According to YB Datuk Hajah Zuraida Kamaruddin, Malaysia has the possibility to emerge as a Biomass Hub. It is appropriate for the country’s status as the second largest palm oil producer and biomass industry contributor.
She was speaking to the audience for the 2nd Global Clean-up Congress.
“Malaysia is the second largest producers and exporters of palm oil in the world, next to Indonesia, supported by 5.7 million hectares of oil palm cultivation which produces 18.1 million tonnes of palm oil. Although we are behind Indonesia in production but, we are the first in terms of yield per hectare,” Zuraida was quoted as saying in her speech.
“Now this is our achievement that we must celebrate, and be proud of because in that sense, we are more efficient in managing our resources – in accordance with the Sustainability Thrust in our National Agricomodity Policy 2030 aka DAKN 2030,” she added.
“Integrating circular economy within the palm oil value chain is an effective solution to optimise the usage of resources
(raw materials) and minimise wastage from production, emissions and energy usage. This is done by reducing and reusing materials that are commonly underutilised in the current linear economy model,” she stressed.
“Malaysia has been at the forefront of promoting the use of palm oil and palm biomass in the manufacturing sector. The Ministry aims for all mills to have methane capture facilities for biogas production and promotes the development of bio-fuel and bio-based end products as a means of turning Waste Into Wealth,” she elaborated.
“Biomass Action Plan under the National Agricomodity Policy 2030 has been developed in order to attract new industry players to venture into biomass downstream activities,” she added.
In her spech, she also stressed that there will be new opportunities for value creation through innovation in line with green growth principles such as turning the empty fruit bunches into energy pellets, medium density fibreboard (MDF), bio-char, activated carbon and microcrystalline cellulose.
