Asean’s first fuel additive plant at Kota Samarahan should become operational early next year

KUCHING: Asean’s first plant to produce bioethanol from sago waste – located at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) in Kota Samarahan – is expected to begin production early next year.

Bioethanol which is called E18 will be used as 18 per cent fuel additive, thus helping to reduce fossil fuel dependency and carbon emission.

Science, Technology and Innovation Deputy Minister Fadillah Yusof said yesterday E18 would not only benefit motorists, but rural folk who depended on fuel-run power generators.

“The pilot plant for bioethanol from sago at Unimas will be completed by the end of the year and we expect production of one tonne of ethanol daily by early next year between January and February,” he told reporters after performing the earth-breaking ceremony for the plant.

He hoped that in the future a mobile plant could be developed to produce bioethanol for rural usage.

“Our rural community still depends heavily on energy from fuel-run generators and to transport fuel to remote areas is very expensive,” he added.

Fadillah who heads the ministry’s task force for Alternative Energy and Food Security said biofuel like E18 was a promising green energy in the light of the current global energy shortage.

He said E18 production would not disrupt food production because the pilot plant was using solid sago waste, particularly hydrolysed sago fibres as the main feedstock.

The plant is designed to generate 1,000 litres of ethanol per day from about 1,300 kg of sago starch (from sago waste) by adapting the Ishizaki Process.

The ministry is awarding its Techno-Fund amounting to RM11.6 million to the project.

The design of the pilot plant is based on an earlier blue-print from principal researcher Professor Dr Kopli Bujang of Unimas and his research collaborator Professor Emeritus Dr Ayaaki Ishizaki of the New Century Fermentation Research (NECFER) based in Kurume, Japan.

The pilot plant is designed and to be developed as a turn-key project, complete with facilities for hydrolysis of starch and cellulose into sugar, fermentation process and downstream processing for distillation and dehydration of the ethanol produced.

Water generated from the distillation stage can be recycled for use in starch hydrolysis.

In explaining this further, Kopli said current development had shown promising results of about 50 to 60 per cent recovery of sugar from sago waste.

“E18 is an additive for fuel at 18 per cent and therefore, we don’t have to change the engines of vehicles like the spark plugs and carburettor.

“Such plan has been implemented in Asia, although using different substrate for bioethanol in Thailand, the Philippines and Japan,” he said.

In Brazil, he said bioethanol was fully used as fuel in vehicles and it required some modifications on the engines.

Kopli said the pilot plant would be getting its sago waste supply from Pusa and Mukah.

“Instead of dumping the waste into rivers, we’ll turn it into bioethanol,” he said, adding that currently bioethanol was priced between US$400 and US$700 per tonne.

“We’ve some enquiries from Japanese companies that are interested to buy our raw ethanol,” he added.

Earlier in his speech, Fadillah said the government was committed in developing alternative energy to complement and replace non-renewable sources of energy, and one being turning waste into energy or using biomass.

“We will not use food for energy production because it will disrupt our food supply,” he said.

Citing an example, he said a company in Semenyih, Selangor produced energy for its factory consumption from municipal waste.

“An excess of five megawatt is sold to Tenaga Nasional Berhad,” he said.

Fadillah said with experts estimating that fossil fuel would only last for another 30 to 40 years, it was pivotal to explore alternative and green energy to sustain the ever increasing demand for energy.

It would contribute greatly towards a sustainable environment and well-being of the people at the end of the day, he added.

He commended Unimas’ Faculty of Resource Science and Technology and Kopli’s team for the breakthrough in producing bioethanol for fuel from sago waste and he hoped to see more researches done for commercialisation.