KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — A total of 184,464 tonnes of palm methyl ester (PME) have been used through the National Biodiesel Programme as of the first quarter of 2023, according to the Ministry of Plantation and Commodities (KPK).

KPK said a total of 737,858 tonnes of PME were used in 2022.

The ministry was replying to a question from Datuk Seri Aminuddin Harun (PH-Port Dickson) who asked about the status of biodiesel consumption in Malaysia and its ability to reduce the use of fossil energy resources.

In a written reply to the question during the Dewan Rakyat session on June 13 that was posted on Parliament’s website yesterday, KPK said the National Biodiesel Programme is indeed capable of reducing the country’s dependence on the use of fossil fuels and the government is very committed to expanding the National Biodiesel Programme to the entire country.

"The mixture of PME with petroleum diesel has produced a biodiesel product that is cleaner and emits less carbon because the percentage of fossil fuel content has already been reduced by up to 20 per cent when replaced with a 20 per cent PME content.

"With the 20 per cent reduction in fossil fuel content, it also shows that the country has reduced its dependence by 20 per cent on the use of fossil fuel,” it said.

The National Biodiesel Programme was implemented in stages starting with the B5 Biodiesel Programme (a blend of five per cent palm biodiesel with 95 per cent petroleum diesel) for the land transport sector in 2011.

This programme was later expanded to the B7 Biodiesel Programme and implemented nationwide in 2014 and followed by the B10 Biodiesel Programme in 2019.

Next, the Biodiesel B10 Programme has been expanded to the Biodiesel B20 Programme for the transport sector starting in 2020 in Langkawi, Labuan and Sarawak (except Bintulu).

The expansion of the implementation of the B20 Biodiesel Programme in Sabah and the peninsula will be implemented in phases depending on the availability of biodiesel blending infrastructure at depots across the country, it said. — Bernama