KOTA KINABALU: The palm oil biomass industry offers a substantial opportunity to produce value-added products and renewable energy, said Plantation and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani.
Last year, he said the country produced 92.37 million tonnes of biomass, including 25.75 million tonnes generated from milling and plantation activities in Sabah alone. He added that the figure could rise further with the inclusion of palm oil mill effluents.
"The biomass from the palm oil industry has great potential in producing value-added products and renewable energy.
"The biomass and bioenergy sectors are expected to be the catalyst for our nation's economy while ensuring a sustainable future," he said during the 2024 National Seminar on palm oil milling, refining, environment and quality at a hotel here. His speech was read by his deputy Datuk Chan Foong Hin.
Johari added that several initiatives and policies, such as the National Agricommodity Policy 2021-2030 (DAKN 2030) and the National Biomass Action Plan 2023-2030, have been implemented to support this effort.
With the National Energy Transition Roadmap, he said that the palm oil industry through biomass production was also playing a pivotal role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and supporting Malaysia's aspiration to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
Meanwhile, during an interview, Chan said Sabah used to be the second-largest in terms of oil palm acreage and last year it had the highest oil palm extraction rate in the country.
Sarawak and Sabah recorded the largest oil palm plantation areas, with 1.62 and 1.51 million hectares respectively, together making up over 55 per cent of the country's total.
As of August 2024, 450 palm oil mills nationwide have a fresh fruit bunch (FFB) processing capacity of 123 million tonnes annually.
Sabah leads with 128 mills, capable of processing 34.7 million tonnes annually. In 2023, 95 million tonnes of FFB were processed, with a national oil extraction rate (OER) of 19.86 per cent. Sabah achieved the highest OER at 20.4 per cent, processing 22.4 million tonnes of FFB.
"But we still face the issue of lack of downstream process here. For the time being, we don't even have a commercial-size oleochemical plant in Sabah yet.
"When I visited the booths here, I was made to understand how to capture the biogas generated by the palm oil mills, and then to process it to become biomethane.
"And the biomethane can replace diesel for some of the factories," he said, adding that this was part of the ongoing efforts in tapping Sabah's biomass sector.