Malaysia’s Sime Darby Plantation plans bioethanol plant

11 January 2011 07:08  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Malaysia’s Sime Darby Plantation and Japan’s Mitsui Engineering and Shipbuilding (MES) Company plan to jointly build a small bioethanol test facility to check feasibility of a large-scale unit, a source close to the company said on Tuesday.

“The plant will convert palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) into bioethanol," the source said. “EFB was chosen as a feedstock as Malaysia is the world’s second largest producer of palm."

The plant will be situated next to Sime Darby Plantation’s Tennamaram palm oil mill at Bestari Jaya in Selangor Malaysia and will utilize 1.25 metric tonnes of EFB per day.

“This [plant] is in the preliminary stage as more research will be conducted to collect data and confirm the commercial feasibility of large-scale production of bioethanol from EFB,” the source added.

No other details of the joint venture were immediately available and Sime Darby Plantation officials declined to comment.

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By: Serena Seng

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