biomass

The other energy that have potential in Malaysia is biomass. Why do we said that? It is because Malaysia have huge amount of the source for this energy. Biomass energy is made of vegetation such as trees, grasses, plant parts, for example leaves, stems and twigs, and ocean plants. From this source, we can extract a wealth of stored energy. In Malaysia, the waste of palm trees and paddies are 8.5 million tonnes which is can produces 2 million tonnes of fuel (methane). These really a huge amounts. We can uses these energy to produces electricity. We also have many place that suitable to build the biomass plant. For example, Jengka, Pahang. As we know, Pahang was one of the states in Malaysia that have many palm oil plantations. Then, there must also have many waste from these plantations. Beside Pahang, Sarawak, Kedah and Johor also suitable for a place to build biomass reactor because these state have wide area of agriculture such as palm oil plantation and paddies farm.

Option	Description
Biomass	Biomass is always available and can produced as renewable resource. Biomass refers to all forms of plant-derived material that can be used for energy such as wood, herbaceous plants,crop and forest residues, animal wastes etc. If people exercise proper conservation techniques, any form of biomass that is harvested to produced energy can be replaced over a period of time. The renewable energy source like  biomass is available in unlimited quantities for unlimited period of time. Hence, if one were to be dependent on biomass there won’t be shortage of biomass as a fuel for them. Though biomass is a renewable resource, there are limits to how quickly it can be replaced. If people harvest trees for use as fuel or to convert into other form of fuel, those trees will take many years to replace with more trees of equal size. This mean we must focus on our efforts on using plants, grains and other forms of biomass that can replaced quickly and inexpensively. If the basic crops is no longer grown, the source will not available anymore. So, we need to plant more energy crops to get a continuously source for biomass energy.
	The use of waste materials reduce landfill disposal and makes more space for everything else. When we  use wastes, the domestic waste will decreases as well. Then, the land we need for disposal also decreases. So, we can use the land that used to be a disposal site for grow energy crops. But, we might use the other land that maybe in demand for other porposes, such as farming, conservation, housing, resort or agriculture use.
	The fuel is cheap and can use things that we might otherwise throw away. Research is needed to reduce the costs of production of Biomass based fuels.
	The number of job created (for production, harvesting and use) and the industrial growth from developing conversion facilities for fuel, industrial feedstock, and power would be enormous. In the end, this will mean a reduction in the emigration rates to urban environment. By providing farmers with stable income, these new markets diversify and strengthen the local economy by keeping income recycling through the community.
	It takes more energy to plant, cultivate and harvest the crops and trees than it is worth to get a net energy gain. It also takes up more water from the earth and other fossil fuels to make the fertilizerz and fuels for planting and harvesting. It also, supposedly, takes up more  land for crops and trees.
	It can reduce the negative environmental effect. Although it released methane and carbon dioxide which is the greenhouse gases, all crops, including biomass energy crops, detach carbon in the plant and roots while they grow, providing carbon sink. In other word, the greenhouse gases released absorbed by the next crop growing. This is called a closed carbon cycle. Unfortunately, indiscriminate dumping and burning of biomass can give environment pollution because of the emission of smoke, haze hazard and toxic chemicals such as dioxins. Biomass crops can reduce water pollution and soil erosion. The crops stabilize the soil, thus reducing soil erosion. They also reduce nutrient run-off, which protects aquatic ecosystems.
	Financial and technical barriers because we need high initial investment. Beside that, in Malaysia, we have very limited local technologies and equipment for production of biomass energy. We also have poor financial support and no record on biomass industry. Our current technologies also inefficient and polluting. But, we can collaborate with other country to improve our technologies, for example, with Japan. By the collaboration, we can achieved actual transfer of technology, improvement of current palm oil mill effluent(POME) wastewater treatment, mitigation measures of greenhouse gases emission, generation of renewable energy from methane and promote sustainable development of palm oil industry.