Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Fueled with Biogas in Malaysia: A Review of Potential

Abstract

The limitations of conventional energy resources have encouraged worldwide research on various types of energy in electricity generation. Fuel cell-based electricity generation creates a huge potential in the energy industry. This paper aimed to study the potential of biogas in Malaysia to be fed into the direct biogas solid oxide fuel cell (DB-SOFC) system. The data obtained from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), Energy Commission (ST) and Department of Statistics Malaysia were used in this study. The analysis showed that in 2019, Malaysia had the potential to generate biogas of about 877.53 million m³/year. The characterisations of the DB-SOFC system with a capacity of 200 kW from Bloom Energy were applied in this study. The result indicated that Malaysia’s potential to generate about 2006.9 MW of electricity from biogas solid oxide fuel cells was approximately 6% of the total electricity capacity in the country. When compared with the conventional biogas’ combined production of heat and power (CHP), the DB-SOFC gave 76.95% more performance in electricity generation. Therefore, this study finding provides a positive impact on the biomass industry in Malaysia. Extensive research and development (R&D) are needed in order to penetrate this fuel cell system into Malaysia’s energy industry landscape.