Business

Tuesday November 3, 2009

Don: Two sectors to gain from membrane technology

By ZAZALI MUSA


JOHOR BARU: The oil and gas (O&G), water treatment and waste water treatment sectors in Malaysia could benefit immensely from the applications of membrane technology.

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Advanced Membrane Technology Research Centre (UTM-AMTEC) executive director Prof Ahmad Fauzi Ismail said cost efficiency was among the advantages of the technology.

He said companies that adopted the technology could save up to 50% and 60% on capital investment and operating cost respectively and minimise global warming problems.

“One of the leading petroleum companies in the world will soon use the technology for exploration activities on its gas fields off South China Sea,” Ahmad told a media briefing on Monday.

From left: Prof Ahmad Fauzi Ismail, research officers Ng Bee Cheer and Mohd Sohaimi Abdullah demonstrating the HMMM technology at UTM-AMTEC, Skudai, Johor

Last Saturday, Ahmad received a gold medal award from the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry for his innovation of the Hybrid Mix Matrix Membrane (HMMM) technology.

He said the HMMM technology was able to separate and dispose of carbon dioxide (CO2) largely found in the gas fields in Malaysian waters to produce economically viable gas.

Ahmad said local gas fields had a high CO2 content of up to 80%; hence, the natural gas did not have high heating value unless the CO2 content could be reduced drastically.

“Apart from removing CO2 in natural gas, the HMMM can be used to remove impurities in water and waste water treatments,” he said.

Ahmad said the technology was environmental-friendly as it did not use solvents or chemicals to remove impurities unlike in the conventional technology which generated discharge that could harm the environment.

He said UTM-AMTEC also had been engaged by the world’s biggest petroleum company Saudi Aramco to use the HMMM technology for removing nitrogen from natural gas. The company operates gas fields in Saudi Arabia for export to the Middle East and United States.

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