14/03/2011 (The star Online) - Premium Renewable Energy (M) Sdn Bhd confirmed that it has selected US-based Envergent Technologies LLC, a Honeywell unit to undertake the engineering design for the first bio-oil plant in Malaysia that will use Envergent’s RTP (Rapid Thermal Processing) technology to convert palm biomass into renewable heat and electricity.

A Premium spokeman told StarBiz yesterday that the company would be looking at setting up more such plants in the country possibly via joint ventures using palm biomass like empty fruit bunches (EFB), tree trunks and fronds as feedstock.

Premium has been identified as one of the two lead initiative owners for the seventh entry point project for the palm oil National Key Economic Area (NKEA) under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), involving the commercialisation of second-generation biofuel.

Premium has the exclusive rights to commercialise the proven RTP in Malaysia and other parts of the region for the production of renewable liquid fuels from biomass for heat, power and green transportation fuels.

Envergent Technologies had said in a statement from IIlinois, the United States on Thursday that it had been selected by Premium to perform the engineering design using its RTP technology for Premium’s initial plant.

The bio-oil plant in Malaysia is expected to be initiated late this year and completed in early 2013.

Honeywell’s Envergent Technologies managing director Dave Cepla said in a statement: “This project is a milestone using palm biomass particularly EFB to generate renewable heat and power.

“It also demonstrate how Envergent’s technology can be used in different regions with a variety of feedstocks.”

He said Envergent would perform a site assessment and identify strategies for integration for the facility into the existing palm oil industry in Malaysia.

It will also provide equipment scoping, engineering design, a constructability analysis and a plant construction schedule for the RTP unit in support of Premium’s plant.

The RTP technology works by rapidly heating biomass at ambient pressure to generate high yields of a liquid biofuel, which can be used to power electric generators or burned in industrial burners and furnaces for heat.

Using the biofuel could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. The RTP is currently used in seven commercial biomass processing plants in the United States and Canada.