KUCHING (Nov 10): Main-Market listed company BHS Industries Bhd's (BHS) wholly-owned subsidiary Nextgreen Sarawak Sdn Bhd (Nextgreen Sarawak) has teamed up with Bau Palm Oil Mill Sdn Bhd, a company managed by Sarawak Land Consolidation & Rehabilation Authority (SALCRA), to construct a biogas plant and integrated wastewater treatment plant at SALCRA’s palm oil mills.

BHS managing director Datuk Lim Thiam Huat said this project aims to revolutionise the pulp and paper industry by providing a new source of eco-friendly and sustainable paper and pulp.  

“Our main goal has always been to achieve zero-waste and complete sustainability for the the palm oil industry. We (Nextgreen Sarawak) will set up a pulp mill factory within or near the vicinity of SALCRA’s palm oil mills.

“This is to be achieved via the manufacturing of renewable paper pulp products generated from palm oil industry waste known as EFB,” he said after the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremony here, today.

Lim said, the process will be utilised using a patented Malaysian-owned technology called Preconditioning Refiner Chemical-Recycle Bleached Mechanised Pulp (PRC-RBMP) to create new technologies for the conversion of all other waste from palm oil mills into usable and saleable commodities.

The MoU entails the supply of biogas, palm kernel shells (PKS) and empty fruit bunches (EFB) from Bau Palm Oil Mill to Nextgreen Sarawak.

Lim said, SALCRA will supply about 60,000 tonnes of EFB, of which Nextgreen Sarawak could potentially produce about 20,000 tonnes of semi-finished pulp, upon the completion of the factory.

“Today itself we will be looking into a detail (for the factory) after this MoU such as the designed and we would come out with the conceptual whereby we will come out with the capital cost as well,” he said.

Additionally, the agreement also further described that SALCRA will take up about 30% and the remaining 70% will be for Nextgreen Sarawak.

“If we (SALCRA) are the higher (share) we have to get the technology, but we don’t have paper pulp experience. They (Nextgreen Sarawak) have the technology and experience, so let them do it (utilise the palm oil waste product).

“They also have the market...we are going to help them in line with the government mandate saying that palm oil mill operators must have waste management,” said SALCRA’s general manager Datu Vasco Sabat Singkang.

On the later stages, Lim said the semi-finished pulp will be delivered to Green Technology Park (GTP), which is yet to be determined — either Kuching or Bintulu, to finish the product into paper.

“Our idea is to actually create a new GTP like what we did in Pekan, Pahang. So with the semi-finished pulp we can actually send to one location which is the GTP to finish the product into paper,” he said, adding that the export market would mainly be China as it has a shortage of raw materials.

In March 2016, BHS had ventured into the sustainable and green business towards transforming and diversifying its existing core business operations through the setting up of a green technology driven paper mill factory, using PRC-RBMP, sitting across 26 acres of land granted by the Pahang state government.

At the midday break today, BHS' share price went up one sen or 1.32% to 39 sen with 96,200 shares traded, for a market capitalisation of RM166.1 million.