Universiti Sains Malaysia Announces Research Collaboration with Petronas Research Sdn. Bhd.

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) through the School of Chemical Engineering and the School of Mechanical Engineering, has entered a research and technological collaboration with Petronas Research Sdn Bhd, one of the research and development arms of Petroliam National Bhd (Petronas).

The project entitled ‘Conversion of CO2 and Petcoke to Fuel Gas (Carbon Monoxide and Syngas) Using Microwave Heating’ is in line with CO2 mitigation plans which seek ways to develop long-term strategies for the remediation of this greenhouse gas in the environment and scope to offer comprehensive solutions for climate change mitigation. Such processes incorporate CO2 into a valorization cycle to produce marketable fuels for various downstream applications, along with utilization of petcoke which is plentifully available as the by-product of oil refineries.

It is noteworthy to highlight that this agreement is the consequence of several successful research activities and published papers from a research funding awarded to Professor Dato' Ir. Dr. Abdul Rahman Mohamed by the Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOE) via the Long-Term Research Grant Scheme (LRGS) for a research program entitled ‘Sustainable Energy Production Towards Low Carbon Economy’ during the years 2011-2014 then further renewed for a second time with the title ‘Green Technology and Nanomaterial Applications for the Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs)’ during the years 2015-2019.

While leading these projects, Professor Dato’ Ir. Dr. Abdul Rahman established ties with various industry partners and built a platform for the knowledge-transfer and technology implementation between academia and industries. It is strongly hoped that the knowledge obtained from this project would pave way for further scale-up of the process to an industrial scale and commercialization of this technology.

Through this agreement, Petronas Research will contribute a research grant of RM 247,000 to USM for the collaborative research project to be implemented over 18 months commencing in February 2022. The project which is led by Professor Dato’ Ir. Dr. Abdul Rahman Mohamed will be conducted in two phases. The first phase will be conducted at the TRL 4 level (technology validated in lab) and if the results are promising, it would then be promoted to the second phase, TRL 7 level (system prototype demonstration in operational environment). The contract signing ceremony is expected to be held soon.




Text by: Dr. Pooya Lahijani Amiri & Professor Dato' Ir. Dr. Abdul Rahman Mohamed