Biodiesel is Next in Malaysia Plan

2006-05-01T03:54:00.000-07:00

As the world's leading palm oil producer, Malaysia advancement in biotechnology and subsequently biofuel technology is inevitable. With the recent global economy being almost paralysed by spikes in crude oil price, it is time for an alternative fuel. Even if crude oil was never an issue, air pollution from engine combustion by-product and global warming will surely put an urge for an alternative fuel.

Biofuel Technology

Biodiesel, an alternative or additive to standard diesel fuel, is made from biological ingredients instead of petroleum and it is one of many types of biofuel, a key technology in which Malaysia should focus in for the next five years. Branching from biotechnology, a field locally ventured more than two decades ago, biofuel is extracted from renewable resources such as vegetable oils and waste oils. Among the world biofuel sources are sunflower, soybean and most importantly, palm, Malaysia most cropped plantation estates.

Availability of indigenous resources, human resources, technical capability and infrastructure

It is undeniable that palm oil tree is Malaysia most cultivated and its plantation spread up to 4.0 million hectares in 2005, producing a total of 15.0 million tonnes of crude palm oil in that year alone, an impressive production growth of 7.1% from the previous year. This shows that Malaysia has a stable foundation for biodiesel technological advancement, with palm oil as its biofuel of choice.

There can be no excuse to avoid focusing on biofuel technology from any perspective, be it neither in term of resources nor in technical capability. Malaysia palm oil industry went back more than two decades ago, when Malaysia was still an agricultural country. Up until now, its continuing strong growth has always been a fruitful investment and offer job opportunities to local farmers as well as local entrepreneurs.

Knowing the full potential of oil palm, Malaysia have several bodies involved in managing the plantation, research and development, and controlling the quality - namely the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA), Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) and Technology Park Malaysia (TPM).

Opportunity to be competitive in the local and international markets

On August 10, 2005, the government has announced the introduction of a National Biofuel Policy, primarily aimed at reducing the country's fuel import bill, promoting further the demand for palm oil, as well as to shore up the price of palm oil. To this matter, the government had accounted SIRIM the responsibility on establishing an industry standard for biodiesel quality.

The National Biofuel Policy entails a four-prong strategy, which includes the production of a biodiesel fuel blend of 5% processed palm oil with 95% petroleum diesel, dubbed B5 and encouraging the use of biofuel among the public, which will involve giving out incentives for oil retail companies to provide biodiesel pumps at stations.

To spur the advancement in biofuel technology, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had given his promise that the Government is sparing no effort in trying to making Malaysia the world's leading producer in biodiesel.

In order to be competitive in the local and international markets, Malaysia had made an effort in calling on all investors to be long-term partners and invest in this field. The effort had not been unworthy, as a total of 16 local and international parties are applying for licences to build biodiesel plants. To date, three companies have the licences from MPOB to set up palm biodiesel plants using the MPOB patented technology, each with an annual production capacity of 60,000 tonnes.

Biodiesel cleaner combustion is also a contributing factor to its competitiveness. As a fuel, it is much lower in sulphur content than petrochemical diesel. It therefore burns more cleanly and more completely, meaning fewer pollutants such as hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and particulates. This gives both, environmental and health benefits. Various studies have concluded that using 1 kg of biodiesel leads to the reduction of some 2.5 kg of CO2 . This represents a significant tool for the EU to meet its CO2 emission reduction target contained in the 1997 Kyoto protocol on global warming and climate change. This has put high interest in many European countries to invest in biofuel. As a fact, this cause has shown its effect in local market, when Kulim (Malaysia) Bhd and Germany’s CremerOleo Gmbh have reached agreement to set up two new plants worth RM152mil to produce biofuel and expected to start production by as early as 2007.

In recent news, the government had announced that it will make a palm oil-based fuel a mandatory additive at petrol pumps by 2008 as part of government efforts to cut its diesel subsidy bill. Although, we had come so far and advanced so much in biofuel technology, the move to commercialize palm oil-based for public use is a big step and our biofuel is still far from perfect. Since the government is pushing hard for biofuel, its development and growth must not be suspended though the Ninth Malaysia Plan stated that the government is focusing on Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

As a precaution to avoid failure in commercialization of biodiesel for public use, which could cause a paralysis in palm oil industry, it is most crucial that Malaysia is to focus in biofuel technology for the next five years. Equipped with established infrastructure, assisted by complimentary government bodies and backed by two decades of local experience and resources, biodiesel, a result from biofuel technology will definitely yields a promising future for economical growth.

Building Microprocessor

2005-12-06T12:26:00.000-08:00

Designing an ALU model is a straightforward problem. Still, making the model works, requires a colossal amount of understanding in logic synthesis – that is how a block of several gates can be arranged to achieve a certain operation such as addition or subtraction.

Exploring Java

2005-04-25T19:18:00.001-07:00

A year ago, I was obsessed a lot with my dynamic web development. I pursued it to the fullest, making it the most occupied hobby I have ever had. Well, thanks to my brother, he was a big help. Nonetheless, the title is a little a bit off with the prologue. Just to say, I am now officially obsessed with Java programming!

However, it never means that I am over Dreamweaver, VBscript, ASP or any of those dynamic web gizmos.. It only means one thing.. integration.

Three weeks ago, a technician where I'm doing my internship came to me and say, "Can you find me a good stopwatch software?". I reply, "Why not I code you one, just for the racing team. It totally can be done either by C++ or Visual Basic."

Surfing the net, looking for code reference, I stumbled into Java sample programming code and it was coded to function as stopwatch! Thinking about it, Java is much better than other languages. Foremost, it is platform independent.. as Sun Microsystems denoted it as 'write once run everywhere' language, coz it creates it's own virtual machine - much as a small OS in your computer OS.

I am so eager to elaborate on every little detail, but I have to focus. I am on my learning curve and this, is only one baby step.

The Enthusiast

Biodiesel is Next in Malaysia Plan

Building Microprocessor

Exploring Java