Comparison of two biomass-electricity generation technologies in Peninsular Malaysia using linear programming method

Two technologies have been considered to generate electricity using palm oil mill waste, the Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) as power plant fuel. One technology is to build new 100% EFB fired power plants, located in the vicinity of the palm oil mill, in which the produced electricity would be connected to the national electricity grid system. The other technology is to transport all the available EFB fuel to an existing coal power station in which the EFB fuel would be blended with coal and co-fired in conventional coal power plant to produce electricity. A study intended to compare the difference between these two technologies, to obtain the same electricity generation, has been done. Linear programming software was used simulate the two technologies to generate 5% of Peninsular Malaysia's electricity demand in the year 2005. The study indicated that the co firing technology total cost is 43.7% cheaper than EFB technology and the fuel coat is competitive until transport cost reaches 78 RM/tone