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  Business Times 17 Aug 2007
Recycler to build wood waste-fired power plant here
By Matthew Phan

Today Online 17 Aug 07
Singapore hots up with eco-fuels
Cheow Xin Yi

Channel NewsAsia 16 Aug 07
Biofuel Industries set to be first to sell green power to grid

SINGAPORE: Environmental technology firm Biofuel Industries is set to build the first biomass cogeneration plant that will sell its power to the national grid.

The S$30-million plant, to be located in Tuas, will produce 9.9 megawatts of electricity. Although its generation capacity is relatively small, the company says it is part of its plan to create an integrated recycling business in Singapore.

Biofuel Industries has hired Industrial Power Technologies to build and run the cogeneration plant under a memorandum of understanding signed on Thursday.

By turning wood waste into fuel chips, the plant is expected to halve electricity production costs. The company says it earns revenue from collecting the waste, exporting the recycled fuel chips and eventually selling the power to the grid.

It is now drawing up plans for the Tuas plant and construction is expected to begin by the end of the year.

"We also have two other projects that are being planned and in process. They are progressing very well. That would further add to the whole integrated recycling business," said Er Kwong Wah, chairman of Biofuel Industries.

"We're producing 1,000 to 1,500 tonnes of waste wood every day, including horticultural waste. This waste must go somewhere... The end goal is to have a perpetual business that will get rid of all the waste and at the same time, doing it in such a way that it makes business sense," he continues. - CNA/ac

Today Online 17 Aug 07
Singapore hots up with eco-fuels
Cheow Xin Yi cheowxinyi@mediacorp.com.sg

With "climate change" as the new buzzwords, eco-friendly power plants are hotting up the Singapore scene.

Yesterday, a new player, Biofuel Industries, jumped into the ring with a proposed plant to recycle wood waste and produce energy at the same time.

It has signed a memorandum of understanding with Industrial Power Technology (IPT) to build the facility by 2009. Under the $30-million contract, IPT will also manage the plant while Biofuel provides the waste recycling expertise. IPT has built several biomass power plants around the region, including Sabah in East Malaysia and Thailand.

Biomass refers to plant matter that is used as fuel or for industrial production. The Singapore plant is expected to generate up to 14.9 megawatts of electricity, of which 9.9 megawatts will be sold to the power grid. The remaining 5 megawatts will power the plant.

"With this biomass power plant, we will be able to produce renewable, inexpensive energy that reduces greenhouse gases emissions, while at the same time addressing the problem of solid waste disposal," said IPT chief executive Danny Hoon.

Biofuel chairman Er Kwong Wah said the new power plant would be "profitable based on projections" without elaborating further.

In June this year, IUT Global set up a similar plant that recycles organic food waste. The $60-million facility can process up to 300 tonnes of food waste a day, which is converted to electricity and sold to the power grid.

Since Singapore signed the Kyoto Protocol — a treaty among some countries to combat climate change by cutting greenhouse emissions — in April last year, the clean energy industry here has expanded with the mushrooming of "green" businesses.

Business Times 17 Aug 2007
Recycler to build wood waste-fired power plant here
By Matthew Phan

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.
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