Interview: Biogas offers a sustainable energy future for Thailand

Dr. Stephen P. Etheridge, Chief Executive Officer of Biotrix Asia

Thailand is rapidly developing the use of biogas in agriculture and industry, and has become the South-East Asian region’s leading biogas expert. PlanET together with its local partner in Asia, Biotrix Asia, have been developing biogas technology to help create a sustainable future for Thailand and other parts of Asia. This exclusive interview with Dr. Stephen P. Etheridge, Chief Executive Officer of Biotrix Asia, highlights the great opportunities and advantages offered by the biogas sector in Thailand.

Can you please explain briefly what biogas is and what are the benefits of its use?

Biogas is a naturally occurring mixture of mostly methane and carbon dioxide (CO2) that occurs as a result of the natural microbial breakdown of organic matter. Examples include marsh gas as well as cow and human flatulence.

We can harness the process to breakdown organic matter, known as “Anaerobic Digestion”, to produce gas from industrial effluents and animal wastes, sludge from sewage works as well as crop materials. Then we can use the gas as a boiler fuel or to generate electricity. In many cases, if we don’t produce biogas from wastes, they will not only pollute the environment, but biogas will occur naturally as a result of microbial breakdown in rivers and ponds. The result is the release of harmful greenhouse gases. Therefore, biogas technology is a win-win process. It reduces pollution as well as generating renewable energy.

Biogas is considered as a form of sustainable energy. Is the transportation of organic matter taken into account?

Most of the digesters in the world are located at sewage treatment plants, farms and factories. Generally, no transportation is involved. The waste flows to the digester from the source by gravity, or through pumps and pipes. In centralised purpose-built biogas plants used to treat organic materials such as crop residue, grass and animal wastes, the feedstock has to be delivered to the site, so all transport costs and environmental impacts from the transport need to be taken into account.

Critically, digestate – the product from the digester – will still be rich in nitrogen and nutrients and should be transported back to the fields to close the “nutrient cycle” and ensure that no chemical fertilisers are needed.

As biogas is a biological and flammable product how can the risk of explosion be reduced?

In practice, methane needs to be diluted to between around 5-15% in the air to be potentially explosive. However, the presence of an inert gas, CO2, reduces this window further and makes it more difficult to ignite. On top of that, biogas is normally produced fully saturated. It comes out of a warm digester at 35ºC, with 100% humidity. So this reduces the flammability.

There is always a risk of an explosion, if biogas escapes from a pipe or plastic cover of a tank and is diluted with air. Biogas should generally be considered the same as natural gas, and so long as the same precautions and safety practices are used there should be no problems. However, there should be no smoking on site, and regular testing and safety checks should be carried out. Natural gas is generally considered to be a safe fuel for all practical purposes.

What are your perspectives for the biogas sector in Thailand in comparison to Europe? What are the similarities and key differences of the two areas that would support or discourage the growth of the sector?

The market is very different between Europe and Thailand. Generally, biogas projects in Thailand are in the 2-8 Megawatt electrical (MWe) range for most agro-industrial wastes like starch, ethanol, and palm oil. There are only a couple of examples of digesters being used in Thailand to process crop materials and these, like European examples, are on a very small scale, mostly in the 0.2-0.5 MWe range.

The very warm ambient temperatures in Thailand mean that nearly all digesters are unheated and operate at ambient temperatures. As a result, sophisticated lagoonbased bioreactors are often preferred by the customer as they are up to 10 times cheaper than tank-based digesters. Tank-based European technologies have to take all these factors into account in order to compete in the Thai market.

Different parts of Europe have varying incentives to develop biogas projects, often by offering preferential rates to buy electricity generated from renewable sources. This was the case in Germany during the past 20 years, but these incentives have now mostly gone and very few new biogas plants are being built. Currently, however, there are significant incentives in France where many biogas plants are under construction by PlanET.

