RM1.4bil biofuel refinery planned

Pioneer Bio Industries Corp Sdn Bhd, the inventor of nipah or mangrove palm-based ethanol, will invest RM1.4bil to set up the country’s first refinery plant to produce biofuel on a large scale.
Its chairman Md Badrul Shah Mohd Noor said the factory would be built in the 1,000ha area where some 6,000 wild nipah trees were found growing in abundance in Trong, about 12km from here.
He said the refinery, scheduled to be in operation by early next year, would have the capacity to process some 1.8 billion litres of the country’s ethanol production annually.

A major portion of the ethanol production, an alternative to petrol, would be exported while only a small percentage would be marketed locally, he said.

“Ethanol is now much sought after in view of the increasing awareness among countries on the need to switch to biofuel to protect the environment,” he told reporters after the ground-breaking ceremony of the company’s five-storey building by Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Tajol Rosli Ghazali yesterday.

“Besides, its usage could also help to save a country’s non-renewable oil reserve,” he added.

The refinery can produce biofuel from extracts of nipah palm.

Md Badrul said the local demand for ethanol would mainly come from the medical-related industry.

Pioneer Bio Industries is a subsidiary of Pioneer Vaccination Biotech Corp Sdn Bhd, which has been in the biotechnology business since 2003.

Md Badrul estimated that the company would be investing a total of RM43.2bil over the next three years for the ethanol production project in Perak.

“This include the building of nine refinery plants at areas where we are given the right to tap nipah sap,” he said, adding that all the areas would be turned into mini-estates.

Tajol Rosli said the state government would share profits from the ethanol production based on land ownership.

“We are only giving the company the right to tap nipah sap while maintaining the titles of all the sites they are operating on.

“Based on our share of land equity in the project, we expect an annual income of at least RM324mil,” he said.

He said Pioneer Bio Industries was also given the right to tap the sap from 14,000ha of nipah trees found in the state’s coastal areas.

“We also agreed to allow the company to convert 1,000ha of coconut smallholdings in Bagan Datoh to plant nipah on a commercial scale,” he said
Source: www.biz.thestar.com.my