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Energy as well as water are two valuable resources that are majorly utilized in all sectors, from residential consumption to industrial processes. As conservation of resources are becoming a priority, optimization of energy or water system for residential and industrial usage is becoming more important. Previous optimization problems solved using Pinch Analysis only focused on optimization of single resource which may lead to undersizing of system, as systems may rely on one another to operate. By using pinch analysis, it lacks the capability to consider other variables such as cost in its analysis. As such, a MILP model is developed in this study to provide a more holistic approach to the optimization problem. A case study comprising of both electricity and water demand of 6,875 kWh and 3,000 m³ from a residential area with 1,000 unit of houses is applied in this work. The electricity demand is met using fuel cell where hydrogen is produced through coal gasification (which utilised water as it raw material), a water treatment plant (WTP) is also introduced for water treatment to fulfil the water demands. The results revealed the capacity of the system is larger compared to the similar case study done using pinch analysis. The resulting cost of the system is MYR 516,650,000.00. Apart from identifying the optimal capacity and cost of the system, the study concluded that the higher the interdependency of resources, the differences become more significant. When analysing system that shows an inter-dependent or nexus nature, it is important to consider both resources and target them simultaneously to prevent the system being under-designed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthcare facilities are one of the major consumers of electricity, Building Energy Index (BEI) is an important tool that can assist healthcare facilities in monitoring and benchmarking their energy performance. There are many types of healthcare facilities, and a standardized form of BEI is not suitable to be used as it will result in a misleading interpretation of the energy performance. This article explains the study in developing an energy indexing where different hospital buildings in Malaysia can be benchmarked according to their specifications and needs. By monitoring and controlling the correct variables, energy indexing could be reduced by reducing the electrical energy cost through effective energy-saving measures. The aim of the study was achieved through the collection of 91 hospital data with pre-listed 33 potential variables, which were later reduced to 4 significant variables after evaluating minimum sample size, normalising data after considering parameters like R² (Coefficient of Determination), CVRMSE (Coefficient of Variation - Root Mean Square Error), P-value, t-Stat, and multicollinearity using regression analysis. An energy indexing formula for different types of Malaysian hospital buildings was developed using a regression method to demonstrate the significant impact of independent variables on dependent electrical energy consumption. The energy indexing has been quantified for each category of hospitals and results obtained show Major Specialist Hospital has a mean of predicted energy indexing as high as 191, continued by General Hospital, which is 185.72, Minor Specialist Hospital with 173.24 and Non-Specialist Hospital with 147.81. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transportation sector is one of the main contributors to greenhouse gases. One of the mitigation strategies is to introduce electric buses for public transport. The study has summarized the current status and prospect of different countries in electric buses. Electric buses are proven to reduce carbon emission in life cycle analysis with proper implementation and successfully mitigate carbon emission in urban areas. However, the battery technology is still not mature due to low energy storage compared to conventional vehicles. The state of charge for batteries is vital for low energy storage and limited access to the energy source. A review of energy consumption modeling for electric buses is carried out in this study. Energy consumption rate will vary due to several uncertainties such as traffic congestion, driver behavior, passenger load, weather and topographic condition of the road. Electric bus modeling should be carried out to differentiate electric buses as every electric bus operates under different parameters and conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrialization and rapid development surged the energy demands and landfill usage required to cater to for the increase in waste disposal. Organic wastes valorization can alleviate the adverse impacts on the environment and can convert wastes to value-added products. Organic waste varies in availability and composition, which can be generalized to carbon-rich and/or nitrogen-rich. The carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio is one of the significant factors for biomethane production and must be considered during system design. This research proposed a numerical framework for targeting waste-to-energy system taking into consideration the inconsistency of daily organic wastes availability (C/N ratio), volatile solid percentage (VS%), and total solid percentage (TS%). The methodology from previously established Electric System Cascade Analysis (ESCA) was adopted and applied to design the waste and product storage. The developed methodology implemented in a case study comprises of 50 houses with a total energy demand range from 1,095 to 1,290 kWh/d. A 49.01 m³ biogas storage was equipped into a biomethane energy system with 115.93 m³ CH4 daily production to satisfy the energy demand. The identified organic wastes storages capacity was 2,695.17 m3 for swine manure and 416.17 m³ for rice straw. