Ingenieur Vol. 75 ingenieur July 2018-FA | Page 59

Energy from Biomass
through Microbial Cell
Factory: A Scientific
Perspective
By Dr Ku Syahidah Ku Ismail
Dr Huzairy Hassan
Ir. Dr Ayob Katimon
Centre of Excellence for Biomass Utilisation
School of Bioprocess Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis
A
s a developed nation based on agriculture,
Malaysia needs to step up efforts to
optimise its agricultural waste industry.
Millions of tons of agricultural waste, either in the
form of straw and husk from rice, stems, fronds
and palm leaves from palm oil trees, fruit skins
such as pineapple, mango, corn and so forth are
produced annually. Based on basic bioprocesses
and chemical engineering principles, agricultural
waste in the form of biomass has the potential to
be processed into new energy sources to support
conventional oil and gas-based energy sources.
The dependence on oil and gas based energy has
to be reduced and at the same time agricultural
waste needs to be beneficially materialised
as a measure of alternative energy in addition
to pollution control. This article scientifically
introduces the ability to convert agricultural
biomass into energy through a sequential
methodology called a microbial cell factory.
From Raw Biomass Materials to Liquid
Fuel Ethanol
In many applications, crude oil-derived fuel
displaced coal and has long since dominated as
a transport fuel. Recently, concerns have grown
over whether oil reserves have the capacity to
service growing demand. Oil reserves that provide
liquid fuels today will only have the capacity to
cater to half of global demand by 2023. Not only
that, most of the reserves are located in unstable
regions of the world. In addition, we are faced with
greater environmental consequences if the energy
usage pattern is not changed. There are mounting
concerns on the build-up of carbon dioxide
(CO 2 ) and other greenhouse gases (GHG) in the
atmosphere which trap heat that usually radiates
from the earth, causing global climate change.
As an alternative, bioethanol - ethyl alcohol
(C 2 H 5 OH), has been used as a modern biofuel.
It is commonly blended with gasoline in
concentrations of 10% ethanol to 90% gasoline,
known as E10 and nicknamed ‘gasohol’. It can
also be used as a 5% blend with petrol which
does not require engine modification. Thus,
biofuels such as ethanol provide a more feasible
technology than other renewable energy sources
because it can serve immediately as a substitute
for petroleum products in transportation. Also, the
use of bioethanol-blended fuel for automobiles
significantly reduces petroleum use and also
reduces GHG emission. Consumption of fuel
ethanol is expected to average 950,000 barrels
per day in 2018 and 2019, up from 940,000
barrels per day in 2017 (Energy Information
Administration, 2018). USA and Brazil are the
current leaders in world bioethanol production
which utilises starch from corn and sugarcane
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