Mukah is a coastal town in the Malaysian state of Sarawak. Malaysia is the world's second largest producer of palm oil, producing roughly 20 million tons a year. However, the activities of the country's 444 palm oil plants creates an incredible amount of waste.
The process requires the processing of 100 million tons of fresh fruit. When all is said and done, Olive Energy says, the creation of the oil leaves behind close to 40 million tons of biomass palm residue.
If not put to another purpose, this residue would likely be spread on open fields -- where it would emit harmful greenhouse gases as it broke down -- or burned, causing air pollution.
The new plant will reportedly employ technology -- called circulating fluidised bed conversion -- specially designed to harness energy from the residue, while has a high moisture content and is ordinarily difficult to burn with any kind of efficiency.
Olive Energy signed a power purchase agreement with Sarawak Energy Bhd in March 2014.
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