Oil Palm Biomass Center (OPBC), a public-private partnership, has been opened in Malaysia to benefit the economy and climate. The consortium includes collaboration of 18 partners from global industries and technical universities to develop, test and optimize innovative upstream and downstream technologies for application of oil palm biomass.
The partners have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with an aim to efficiently merge accessible facilities, essential capabilities and various other resources into a single group, thus sharing the costs and risks of technology development and testing. The center has been opened under 1 Malaysia Biomass Alternative Strategy (1MBAS), which coordinates all Malaysian biomass efforts in a single efficient organization.
OPBC promotes partnership of three palm oil companies, Felda, IOI and Sime Darby with technology developers from industries and universities, who are interested in palm biomass utilization. The industrial partners include LG Chemical, Novozymes and Purac, and several academic partners, including Wageningen University (WUR), Palm Oil Industry Cluster (POIC) Sabah, University Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Delft (TU Delft). The public-private partnership focuses on five biomass technology programs: sustainable plantation and harvest of crops; logistics and biorefining; conversion into bioenergy, biofuels, biochemicals and materials; nutrient recycling and water and soil quality; and integration of carbon dioxide (CO2) and energy. Thus, OPBC aims to attain global leadership in the Malaysian palm biomass value chain through its research and development portfolio. It has planned to carry out its R&D and testing activities in West and East Malaysia.
Source: http://www.tudelft.nl/