Manufacturer of Biogas Analysers Eyes Greater Potential in South East Asia’s Renewable Energy Market

Geotechnical Instruments Ltd. (Geotech), a leading UK supplier and manufacturer of portable and fixed gas analysers, is enhancing its focus and investments in South East Asia by increasing its offerings in the landfill and palm oil sectors.

The homegrown company will also be looking to empower its South East Asian customers through its after sales service offerings, which include educational content, webinars and skills development programmes.

The company, which started in the West Midlands over forty years ago, has expanded its presence to 66 countries across the world, with its venture into South East Asia’s biogas market starting in 2006. To date, Geotech has been providing industry players in these countries with monitoring equipment and support services for biogas analysis and production, a key component in the production of renewable energy.

Currently, Geotech is the market leader for biogas monitoring equipment in South East Asia, enjoying 50 percent of the market share in Malaysia and Thailand and with a growing presence in Indonesia. This presence is attributed to the popularity of its portable gas monitoring equipment, BIOGAS 5000. It also plans to further boost its growth in the region with the introduction of the GA3000 PLUS, its flagship fixed gas analyser. The company operates via a distributor model, collaborating with local partners in the region in order to supply its products to a wide range of customers and industries in the region.

Speaking following Geotech’s participation at the Asia Pacific Biogas Forum 2016 in Kuala Lumpur recently, Steve Billingham, Managing Director of Geotech said, “In the era of globalisation where many UK-based manufacturing and engineering companies are moving their production and manufacturing operations abroad, we are very proud to have retained all of our expertise, operations and capabilities in our West Midlands premises while still being able to service a wide range of customers around the world.”

“South East Asia is an exciting market for us due to increased interest by landfill and palm oil plantation operators in the region to move towards greater renewable energy production through anaerobic digestion (AD); a process that can turn food and palm waste into biomethane. We have had great success in the UK and Europe, in helping plant operators optimise their AD processes and boost energy production targets and we are excited to share our experience and expertise in this field with industry players in South East Asia,” Steve concluded.

South East Asia has set ambitious renewable energy targets in the next decade. Indonesia, the region’s most populous nation, aims to raise its share of renewable energy from 4.79% in 2011 to 25% by 2025. Thailand has a similar ambitious target of raising renewable energy levels from 9% currently to 25% by 2022. The Philippines seeks to meet 50% of its primary energy needs from renewable energy by 2030, up from 40% currently, while Malaysia aims to increase its renewable energy production from 5.5% in 2015 to 7.8% in 2020. Singapore, despite challenges with small land mass, is aiming to double its renewable energy production targets from 4% to 8% in the next decade.