KUCHING, May 10 — Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg today launched the state’s first industrial microalgae carbon capture facility calling it a significant milestone towards achieving a sustainable green economy for Sarawak.

He said the facility will lay the foundation for a new green initiative that will benefit the people, create new job opportunities, and grow the economy.

The facility, located on a five-hectare site in Sejingkat in Bako, near here, will demonstrate the viable use of flue gas from the Sejingkat coal-powered plant to enhance the production of algae on an industrial scale, Abang Johari explained.

"The algae biomass can be translated into high-quality products such as food and feed, paints, cosmetics, pharmaceutical ingredients and most importantly — sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) which is expected to surpass a huge market value of US$250 billion by 2030.

"Based on the preliminary estimates of the pilot facility at Sarawak Biodiversity Centre (SBC), an investment into a 2,000-hectare commercial plant can produce up to 140,000 tons of algae biomass annually,” the premier said.

He added the site will be expanded to 2,000 hectares in the future to produce algae biomass, making it one of the largest, if not, the largest in the world.

He said depending on the technology used, some research shows that algae biomass of 350 tons per year can be generated from a five-hectare site that can be processed into 87 tons of lipid capable of producing about 45 tons of SAF.

Abang Johari said at the same time this amount of biomass can also produce 192 tons of protein and 52 tons of carbohydrate.

"In addition, some microalgae are also reported to have anti-cancer properties that are important in the treatment of cancerous cells in tumours.

"Microalgae have huge potentials in the production of sustainable fuel for the aircraft industry, in food production and in therapeutics,” the premier said.

He added that the sales from the components of biomass, that is lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates, could potentially generate an economic value of RM2 billion to RM3 billion per year.

He said as a start, the five-hectare site will serve as a good example of managing carbon in a circular economy, while the state government gathers data to enhance the technology and scaled it up to 100 hectares and expand it to 2,000 hectares in the future if it is commercially viable.

"With a 2,000-hectare facility, we can also create up to 5,000 new job opportunities and decarbonise about 200,000 tons of carbon annually,” he said.

The microalgae project, which began in 2020, is led by Japan's CHITOSE Group (the primary contractor for the microalgae research project), Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB), and Sarawak Biodiversity Centre (SBC).

The project is fully funded by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) and managed by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI).