Biodiesel impact on cost, fuel saving and emission reduction for power generation in Malaysia

The main objective of this paper is to assess the production cost and impact on fuel saving and emission reduction of biodiesel for power generation, using a wide range of economic indicators. Renewable fuels such as biodiesel provides many benefits especially for the developing countries. Apart from the opportunities for economic growth and development across the country, particularly for rural communities; chances are also available for independent power producers to generate power to off-grid users and local businesses. This is only achievable from engines and fuels with good economic performance. The first section looks at the biodiesel production cost within the system boundary of the feedstock farming, the crude oil extraction and the biodiesel processing. The comparison between palm biodiesel and calophyllum inophyllum (CI) biodiesel are made to highlight the benefit of using the second generation feedstock (CI biodiesel), which shows lower production cost compared to the first generation feedstock (palm biodiesel). The second section analyze the impact of CI biodiesel on the fuel saving and the CO2 emission reduction. This section focuses on the application of CI biodiesel in two different systems, namely internal combustion engines in the transport sector and gas turbines in the power sector. The results showed that application of CI biodiesel in the power sector is able to have more significant savings in fuel and reduction in the CO2 emissions.