PREMIUM
Renewable Energy (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd will spend US$40 million (RM124
million) to build a rapid thermal process (RTP) bio-oil plant near Lahad
Datu, Sabah in 2011.
Dubbed as first of its kind in Malaysia,
the plant will use oil palm biomass as feedstock in partnership with one
of the country’s largest plantation companies.
“Construction
of the RTP bio-oil plant is scheduled to start within the second quarter
of next year and be completed by 2012,” Premium Renewable managing
director Anand Selvaratnam said.
He said once fully operational
by 2015, the bio-oil plant project should help Premium Renewable
generate a revenue of about US$300 million (RM930 million).
Selvaratnam said the project is part of the initiatives laid out under
the National Key Economic Area (NKEA) of Malaysia’s Economic
Transformation Programme to commercialise second generation biofuels
using oil palm biomass.
The bio-oil initiative under the NKEA’s
palm oil lab is estimated to generate US$1 billion (RM3.1 billion) in
gross national income in 2020 and create 1,000 additional new jobs for
the country within 10 years.
“We aim to build and operate 15
bio-oil plants by 2015 for both green renewable power generation and
transportation fuel applications in Malaysia,” Selvaratnam said.
Investment for the bio-oil plant project will be funded by both
equities and bank borrowings with Premium Renewable holding a
significant majority stake in the bio-oil venture.
Selvaratnam
told this to reporters after signing an engineering services agreement
with US-based Envergent Technologies to undertake the engineering work
to build the bio-oil plant.
Also present were Premium Renewable
chairman Datuk Razman Hashim and Ensyn executive vice-president and
chief financial officer David Boulard.
Envergent is a joint-venture company between Premium Renewable’s partner, Ensyn Technologies Canada and UOP-Honeywell of US.
It will deploy Ensyn’s RTP technology globally as well as to develop
the complementary technology to convert bio oil into transportation
fuels.
Selvaratnam said Premium Renewable will use Ensyn’s
technology to convert oil palm biomass to bio oil for green renewable
power generation and renewable transformation fuels production such as
green gas, diesel and jet fuel.
“It is important that Malaysia
secures its energy needs as we can no longer depend solely on fossil
fuel in the future,” he said.
In the same time, Selvaratnam
said Premium Renewable is in talks with several other plantation players
to supply feedstock for its plants.
“Most of the talks are in final stages and we expect to seal deals with them in the near future,” he said.
Source : Business Times
