Varsity develops wastes to hydrogen converter

By STEPHEN THEN

MIRI: A technology to convert agriculture waste, such as padi husks and oil-palm leftovers, into hydrogen gas-fuel has been successfully devised in Sarawak and is believed to be the first locally developed technology.

This breakthrough was the result of an intensive joint-venture research carried out by the state government together with Australian scientists and biofuel experts from Curtin University of Technology Australia at the university’s branch campus in Miri City.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam said yesterday the success was a milestone

“This is a very important achievement for the future of our bio-fuel industry. It means that we now have the technology to convert unwanted bio-mass and agriculture wastes like oil-palm husks and padi husks into fuel-gas such as hydrogen.

“The hydrogen will be used as an alternative to diesel fuel to power industries like oil-palm processing plants.

“This is going to enable us to greatly reduce our dependence on fossil fuel like diesel. It will help save us a lot of money as the cost of fossil fuel has greatly increased.

“This is also a big step forward in terms of finding alternative fuel to power our rural regions. If we can set up similar projects in the rural regions, we will be able to power rural settlements and rural industries using an extremely environment-friendly source of fuel,” he said.
A pilot plant for converting these unwanted bio-mass into hydrogen fuel has been set up inside Curtin Sarawak’s premises, located some 35kms north of the city, he said after a meeting with Sarawak Assistant Minister for Infrastructure Development and Communications Lee Kim Shin, Curtin vice-chancellor Prof Lance Twomey and other Curtin directors.
Prof Twomey said the pioneer project was an excellent example of good government-private sector partnership.

“The pilot plant was set up using Curtin’s own technology and design. This research on bio-fuel is part of our continuous effort to explore new grounds in engineering and science-technology.

“We had to bring in top researchers and experts in the field from Australia.

“It was an expensive route that Curtin Sarawak has taken but the development has been superb,” he said.