LANGKAWI: The Sarawak government plans to scale up the algae cultivation to 1,000 acres in order to produce about 500,000 tons per annum of crude algae oil or renewable oil.
Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said this can be equated to about 10,000 barrels of oil per day with about 37 percent extraction rate of crude oil from the algae.
“This may mean we do not have to look for oil anymore offshore or onshore and we can have our farmers grow oil more sustainably.
“The unit cost per barrel is below USD50 and today if sold to a bio-refinery it might fetch around USD110 per barrel because it’s green oil,” he said.
He was speaking during a ‘Showcase In The Use of Sarawak’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) in an Airbus A220-300’ at Langkawi on today (May 22).
Abang Johari also said Sarawak has successfully shown the world’s first SAF from algae which is the first SAF produced from algae by Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS) and Sarawak Economic Development Corporation (SEDC) Energy.
“The cultivation and extraction of algae will be our new upstream business and the crude algae oil refining into SAF will be the new downstream business. Both are important to make this overall supply chain take off and attract investors and buyers.
“I believe many players will come to Sarawak and invest in this new green fuel business and I sincerely welcome them to be part of the ‘Green Hub’ family. This I believe is in line with our Post-COVID-19 Development Strategy (PCDS) 2030,” he said.
SAF, he said, is still expensive because it is limited in supply and resource, and only a handful of players in the world are involved.
“But today, this is a start of new opportunity for the players to be part of the overall value chain from upstream to downstream,” he said.
Besides the production of SAF, he said, the algae can be made into different types of food and therapeutic products, whereby the biomass can be used for fish food, fertiliser, paper and pulp and also biocoal – all these products are being certified as green and renewable which can be sold as a premium because it is a green product.
“This means a potential new source of revenue for Sarawak,” he said, while adding that algae is a carbon capture and storage potential which offers Sarawak yet a new source of revenue by trading ‘physically’ carbon according to international protocol.
“I would like to congratulate SEDC Energy in taking the lead with Petronas in this sustainable effort,” he said.
Earlier, Abang Johari was on board the Airbus A220 aircraft that flew from Kuching to Langkawi, which uses the SAF through the collaboration between Aerospace Malaysia Innovation Centre (AMIC), SEDC Energy and Petronas.
Abang Johari also witnessed the signing of a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) between SEDC Energy, Petronas and AMIC for the development of algae to produce the SAF.
