Contracting project for services related to the development and upgrading of biomass energy and fuel production processes in Nakhon Ratchasima Province.

Currently, Thailand is classified as an efficiency-driven economy, focusing on the efficient use of resources and biodiversity to drive economic growth. However, this often results in wasteful resource consumption in the production of goods and services, failing to fully maximize the added value of those resources. This "high production, low return" model leads to rapid degradation of Thailand's natural resources. Simultaneously, environmental problems, natural disasters, and the climate crisis intensify, causing damage to the country, particularly in the agricultural, industrial, and tourism sectors, exceeding 280 billion baht, or 0.82% of GDP between 2000 and 2019 (according to the Global Climate Risk Index 2021). Furthermore, changes in laws and regulations concerning climate change management pose challenges to Thailand's production sector. Examples include the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) implementation of the Thailand Taxonomy to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions and the European Union's CBAM (Cross-Border Carbon Adjustment) measures, which require importers to adopt environmentally friendly business practices and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Given these challenges, opportunities, and prospects, the government is accelerating the transition of the country's economic development model towards a sustainable development model. Also known as the “BCG Model,” this refers to developing a high-quality and sustainable economy, ensuring that people have good incomes and quality of life, and preserving and restoring natural resources and biodiversity through creativity, technology, and innovation.

The Department of Industrial Promotion, through the Regional Industrial Promotion Center 6, recognizes the importance of this and therefore focuses on developing and promoting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to have the capacity and competitiveness to achieve excellence and sustainability on the international level. This is accomplished by developing and upgrading the production processes of energy and fuel from biomass, which is implemented in two ways:

(1) Developing the biomass fuel heat energy production process, with guidelines such as reducing fuel and water consumption, improving combustion efficiency, using technology and innovation to increase energy management efficiency, and reducing losses incurred in the heat energy production process.

(2) Developing the biomass fuel production process from biomaterials, with guidelines such as reducing resource consumption, improving production processes, using technology and innovation to increase production or product efficiency, waste management, warehousing, improving transportation efficiency, and finding ways to promote marketing. Support is also provided in terms of knowledge on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This includes integrating collaborative networks as a mechanism to support and incentivize investment in environmentally friendly economic activities, leading to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Recognizing the potential of the Biomass Center of Excellence, the Department of Industrial Promotion, through the Regional Industrial Promotion Center 6, has entrusted the center with implementing this project. The aim is to develop and upgrade environmentally friendly biomass energy and fuel production processes by enhancing knowledge in improving production efficiency, reducing greenhouse gas emissions based on the BCG model, and promoting the use of technology and innovation to increase production efficiency in line with the circular economy and low-carbon society approaches.