Project Title: Bio-Carbon Fiber (BCF): A Route to Future Energy and Sustainable Environment

Researcher: Dr. Lam Su Shiung, Elfina Azwar, Liew Rock Keey

Product Summary:

• Bio-Carbon Fibre (BCF) represents a sustainable and potentially cost-effective carbon product derived from microwave pyrolysis of agriculture wastes (e.g coconut husk, sawdust, bamboo culm), which are abundantly and readily available in Asia.

• The BCF has high fixed carbon content (≥80 wt%) and surface area (≥ 400 m2/g), indicating a characteristic of good adsorption capacity, thus it can be used as an adsorbent to filter and purify wastewater.

• The highly capacitive performance (≥50 F/g) shown by BCF provides high storage of electrostatic charges, thus showing potential to be used as supercapacitor electrode in energy storage application, particularly on storage of renewable energy.

• The production cost of BCF is estimated at RM300-800/kg, and it can be refined and marketed as carbon fibre with an estimated selling price ranging from RM 2000-4000/kg, thus suggesting excellent potential to be developed for commercialization.

Award: Gold Medal

Project Title: MHD: An Innovative Approach for Desalination Using Microwave Heating

Researcher: Dr. Lam Su Shiung, Phang Xue Yee, Han Chai Sean, Liew Rock Keey, Nam Wai Lun, Su Man Huan

Product Summary:

• MHD is an innovative desalination method that uses microwave heating and vacuum condition to extract freshwater and salt from seawater (brine from ocean or saline aquifers)

• It offers a quick heating process combined with instant start and stop feature.

• The use of vacuum condition lowers the pressure within the system and reduces the boiling point of seawater, providing safety and leading to fast and higher recovery of freshwater (up to 50 %).

• The recovered freshwater from MHD has low turbidity (0.09 NTU), total dissolved solid (0.2925 g/L), and salinity (0.21 ppt) which fall into Class I of National Water Quality Standards for Malaysia – safe to be used.

• MHD can be a solution to tackle water scarcity by generating freshwater from seawater, while simultenously producing natural salt for use in various applications.

• The findings from this research contribute to the development of a sustainable and cost-effective desalination technology.

Award: Gold Medal

Project Title: Pyrochar: Biochar Derived from Microwave Vacuum Pyrolysis of Spent Mushroom Substrate (SMS)

Researcher: Dr. Lam Su Shiung, Nam Wai Lun, Lee Xie Yi, Muhammad Lukman bin Jaafar, Liew Rock Keey, Phang Xue Yee

Product Summary:

• Pyrochar is a carbon-rich biochar recovered from spent mushroom substrate (SMS) using an innovative pyrolysis approach incorporating microwave heating.

• Pyrochar shows high surface area (>270 m2/g) with low moisture content (< 10 wt%) that can adsorb and retain the moisture and nutrients for mycelium to grow and subsequently the mushroom.

• The SMS-derived Pyrochar represents as an environmental friendly product because no chemical was involved throughout the production process. The zero sulphur content of Pyrochar also enable it to be disposed of safely to the ground without the concern of SOx emission that causing environment pollution.

• The Pyrochar is reusable to mushroom industry as a bio-nutrients media for mushroom farming, thus creating  a zero waste principle in mushrooom industry.

Award: Gold Medal

Project Title: Poro C: A Multipurpose Wastewater Adsorbent

Researcher: Dr. Lam Su Shiung, Su Man Huan, Carmil Chai, Ho Yee Ling, Thoo Ding Shan

Product Summary:

• Poro-C is a highly porous carbon produced from oil palm wastes via an innovative pyrolysis approach incorporating microwave heating and physical activation.

• Poro-C shows high pore volume and rich in micropores and mesopores. These promising features indicate that it can be used as adsorbent to remove waste, pollutants and contaminants in wastewater. It also shows zero sulphur content hence it could be an environmental friendly material to be used in wastewater treatment.

• Poro-C could be utilised in removing pesticides from agriculture wastewater, removing dye from industrial wastewater and treat palm oil mill effluent (POME) to desirable standard by Department of Environment (DOE).

Award: Silver Medal

Project Title: Pyro-Fuel: A Desirable Biofuel Derived from Microwave Pyrolysis of Used Frying Oil 

Researcher: Dr. Lam Su Shiung, Wan Adibah Wan Mahari, Professor Dr. Howard A. Chase

Product Summary:

• Pyro-Fuel is a diesel-like biofuel generated from used frying oil using an innovative pyrolysis approach incorporating microwave heating.

• It shows desirable fuel properties with a composition dominated by light hydrocarbons and a high calorfic value nearly comparable to diesel fuel.

• The oil product also shows ‘green’ features with respect to its low oxygen and nitrogen content, and is free of carboxylic acid and sulphur. These could reduce the formation of by-products (e.g. acidic tar, hazardous sludge) in the biofuel during storage.

• These promising features suggest that Pyro-Fuel can be developed and used as a ‘cleaner’ and ‘greener’ biofuel in energy or power industry with potentially reduced by-products plus low or zero emissions of NOx and SOx.

Award: Gold Medal

Project Title: Microwave Vacuum Pyrolyzer (MVP): A ‘Transformer” to Convert Agriculture Wastes into Highly Porous Carbon Product with Potentially Multi-Applications 

Researcher: Dr. Lam Su Shiung, Liew Rock Keey, Peter Yek Nai Yuh, Chong Min Yee, Nam Wai Lun, Phang Xue Yee, Su Man Huan

Product Summary:

• Microwave Vacuum Pyrolyzer (MVP) represents an innovative pyrolysis prototype that incorporates the use of microwave radiation and a vacuum environment to convert agriculture waste into a highly porous carbon product.