The growth in the Thai biogas sector was largely driven by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Clean Development Mechanism (UNFCCC CDM) incentives which failed when the carbon market collapsed. There were some local incentives, but during the past five years it has not been possible for new biogas plants to supply electricity to the national grid. As a result, there has been almost no development of the Thai biogas sector.

The similarities are incentive-driven. The differences relate to the environmental conditions and difference in scale, as already mentioned.

Clearly there are very exciting biogas sector opportunities coming, but the question is when are they likely to come?

What opportunities in Thailand does PlanET see and what would you bring to the table when it comes to the Thai biogas market?

Thailand has committed to developing numerous biogas plants based on Napier grass, giving local farmers the opportunity to grow a wider range of crops. PlanET technology is optimised for such substrates and has more than 500 reference plants in this sector. Together with our local partner, Biotrix Asia, PlanET hopes to deliver many successful biogas plants in the near-future to a range of investors and developers in the Napier grass sector.

However, the programme has suffered numerous delays since its original planned start date early in January 2020. Even the most recent deadline for announcing successful candidates on 16 August 2021 was delayed, so the programme has not really started. This is the big opportunity for which everyone has been waiting.

What challenges have you have faced in the Thai biogas market from the beginning of your business operations until now? What is the most important challenge?

Thailand has developed an attractive Feed-in-Tarif scheme, some years ago, but no awards have been granted so far. There are ambitious Policies in place for the production of renewable energy, and for the sale of electricity to the national grid, but there has been little implementation in recent years. This is a big issue. We have a very attractive Alternative Energy Development Plan (AEDP), but very little progress has been made in the biogas sector. In addition, there have been nearly two years of delays in national programmes such as Napier Grass to Biogas, coupled with a lack of environmental enforcement.

The legislation is very strict, in many cases even more than in Europe; however, the question is, how is it being enforced?

The most important challenge is probably the lack of market access for selling electricity to the grid, and without it biogas business is limited.

PlanET provides a one-stop service for biogas plants, including an in-house laboratory for biological service and process optimisation. How do you implement your biogas technology in Thailand?

This is largely undertaken through our partners Biotrix Asia, who have laboratory facilities in the region. Biotrix also has a strong presence in the region and a 20-year track record of undertaking waste audits, assessments and construction of biogas plants in a wide range of sectors. Biotrix has also undertaken projects for the Thai National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA). So Biotrix Asia is well established here and together with PlanET our team can provide complete solutions from tank based crop digesters to some of the largest lagoons digesters in the world. How does the Thai government co-operate and support the private sector’s involvement, especially the biogas sector, in order to build Thailand up as a sustainable country?

The objectives of the Alternative Energy Development plan are very ambitious, and as far as biogas is concerned, the government plan for an additional 600 MWe to be installed by 2036. However, the market has remained mostly stagnant for the last 4-5 years, with no access to grid. We have a new Feed in Tarif (FIT) calculation that is very similar to that in Europe and the United States, and many factors for inflation. However, until a licence is awarded, no one can export. As a result, for the past four to five years very few biogas plants have been built, except by one or two new factories that make some electricity for their own production process only.

Moreover, development of the Napier grass programme has still not developed after two years despite the reasonable and attractive incentives available under the Board of Investment (BoI) scheme for employing foreigners and for tax benefits; However, if there is no market, there is no reason to develop the programme as it depends on the market, so until the Government fulfills its stated objectives, it will remain quite difficult to proceed.

What is PlanET’s future plan for business development in Thailand?

Clearly there are very exciting biogas sector opportunities coming, but the question is when are they likely to come? PlanET will keep an active eye on the market through its regional partner, by Biotrix Asia. In addition, Thailand is renowned as the region’s biogas experts, so it is a good place to be based for servicing the whole of South East Asia. Opportunities across the region can be accessed from Thailand.

Interview by Kanisa Kongsantad, Trainee, GTCC Events and Communications Department