Jurong Island, Singapore’s industrial center, is comprised of seven smaller islands and is home to the country’s key energy industries, including petrochemical and petroleum. (Photo courtesy of the Singapore Economic Development Board)

Though it is one of the smallest countries in Asia, Singapore has big plans in place for its energy future. Strategically located in the midst of Asia’s thriving oil economies, Singapore is a key oil hub in the region and one of the world’s top-10 petrochemical hubs. This leadership in the oil arena is carrying over to biofuels as well as other renewable and alternative sources of energy. During the past few years, Singapore has been working to initiate biodiesel production and become a renewable energy hub, in addition to becoming a center for energy-orientated research and development (R&D).

Singapore’s Economic Development Board (EDB) is one part of the government actively working toward realizing these goals. Tat Win Law has been with the EDB since 2000 and is deputy director of energy and logistics. In this capacity, he oversees the development of the oil and gas, biofuels, power and utilities, logistics as well as supply chain management sectors. He recently spoke with FUEL to discuss the development and future of Singapore’s energy industry.

FUEL: Can you tell us a little bit about the Singapore EDB and your role?

Tat Win Law: Specifically for energy, we oversee the development of industries in the oil and gas, biofuels, and power and utility sectors within Singapore. As for the EDB, we are a semi-government agency reporting to the Ministry of Trade & Industry, and are considered the chief business architect for the manufacturing and services sectors in Singapore. The EDB is also responsible for the development of electronics, biomedical sciences, transport engineering, precision engineering, infocomms and media, health care and consumer industries in Singapore. So it’s a wide variety of industries we are involved in.

FUEL: With Singapore’s recently announced plans to become a renewable energy hub, what are some of the plans in achieving that goal?

Law: If you take a step back and you look at the actual verticals we’re trying to build up in Singapore, I think there would probably quite a few under the renewable energy space. One would be the area of biofuels, the other would be solar energy, the third one, which I would say will take the longest time, is the area of fuel cell development.

In Singapore, we have a good mix of public research institutes as well as universities and corporate R&D labs, so in each of these three spaces, I would say various entities are working at different parts of the value chain. And there’s no one entity that really does everything today. For example, if you pick up the area of solar, we have several chemical companies based in Singapore, such as BASF, developing materials for organic photovoltaics. If you’re looking at biofuels, for example, we look at the technologies anywhere from the development of alternative feedstocks – from algae research to identifying the kind of strains of algae that can be used for biodiesel production and identifying them – all the way to process technology, in the sense of how you go about extracting the oils and processing the vegetable oils, all the way down to converting it with process technology and developing catalysis, the catalysts that you need to convert the vegetable oils into biodiesel products. So these different research programs are embedded in different parts of the research institutes, academic institutions as well as corporate R&D centers.

FUEL: Can you tell us a little bit more about Singapore’s R&D activity?

	One of the world’s largest biodiesel facilities soon will be build based on Neste Oil’s proprietary next-generation technology. (Photo courtesy of Neste Oil)

Law: We’re trying to become an energy solutions hub within the Asia Pacific – the ability to integrate the various energy systems together into energy solutions, solutions involving a system of systems. In our efforts to really develop research capabilities, we’ll be setting up a research institute called SINERGY Centre, which will consist of a microgrid, and within this microgrid, what we hope to provide is an infrastructure for companies to test their individual technologies.

So, for example, how does a biofuels system plug into the microgrid and work together with a solar system, and how do these two systems integrate with a fuel cell system, because those are plugged into the same grid. But really, in providing an environment where research companies can come in to test these new technologies, the real underlying and core technology and capability to be developed underneath this infrastructure is in the area of grid management and power management, which we believe will be key for the future.

There is no one solution that can solve all our energy requirements for the future. So the SINERGY Centre is one of the key initiatives we are embarking on today in Singapore to position ourselves in developing expertise. The microgrid is the infrastructure needed so companies can come and work with us, to test, further develop their new technologies and then deliver it out there to the region.

In line with our vision to become an energy solutions hub, we have also set up an energy studies institute to help assist and also put some thought behind how energy policy can also be created and developed, and similar to how we are delivering energy technology solutions, delivering the policies for this part of the world.

FUEL: Where is Singapore headed in terms of renewable energy, and how does the government plan to get there?

Law: The advancement of energy is very dependent on technological advances. I think we’re just trying to develop the value chain at this point so we know what we are participating in, in terms of technology development, and we are clear on the kinds of expertise we want to build up for the future.

We have set aside the funds for it and have also identified potential industry partners we can work with. The industry will have a very important role to play, and now the interest is in engaging them early and getting them to establish their R&D base here for the Asia Pacific market. So that’s how we have gone about doing it.

In terms of real hard policy, we have not mandated any use of fuel in Singapore, not even on alternative or renewable fuels. I think what we have done is create awareness and create the environment, a competitive environment such that any fuel used in Singapore is economically viable, not just based on subsidies or regulations put in place today, but really so they can compete with existing conventional fuels. I think that will be key to ensure any new energy source or energy technology being created to replace or add to existing fuel sources available is sustainable for the long term. It has to be economically competitive and able to stand on its own.

FUEL: How does Singapore regulate fuel usage, especially without biofuels mandates?

Law: It’s very much based on emissions. We set an emissions standard, and we are neutral to the kind of fuel being used. So, actually any fuel that can meet the emissions standard that has been set for ourselves would be able to [be used toward meeting those standards], they have to compete with each other, it’s a very competitive environment, and I think that’s the kind of environment necessary that will also spur all the technology developments and enhance and also eventually meet for greater adoptions.

I would say it’s quite a different mindset for how other countries have approached it, which is to mandate through regulatory mandates or subsidies to drive adoption. We are looking at it more from an emissions standpoint, and also the main focus is on technology.

So far, we are putting in place our own resources to develop the technology to meet with advancements to make alternative fuels economical such that they can compete against the conventional fuel sources and supplement the existing fuels we have to drive adoption.

Specifically, to create awareness, what we have done is really open up Singapore as a test bed for companies to showcase their latest technologies. So going beyond the likes of the SINERGY Centre whereby it’s more of a research environment, where companies come in and test their technologies, we as a government have opened up our public infrastructure to allow companies to come in and test their technologies on a much larger scale.

For example, we do have a biodiesel test bed we are working on together, consulting with companies that include automotive component providers Bosch and original equipment manufacturers of the likes of Daimler, Volkswagen, some of your biofuels manufacturers and producers as well. So we do help bring together such a consortium as well to showcase that things can be done. In the area of fuel cells, we have a similar ongoing test bed led by Daimler. About five to six fuel cell cars are running around Singapore, just to show people that yes, this is a technology that is feasible, it can work – more work needs to be put into the technology advancement, but we are trying to build and develop that mindshare.

Louise Poirier can be reached at 1 (713) 260-6419 or lpoirier@hartenergy.com