Full scale biogas treatment plant for the largest Palm Oil miller in Malaysia

The Client

FELDA one of Malaysia's largest diversified agro-based enterprises with a turnover of RM 11.8 billion in 2009 fiscal year.

Incorporated in July 1975, Felda Palm Industries Sdn Bhd (FPI) is the Malaysia's largest miller with 70 palm oil mills all over the country and 550,000 hectares of land. In 2009, FPI processes 3.11 million tonnes of Crude Palm Oil.

FPI is principally engaged in purchasing and processing of Fresh Fruit Bunches (FFB) from Felda schemes, estates owned by the Felda Group and external suppliers.

The Client’s Needs

Felda has chosen Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies to deliver a turnkey installation consisting of a biogas plant to treat the effluents of the Serting Hilir palm oil mill.
The project involves study, design, construction, hand-over, testing & commissioning. Veolia is also servicing the installation.

Due to the acidic nature and very high Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) of the POME, a tailor made treatment solution was put in place following International Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

The main challenge was to design an efficient system capturing the gas emitted from the treatment process.
 

Veolia Solution

A complete waste to energy treatment plant was built to provide a constant energy supply to the mill towards a more sustainable manufacturing environment.
The waste from the existing palm oil mill represents a valuable resource in terms of biomass as energy can be generated and the remaining sludge can be reused as fertiliser.

This project is a first full scale Palm Oil Mills Effluents (POME) anaerobic demonstration plant in Asia. The plant is designed to treat 770m3/day of palm oil mills effluents, operating with a capacity of 60 tonnes per hour of FFB.

The use of anaerobic thermophilic digestion offers an attractive alternative for the treatment of high strengths and hot wastewater streams. This technology offers an increased loading rate and the elimination of cooling before treatment.