract its smell.

Flowers — As honey plants.

Nuts — Sometimes roasted and eaten, although they are purgative. They can be burned like candlenuts when strung on grass. Used as a contraceptive in South Sudan.

Seed — The oil has been used for illumination, soap, candles, the adulteration of olive oil, and making Turkey red oil. Turkey red oil, also called sulphonated (or sulfated) castor oil, is the only oil that completely disperses in water. It is made by adding sulfuric acid to pure Jatropha oil. It was the first synthetic detergent after ordinary Soap, as this allows easy use for making bath oil products. It is used in formulating lubricants, softeners, and dyeing assistants. The seeds in particular area are very appreciated by the population as food once they have been boiled and roasted. It is unclear if this is due to the existence of a non-toxic variety of Jatropha in Mexico and Central America, or if the seeds become eatable once processed by cooking. It is also similarly reported that Jatropha seeds are edible once the embryo has been removed. Again it may be so because of these seeds coming from a local

non-toxic variety.

Roots — Their ashes are used as a salt substitute. It can be used to kill molluscs, and has been listed for homicide, piscicide, and raticide as well.

Bark — Used as a fish poison.

Latex — Strongly inhibits the watermelon mosaic virus.

Sap — It stains linen. Sometimes used for marking. Shrub — Mexicans grow the shrub as a host for the lac

insect, which is used in medicine as hepatoprotective and anti-obesity drug. Used for erosion control.

Further information

Banzon, J. A.; Velasco, J. R. Coconut: production and utilization. (1982)

(a) Wood pellet

Characteristics of the wood pellet which compared with wood tip and fire wood are as follows; handling, igniting and burning are easy, shape and characteristics of fuel are uniformly, there is a little emission of harmful gas during burning, transportation efficiency is high, energy density is high.

(b) CCB

CCB includes 10-30% of biomass. Generally biomass has the defect that heat quantity is low.

On the other hand, it has superior characteristics such as good ignitability, good flammability, little smoke emission, low ash content. These characteristics are not in coal and make the utilizing of low quality coal possible. These characteristics make the use of low-grade coal possible.

Transesterification of triglycerides and esterification of fatty acids are both exothermic reactions but their heat capacity is small. In alkali catalyst process, energy to increase the system to 60-70oC, energy for a methanol, and energy for the whole reaction process are essential. Futhermore, additional enrgy is required after the reaction for purifying the glycerin as a by-product. In the biodiesel production with 2.2 kg/s (70,000 t/year) capacity, energy efficiency is reported to be 62% on higher heating value basis.

4.7.4 Status-quo of the technology

Biodiesel production has been commercially developed in Europe and North America, and their production is mainly based on alkali catalyst method. However, for the low-grade waste

oils, a combined process with acid catalyst has been developed with their own non-disclosed technologies. Due to the limited raw materials in Japan, new development of the technology will be expected to handle the low-grade waste oils to be converted into high-quality biodiesel.

Further information

Ban, K.; Kaieda, M.; Matsumoto, T.; Kondo, A.; Fukuda, H. Whole cell biocatalyst for biodiesel fuel production utilizing rhizopus oryzae cells immobilized within Biomass Support Particles, Biochem Eng J 8, 39-43 (2001)

Boocock D. G. Biodiesel fuel from waste fats and oils: A process for converting fatty acids and triglycerides, Proc. of Kyoto Univ Int’l Symp. on Post-Petrofuels in the 21st Century, Prospects in the Future of Biomass Energy, Montreal, Canada, 171-177 (2002)

Kusdiana, D.; Saka, S. Two-step preparation for catalyst-free biodiesel fuel production; hydrolysis and methyl esterification, Appl Biochem. Biotechnol, 115, 781-791 (2004)

Mittelbach, M.; Remschmidt, C. Biodiesel, The comprehensive handbook, Boersedruck Ges. m. b.H, Vienna, Austria, 1-332 (2004)

Saka, S. “All about Biodiesel”, IPC Publisher, 2006, pp.1-461 (in Japanese)

Sekiguchi, S. in “Biomass Handbook”, Japan Institute of Energy Ed., Ohm-sha, 2002, pp.138-143 (in Japanese)

In LCA, practitioner may reach different results depending on the scope of the study, system boundaries and allocation procedures being taken in LCI and choice of characterization factors in LCIA. The influence of these procedures on the result has to be discussed in the phase of "interpretation". In many cases of current LCI, results of emissions and resource consumption are expressed by a single numerical value. However, each process data is suffering from measurement error and estimation error. In the ISO standard, it is necessary to evaluate data quality using the techniques to determine the effect of data error such as “sensitivity check" and "uncertainty analysis", when the practitioner undertakes interpretation.

Further information

SETAC ’’Guidelines for Life-Cycle Assessment A code of Practice”, 1993 SETAC “Towards a Methodology for Life Cycle Impact Assessment”,1996

7.7.1 Biomass resources in Cambodia

Biomass resources such as wood and agricultural residues are abundant in Cambodia. It is estimated that biomass fuel accounted for some 80% of the national energy consumption (MIME 2001) but biomass fuel used for power generation is limited for a few small-scale projects and negligible amount among the total national power production. Woody biomass accounts for more than 95% of the biomass energy used in the country.

