I welcome the Recent Suggestion By Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin That the Malaysian Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry Will Step Up Its Efforts to Promote the Use of Palm Kernel Waste As An Animal Feed For the Poultry Industry.
Palm kernel waste, as it is used here, is palm kernel cake (PKC), a by-product of the extraction of palm kernel oil from the palm kernel.
Malaysia, the world's second largest palm oil producer and exporter, has generated more than two million metric tonnes of PKC annually for the past decade.
PKC is currently widely exported and used as feed for dairy cattle; it is a source of protein, fats, and energy. In 2021, the country's exports reached almost RM1.5 billion.
To date, use of PKC for poultry has been limited because of its high fibre content, but a biological solution could now make this possible.
In fact, with appropriate hydrolysis and fermentation processes using enzymes and yeasts, the solution offers a twofold benefit. We can not only upgrade PKC to animal feed for poultry but also produce ethanol with PKC.
Enzymes, when used in hydrolysis, can efficiently hydrolyse the polysaccharides in PCK.
Yeasts can then ferment the hydrolysed PKC to produce a high-protein animal feed: distiller's dried grain with solubles, which in turn can replace corn and soybean meals in broiler diets without negative effects on their performance.
Last year, Malaysia imported 1.3 million tonnes of soybean meal for the poultry industry.
If all PKC produced by Malaysia were upgraded, this could reduce the country's dependence on imported soybean meal and ensure that it has a sustainable supply of chickens at a reasonable price in the long run.
Enzyme hydrolysis of PKC will also produce fermentable sugars, which can be transformed into ethanol. Ethanol can be blended with gasoline to power vehicles and improve emissions quality.
Although ethanol blending seems new to many people, in some Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand and the Philippines, ethanol is already a major fuel used for transportation purposes.
Because ethanol is produced from biomass, it can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 86 per cent compared with gasoline.
Research also found that it has a higher octane number that enhances engine performance.
So, transforming PKC into a protein-rich poultry feed would not only promote better use of an agricultural biomass but also help achieve Malaysia's societal goals in regard to the climate.
Protein-rich poultry feed and ethanol production from PKC is an entirely new approach that will take the palm oil industry to the next level.
However, this transformation cannot proceed without a supportive system in place.
Because such an undertaking requires substantial investments, incentives and funding options must be made available to palm oil companies, to encourage them to take on new technology and process.
So, is the government and industry ready to take the next big step?
* The writer is is a chartered chemical engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He is also the author of "A Chemical Engineer in the Palm Oil Milling Industry"