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an automotive industry, high thermal energy demand is required mainly due to processes in the Paint Shop which leads to high energy utilization. In order to improve energy efficiency, automotive industry is now looking into the application of Solar Assisted Heat Pump (SAHP). SAHP is identified as a suitable technology and, as it produces energy from solar, can save up in energy cost to operate the heat pump in a long term. This research specifically looks into the painting section of the industry focusing on DIP Phosphating and Electrodeposition process as it consumed the most thermal energy compared to the other processes. The potential cost-saving and payback period are identified through scenario analysis involving Scenario 1 (Existing system), Scenario 2 (Heat Pump), Scenario 3 (Solar Thermal + Heat Pump), and Scenario 4 (Solar Photovoltaic + Heat Pump). Based on the analysis, it is concluded that Scenario 4 resulted in the highest potential cost-saving of MYR 73,988. As for the shortest payback period, it is achieved by Scenario 2 with a payback period of only 3.5 y. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The valorisation of food waste via anaerobic digestion has shown to be a promising option for tackling waste accumulation and achieve energy security. In this study, a lab scale and a pilot scale anaerobic digester, with food waste as the feedstock and palm oil mill effluent (POME) as the microbial inoculant, were evaluated for their biogas production. For the lab scale study, the effect of different food waste to POME ratio, ranging from 1:1, 1:2 and 2:1, on the biogas production were investigated for a period of 7 d. From the experimental work, the ratio of food waste to POME at 2:1 gave the highest biogas yield of 0.14 L. For the pilot scale study, a digester was designed based on a daily electricity demand of 9.5 kW of an eco-park. With the use of the Pro Engineer Software, it is estimated that a digester with a volume of 4.27 m3, handling capacity of 200 L of food waste daily, and a hydraulic retention time of 15 d, can generate sufficient biogas to meet the electricity demand for the eco-park. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia is one of the countries aiming to create sustainable energy by using renewable sources as an alternative to reduce consumption of fossil fuel due to the negative impacts to the environment and public health. Solar energy which is free and abundant in Malaysia can be one of the potential renewable sources of energy to meet the energy demand in Malaysia. Some industries consume energy for low heating process, hence solar thermal has a great potential to fulfill the demand. This paper presents solar thermal performance assessment in poultry industry that obtain the heat energy from scalding tank with temperature between 60 - 70 °C for scalding process for efficient removal of chicken leather. The framework has been demonstrated in PPNJ Poultry & Meat Sdn. Bhd. as a case study as it is the first solar thermal incorporated in the industry process in Malaysia. The results reveals that about 88 % of the total energy input for scalding process has been contributed by solar thermal with about 2 % energy loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The introduction of electric vehicles to the transportation fleet has merged the power generation and transportation sectors into an integrated system. Rather than fuel sources, electricity is used to charge electric vehicles, so these vehicles play a vital role as an important green technology that could reduce carbon emissions in the transportation sector. This study aimed to extent carbon emission pinch analysis for an integrated system to optimise the energy mix for electricity generation in Malaysia. In the first stage, the minimum number of electric vehicles required to reduce transportation emissions was determined. In the second stage, the optimal energy mix for the power generation sector was determined while including the electricity demand for the electric vehicle. Four scenarios namely S1, S2, S3, and S3 were developed based on Peninsular Malaysia as a case study, to analyse the impact of different mitigation strategies based on the performance of the integrated system (number of vehicles, fuel consumption, and energy mix) and economic evaluation based on total cost and total cost per emission reduction. The emission reduction is based on the 45 % target based on 2005 level for the transportation and power generation sector. The results reveal that S1 has the lowest total cost (MYR 1.73x1012) and S4 has the highest total cost (MYR 3.13x1012) compared to other scenarios proposed. However, in term of total cost per emission reduction, S4 shows the lowest (MYR 9.36x106) while S1 being the highest with MYR 13.1x106. The results generated from the scenarios proposed give a clear visualisation on how the policies affect the demand growth. Pinch analysis technique is proven to be a suitable tool in targeting and planning for emission reduction target and energy demand management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of world lead exporter palm oil, Malaysia has generated a lot of waste from the production of palm oil. One of the high produced waste is palm oil mill effluent (POME). POME can be utilized as fermentation media, fertilizer, and biogas. Biogas is produced through the process of anaerobic digestion. It has the potential as energy sources because biogas is a mixture of gas consists of CH4 and CO2. It can be used for cooking; vehicle fuel and also can operate the generator. To generate electricity, Malaysia still highly dependent on fossil fuel which is far from the concept of sustainable development. There is some part of the rural area still do not have electricity. The government has taken action in solving the issue by installing solar panel to generate electricity. However, solar is intermittent energy source. Therefore, biogas can be one of alternatives to solve the intermittent problem. Compressed biogas will be used as fuel for biogenset. In this study, techno-economic analysis of biogenset and hybrid solar-diesel-battery for rural electrification is performed. The economic assessment is conducted in term of profit and payback period by using the extracted data. Based on the economic assessment result, it shows that using biogenset for electricity generation is more profitable compare to hybrid solar-diesel-battery due to its high capital cost. The total profit of biogenset is 77,708.05 MYR and the payback period for biogenset also shorter than hybrid solar-diesel-battery which is 8.65 y. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]