• The MVP shows advantages over conventional pyrolyzer in providing a rapid heating (up to 100 °C/min), extensive pyrolysis cracking capacity, short process time (< 40 min), and a relatively lower process temperature (< 500 oC), thus showing great promise as a faster and energy-efficient approach to process agricultural waste.

• The use of a vacuum environment also eliminates the cost to constantly use inert gas (N2) to maintain the pyrolysis condition and also improves the quality of the carbon product.

• The carbon product is highly porous with high pore volume (>1.0 cm3/g) and high surface area (> 1200 m2/g), containing uniform micropores and mesopores that can provide many adsorption sites. These represent promising features to be used as filter for drinking water, nutrient media or soil additive for agriculture, and fish feed supplement for aquaculture.

• The recovery of highly porous carbon product and the desirable process features (fast heating rate, short process time) suggest the great potential of MVP to be developed into a commercial prototype to recover useful product from agriculture waste.

Award: GOLD Medal

Project Title: Microwave Activation with Pyro-Gas (MAP): A One-step Method to Convert Oil Palm Shell into High-Grade Activated Carbon for Wastewater Treatment and Air Purification

Researcher: Dr. Lam Su Shiung, Peter Yek Nai Yuh, Liew Rock Keey, Professor Dr. Shahril Osman

Product Summary:

• Microwave Activation with Pyro-Gas (MPA) is an innovative one-step method that combines microwave heating, pyrolysis, and activation using gas product generated from pyrolysis (termed “pyrolysis gas”) to produce high-grade activated carbon from oil palm shell – an abundant agriculture waste generated from palm oil industry.

• MAP offers fast heating rate (> 40 oC/min) and short process time (< 20min) to produce activated carbon compared to the existing methods that normally adopt conventional heat source such as furnace and oven, which shows lower heating rate (5-10 oC/min) and longer process time (> 1 hour). The fast heating rate, short process time, combined with the use of pyrolysis gas as substitute for commercial activating agents (CO2 and steam), suggests that MAP can be a cheaper and energy-efficient alternative.

• Up to 40 wt% yield of a highly porous activated carbon can be obtained for use as filter material in wastewater treatment and air purification. The activated carbon shows a high BET surface area (≥ 1200 m2/g) and pore volume (≥ 0.54 cm3/g), thus it could provide many sites for adsorption to effectively remove pollutants in water and air generated from industrial application.

• The recovery of AC with desirable properties coupled with the favourable process features suggest that the exceptional promise of MAP to be developed into an commercial approach to produce high-grade AC from agriculture waste (especially oil palm waste).

Award: SILVER Medal

Project Title: PSC: An eco-friendly Activated Char as Potential Water Filter, Gas Separator and Electrical Conductor

Researcher: Chong Min Yee, Phang Xue Yee, Nam Wai Lun, Su Man Huan, Liew Rock Keey, Dr. Lam Su Shiung

Product Summary:

• PSC (Palm Shell Carbon) is an activated char produced from microwave vacuum pyrolysis of palm kernel shell – an abundant biomass waste from palm oil industry.

• PSC shows large surface area (800-1000 m2/g), high pore volume (< 0.6 cm3/g), and rich in micro- and mesopores. These represents promising features to be used for adsorption of waste and gas pollutants. It also contains a high carbon content (< 70 wt%), suggesting that it can be used as medium for electricity conduction. It also shows environmental friendly feature with its zero sulphur content.

• The above findings suggest that PSC could potentially be used as water filter, gas separator to extract desired gas molecules from gaseous mixture (e.g. pure nitrogen from mixture of nitrogen and oxygen), or alternativley as an electrical conductor to conduct electricity.

Award: GOLD Medal

Project Title: Pyrolite: A Promising Growth Booster Derived from Oil Palm Waste for Mushroom Cultivation

Researcher: Nam Wai Lun, Su Man Huan, Chong Min Yee, Phang Xue Yee, Liew Rock Keey, Dr. Lam Su Shiung

Product Summary:

• Pyrolite represents a carbon-rich biochar produced from oil palm waste using an innovative microwave pyrolysis approach. It can be produced at a reasonably low cost since it is derived mainly from oil palm waste, which are largely available and under-utilized in Malaysia.

• Pyrolite shows desirable properties comprising a highly porous structure with a large surface area ( > 1250 m2/g). Combined with a low moisture and ash content (< 5 wt%), pyrolite provides many sites on which mycelium (an essential fungi required to grow mushroom), water, and nutrients can be grown, attached or adsorbed onto. This could in turn stimulate mushroom growth by increasing the availability and supply of nutrients to the mushroom.

• The results from adding pyrolite to ‘log-bags’ packed with pasteurized substrates (e.g. rice straw) to grow oyster mushroom recorded a short time (30 days) for mycelium to be grown thoughout the whole log-bag, and this also produced an impressively high yield of mushroom (up to 250 g/cycle).

• These promising results, combined with its desirable properties, suggest the great potential of pyrolite to be developed into a commercial growth booster for mushroom cultivation, hoping to increase the profit margin of mushroom farmers by improving the yield and harvest of mushroom in each growth cycle.

Award: GOLD Medal