Centre for Biofuel & Biochemical Research (CBBR) was established at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) on April 2010 led by Professor Dr. Yoshimitsu Uemura through the contribution of Mitsubishi Corporation Education Trust Fund: Mitsubishi Corporation in Green Technology between 2010 – 2016. The main research focus of CBBR comprised of biomass processing technology, reaction engineering, feed stock study and torrefaction technology.

In 2013, CBBR was formally recognised as Centre of Excellence (CoE) in UTP that expanded the technology horizon towards knowledge and technology development to deliver several pilot scales projects including catalytic gasification, transesterification of biodiesel and pyrolysis of biomass. As a research-centric centre, CBBR also involves in consultations, trainings and societal outreach programs with various stakeholders including researchers, academicians, industry players and society.

CBBR was conferred the Higher Institutional Centre of Excellence (HICoE) title on 1st April 2019 from the Ministry of Education, Malaysia under the leadership of Professor Ir. Dr. Suzana Yusup with 17 academic staffs and 15 support staffs. Under the HICoE program, the niche area of the centre is biomass thermochemical conversion technologies which comprised of three focus programmes, namely solid fuel, liquid fuel and gaseous fuel programmes. Each focus programme consists of research activities related to products and process development that adheres closely to 12 Principles of Green Chemistry and the Sustainable Development Goals.