According to our initial survey, rice husk and some other agricultural residues, old rubber wood occurred as the result of new planting and forest wood from plantations and managed natural forests are high potential energy source for electricity generation. The status of those high potential biomass resources is described below:

(i) Rice Husk: In 2003, rice was cultivated in 2.3 million ha of the field and 4.7 million ton was produced (MAFF 2003). The CQGEN3 program which is funded by European Commission to promote the use of cogeneration in ASEAN countries has conducted a pre-investment study for a potential biomass-fired cogeneration project of 1.5MW electrical capacity at the Angkor Kasekam Roongroeung rice mill just outside Phnom Penh.

(ii) Cashew Nuts Shell: The cashew Anacardium occidentals is a tree in the flowering plant family, Anacardiaceae. Cashew nut is the single seed of the cashew fruit. Cashew nuts trees have been planted 37,140 ha in Cambodia (MAFF 2004) and the number of grower is increasing. The production in Cambodia would be 14,000 t/yr.

(ii) Other Agricultural Residues: Bagasse is the residue of sugar processing from sugarcane.

It represents 30% of total sugarcane weight. Direct combustion power generating system has been widely introduced to the sugar processing factory in the major sugar production countries. Cambodia produced 330,649 t of sugarcane in 2003. The production of cassava in 2003 was 330,649 t and the area of coconut farm was 27,054 ha. The productions of coconut and cassava residues are not known. The peanut production in 2003 was 18,483 t. Peanuts shells represent approximately 30% of the total weight of the peanuts.

(iv) Woody Biomass from Forests : The 95% of population is dependent on woodfuel for cooking (NIS 1999) and the biomass energy covered 86% of the total national energy supply (ADB 1996). The total fuel wood consumption was estimated about 6 million m3, while log production estimated 1.5 million m3 in 1995 (World Bank and others 1995).

(v) Plantations: There are total 11,125 ha of forest plantations mainly with Acacia spp. and Eucalyptus spp. in Cambodia (2003). The purpose of plantation of most case is production of wood chip materials for export.

(vi) Tree Farming: Tree farming of fast growing species is an appropriate method of supplying

biomass for village level electrification. Anlong Ta Mei Community Energy Cooperative in Battambang province, the only biomass electricity generation operating in practical manner in Cambodia uses tree farming system for fuel supply.

(vii) Community Forestry: Community forestry (CF) is recognized as an important strategy to manage the forest at sustainable manner in Cambodia. The majority case of CF activity is managing existing primary or degraded forest rather than reforestation by planting.

8.4.1 Power producer promotion in Thailand

In 2007, Ministry of Energy (Thailand) has strongly promoted SPP (Small Power Producer: 10-90 MW) and VSPP (Very Small Power Producer: < 10 MW), in particular those using biomass, with high grid buyback price of electricity and simple procedure for obtaining license permit in order to cope with the energy situation. As of October 2007, there are more than 77

SPP and VSPP with installed capacity over 1,100 MW, half of which are sold back to the grid.

8.4.2 Biomass power plant in Thailand

As shown in Fig. 8.4.1, biomass power plants are all distributed throughout the country, especially in the central and northeastern parts. In term of the electricity sold back to the grid, more than half of the power plants use bagasse as the feedstock fuel, followed by rice husk/Eucalytus bark of 31%, as shown in Fig. 8.4.2.

Fig. 8.4.2. Biomass Power Plants by Fuel (Grid).

Table 2.3.1 presents representative compositions of major biomass types. Although there are

exceptions, the main components of terrestrial biomass in order of amount from high to low are cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and proteins. Aquatic biomass has different compositions. While Table 2.3.1 shows plant biomass, Table 2.3.2 gives the compositions of sludge and other waste biomass types with high moisture content. Tables 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 use a different composition classification. Cellulose and lignin in Table 2.3.1 are represented by fiber in Table 2.3.2, while hemicellulose in Table 2.3.1 comes under carbohydrates in Table 2.3.2.

Further information

Ogi, T. in “Biomass Handbook”, Japan Institute of Ed., Ohm-sha, 2002, PP.12-15 (in Japanese)

Except for felled trees from civil engineering projects, the moisture content of residuals from wood utilization is considered to be 15% in dry base. Energy efficiency of direct burning as fuel chips is relatively high. There is also the possibility of gasification for electric power generation or for production of gas or liquid fuels. On the other hand, further consideration is necessary to utilize residuals from wood industries for energy production, because the moisture content may be nearly 100% in dry base and there are many types of residuals. Sawdust and bark, which requires little powdering energy, can be used as wood pellets.

The Japanese government is aiming to produce 2 million kL of bioethanol from wooden residuals by 2020. Lignin encloses cellulose etc. in the cell walls of wood, so saccharification

and fermentation are difficult without pre-processing. There is an opinion that automobiles

should be powered by electricity rather than liquid fuel in future.

Further information

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Japan: Investigation of construction byproducts 2005(2006) (in Japanese)

Mayu Takagi, Hachiro Takeda, Takeshi Okano: Trends in the carbon transferred from forests to the populated area of Japan — Estimates from timber supply and demand statistics-, Wood Industry, 62(8), 354-357(2007) (in Japanese)

Mario Tonosaki, Yuko Tsunetsugu, Masayuki Ozawa, Kenji Hanaoka: Wood utilization for Japanese forestry, Journal of the Japan Institute of Energy, 84, 973-979(2005) (in Japanese)