Prof. NASA and Linda blending the EPFB.

Mailin using the tubular reactor to heat the EPFB

Director Aidid explaining his ideas to Prof NASA

Prof NASA in action…

Checking out the outcome of the video shooting

2.       Nor Aishah Saidina Amin, Siti Eda Misi (2008), “A process for producing biodiesel and a process for producing a catalyst used in the process for producing the biodiesel”, Malaysia Patent PI2008 4694

3.       Nor Aishah Saidina Amin, Wan Nor Nadyaini Wan Omar (2008), “A process for producing biodiesel from waste cooking oil”, Malaysia Patent PI2008 4695

4.       Nor Aishah Saidina Amin and Istadi, (2004),”An Integrated Reactor-Permreactor-Permeator for Natural Gas Conversion Process”, Malaysia Patent PI 20043759.

5.       Nor Aishah Saidina Amin, Didi Dwi Anggoro, (2001), “A Catalyst for Converting Natural Gas to Gasoline and A Single Step Process for Producing Gasoline from Natural Gas using the Same”, Malaysia Patent PI 20013625

2. Silver Medal, Industrial Art Technology Exhibition (INATEX), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor, Malaysia, Aug 2008.

Your high commitment in developing the proposals has been compensated by the grant funded by ExxonMobil.

Yeah..go..go!!

Malaysia BOLEH! CREG BOLEH!

An innovative process offers an environmental friendly technology for the production of alternative energy from a sustainable renewable resource. In the new process, EFB-Diesel is innovatively produced from biomass via a two-step reaction of pretreatment and pyrolysis. The reaction produced highly valuable oil (EFB-Diesel), gaseous and char. The conversion and the yield of EFB-Diesel were 58 wt% and 22 wt%, respectively. The innovative process is feasible for commercialization in the gas, fuel, and petrochemical industries.

Keywords: Renewable, wastes, fuel, energy

PROBLEM

Environmental concerns and petroleum depletion lure the search for a new alternative fuel. One such solution is to convert renewable agricultural biomass to energy source. Being the world’s largest producer of palm oil, Malaysia generates about 40 million tons of empty fruit bunches (EFB) annually.

Although EFB is utilized for power generation, the heating value of EFB is still small. Even pyrolysis of EFB produces bio-oil that contains mixtures of chemical components that do not meet the fuel specifications.

OUR SOLUTION

An innovative process was developed for the conversion of empty palm fruit bunch to fuel (EFB-Diesel). The invention offers promising solution for the recent controversial issue of biodiesel production from food sources. The quality of EFB-Diesel is comparable to the conventional bio-diesel.

ADVANTAGES OF INVENTION

ü New technology for conversion of Empty Palm Fruit Bunch (EPFB) into Biodiesel

ü Environmental friendly alternative energy

ü Economically viable and sustainable method

ü Utilization of renewable resources

ü EFB-Diesel for heating oil or blended with diesel

PRODUCT FEATURES

· Converts solid biomass waste into renewable fuel

· Non-food source for biodiesel

· Waste to Wealth (W2W)

· High quality products

POTENTIAL MARKET

§ Solid Waste Management Industries

§ Agriculture Industries

§ Industrial Power Plants (eg. Tenaga Nasional Berhad, Malakoff, YTL)

§ Automotive Industries

PRODUCT PROPERTIES

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION KINDLY CONTACT:
Prof. Dr. Nor Aishah Saidina Amin
Chemical Reaction Engineering Group (CREG),
Faculty of Chemical & Natural Resources Enginering,                                                                           Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Skudai, Johor.                                                                                     Tel: +607- 553 5502; +607- 553 6044                                                                                                        Fax: +607- 558 1463;  Email: noraishah@fkkksa.utm.my                                                      www.fkkksa.utm.my/creg, www.cregutm.com

As mentioned previously, the EPFB project has contributed to 8 papers publication for national and international journal & proceedings. Below are the details about the publication.

1.       Pyrolysis of Lignin Degraded Empty Palm Fruit Bunch to Important Chemicals. Has submitted to Bioresource Technology on Oct 2008. (Status: under review)

2.       Pre-treatment of Empty Palm Fruit Bunch for Degradation of Lignin. Submitted to our local publisher, Jurnal Teknologi in the middle of year. (Status: under review

3.     Delignification of Empty Palm Fruit Bunches by Lignin Peroxidase for Biofuel Production. Presented by Prof. Dr. Nor Aishah at the 2nd South East Asian Technical University Consortium (SEATUC) Symposium, Bandung Indonesia on Feb 2008.

4.       Bio-Oil from Pyrolysis of Pre-Treated Empty Palm Fruit Bunch (EPFB). Will be presented at Regional Symposium Chemical Engineering (RSCE) Kuala Lumpur on Dec 2008.

5.       Conversion of Chemically Treated Empty Palm Fruit Bunch (EPFB) to Important Chemicals. Will be presented at Regional Symposium Chemical Engineering (RSCE) Kuala Lumpur on Dec 2008.

6.      Production Of Biofuel From Palm Oil And Oil Palm Biomass. Will be published as a review paper during the JSPS conference in Japan this end of year.

7.       Product Distribution Of Pyrolyzed Concentrated EPFB. Will be presented by Prof. Dr Nor Aishah Saidina Amin in the conference of JSPS, Japan.

8.       One paper that related on biodiesel production from EPFB is in the developing process. Our targeted international journal is FUEL.

We are currently looking for the direction of biomass research in our group. For those who have the idea on this topic, kindly contact our person in-charges, Ms Mailin and Mr Zaki Yamani.

Thank you very much for your support guys!!.

This project, leaded by Prof. Dr. Nor Aishah Saidina Amin is purposely to produce biofuel from the abundant wastes generated by palm oil industries known as empty palm fruit bunch (EPFB). Through our innovative method technologies, three valuable products would be obtained namely bio-oil, gaseous and char.

The bio-oil can be used as an alternative energy source, raw material for energy related or as building blocks for the polymer and chemical industries. The gas product on the other hand can be used in fuel cells application, while the solid by-product of char is vital for the production of activated carbon or carbon black.

As information, the project was conducted by CREG Research Officers from various specialties and expertise. The main researcher is Mailin Misson from Biology and Bioprocess Eng. background, and assisted by Roslindawati Haron (Biology, Enzymology) and Mohd Fadhzir Ahmad Kamaroddin (Chemical Eng). 5 excellent undergraduate students had been selected to be involved in the project to make the project become more successful.

Besides, our hardworking and creative leader, Prof. Dr. Nor Aishah Saidina Amin together with our lecturers, Assoc. Prof. Dr Ramli Mat, Mr Zaki Yamani and Mr Mahadhir have developed CREG to a very strong and highly competitive research group.

With this innovative and established team, high impact research to the nation being was successfully completed. 8 papers were developed for national & international journals and proceedings, as well as 2 on-progress patents drafting were received.

More interestingly, our product namely EFB-Diesel (The Biodiesel from non-food Source) has been awarded as Silver Receiver on the Research Competition organized by UTM on last Aug. Through this innovative method to produce high quality Biodiesel, we are looking forward to have good research collaboration or even production contract with other organization outside.