INTEGRATED BIOMATERIALS ENGINEERING OF OIL PALM FIBERS AND MICROALGAE FOR BIOENERGY, ENVIRONMENTAL REMEDIATION AND CONVERSION INTO VALUE-ADDED PRODUCTS
Mohd Azmuddin Abdullah1, Abdulaziz Ahmed Abobakr Bahamid1, Muhammad Shahid Nazir2, Zaman Tahir3
1 Institute of Marine Biotechnology, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia
2 Department of Chemistry, COMSATS University Islamabad, Lahore Campus, 54000, Punjab, Pakistan
3 Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Pakistan
Abstract
The 2030-s core agenda for 17 Sustainable Development Goals aims to bring systems thinking and holistic solution to ensure that progress and development for People and Profit do not actually side-line Planet as the major stakeholder. Any discussion on the Economics issues should bring in the Environment and Socio-cultural diversity dimension as equal components. This may necessitate a complete revamp of human activities such that effort to tackle famine and poverty and the emerging infectious diseases, is not divorced from addressing the problems brought about by the climate change and the destruction of eco-systems and habitat for wildlife. The call for greater utilization of green technology and sustainable practices must involve resource optimization and better management of biodiversity, agro-practices, environment and health care to achieve improved food production and distribution, affordable cost of disease treatment, cleaner energy, air and water, with minimal emission, pollution and wastage. The focus of this presentation is to highlight research and development in integrated biomaterials engineering of oil palm fibres and microalgae for sustainable bioenergy production, environmental remediation and conversion into value added-products via integrated palm oil milling processes and algal biorefinery. This hopefully could bring forth insights towards partnerships and collaboration among the policy makers and planners, industrialists, investors, scientists, engineers, economists and social scientists to tackle the immediate and pressing problems facing the world today.
Keywords: Global Sustainable Development; Integrated Biomaterials Engineering; Microalgae; Palm Oil Milling; Bioresource utilization; Green Technology; Bioenergy; Environmetal remediation; Biomonitoring; Value-added products
Topic: Sustainable Development