By Ling Hui
KUCHING, May 10: The next step in Sarawak’s microalgae biomass production is to upscale the plant from the current five-hectare facility at Sarawak Energy’s Sejingkat Power Plant to 10,000 hectares.
Sarawak Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said the proposed site for a much larger production plant is between Balingian and Tanjung Manis.
“Algae biomass of 350 tons per year can be generated from a five-hectare site that can be processed into 87 tons of lipid. From the lipid, you can extract roughly about 45 tons of SAF, in a five-hectare site.
“So, just imagine if you have 10,000 hectares,” he said during a press conference after launching the Chitose Carbon Capture (C4) Sarawak at Sarawak Energy’s Sejingkat Power Plant here today.
Sarawak will be going full force in cultivating microalgae and producing SAF for the demand for renewable products are ever-increasing worldwide.
Should it be done right, Abang Johari said Sarawak would be the major producer of algae biomass that can generate SAF to be used by the aviation industry.
“I have proposed to the Japanese, our partner in this project, that we set a production level target. For example, we want to produce 6,000 tons (of SAF) a month, then you calculate backwards.
“How much land do you need, how much carbon do you need to produce based on the target. If (we can produce) 6,000 tons per month, it’s 72,000 tons per year.
“That will bring billions to the State revenue and at the same time, we help the world to reach net zero carbon,” he said.
At the moment, Abang Johari said Neste, an oil refining and marketing company in Finland, is currently producing for 0.1 per cent of the SAF demand in the entire world.
He envisioned that there would be a global shift from fossil fuel to biofuel if Sarawak could ever manage 6,000 tons of SAF production per month.
The microalgae project at Sejingkat began in 2020 and is led by Japan’s Chitose Group (the primary contractor for the microalgae research project), Sarawak Energy, and SBC.
The project is fully funded by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation (NEDO) and managed by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI). — DayakDaily
