FRANKFURT, May 16 (Bernama) -- A Malaysian resource-based company,FybOrganic Technologies Sdn Bhd, plans to team up with a German scientistin a biotechnology venture to produce biofertilisers and animal feed fromdiscarded oil palm trunks (OPTs).

Currently, FybOrganic is producing an organic substrate from biomassderived from OPTs as a growing media and soil conditioner for use inlandscaping, turf nursery, general agriculture purposes and mushroomcultivation.

"We envision that our shredded biomass can be further broken down andbioconverted into biofertilisers and animal feed by incorporating theinnovations of Dr A. Farouk Gad on thermophilic recombinant bacterialenzymes," FybOrganic executive director B.C. Chan said in an interview inKuala Lumpur.

Dr Gad, an associate professor at the department of biotechnologyengineering in the engineering faculty of the International IslamicUniversity (IIU) in Gombak near Kuala Lumpur, is fast gaining recognitionfor his work on those enzymes.

The Egyptian-born scientist, who previously worked at Humboldt Universityin Berlin, said the relatively easy access to research materials from themountains of padi husks and oil palm wastes and plant-growth-promotingsoil bacteria in Malaysia had helped him tremendously in his research.

Dr Gad, who recently won two gold medals at the 33rd InternationalInnovative Techniques and Products Exhibition in Geneva for hisinnovations on enzymes, had previously worked on a antibiotics projectfunded by the German government and pharmaceutical giant Bayer.

He said he decided to work in Malaysia as he was attracted by thecountry's pace of development and leadership, especially with PrimeMinister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's keen interest inbiotechnology.

Abdullah had as early as in January 2003 singled out biotechnology as anarea which Malaysia would have a clear competitive edge over the rest ofthe world as it is one of the areas blessed with tremendous biodiverseresources.

Suzanne Baumann, counsellor for press and cultural affairs at the GermanEmbassy in Kuala Lumpur, described Dr Gad's as a strong example ofGerman-Malaysian co-operation in biotechnology research and development.

Meanwhile, Chan said discussions are being held to form a new company inwhich Dr Gad and his academic associates and the IIU would also haveequity ownership in it as well.

He said FybOrganic had already seen since a few years ago the hugepotential for organic substrates, an important ingredient in agriculture,floriculture and landscaping by making use of OPTs which otherwise wouldhave been burnt or left to rot away.

"Our research shows that OPTs have many physical properties and chemicalconstituents that are beneficial for many subsequent applications or asusage for animal feed production," he said.

"However, Dr Gad's innovations will take our business several levelshigher with its higher value-added," he added.

Chan said this ability to turn the OPT biomass into value-added productswould be a win-win solution for the oil palm industry, helping estateowners to dispose of their OPTs.

It would also help Malaysia to reduce the import of biofertilisers andanimal feed, he added.

"We can even export them once we are ready," he said.

The Malaysian oil palm industry generates more than 70 million tonnes ofbiomass other than palm oil, palm oil cake and palm kernel. It is a knownfact that oil palm industry in Malaysia uses only 10 percent of itsbiomass in the form of oil, cake and kernel with the remaining 90 percentnot fully utilised at present.

Chan said among the challenges that the oil palm industry faces are thephysical characteristics of the OPT biomass, which are very different anddifficult to process and handle under the present state of technology andknow-how available.

"But Dr Gad's innovations which enable us to come up with a smoother andmore consistent substrate will make all the difference and we are veryoptimistic of the future," he said.

-- BERNAMA