MALAYSIA will gradually roll out its B7 biodiesel programme, starting with Peninsular Malaysia next month and to be followed by Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan by December.
B7 biodiesel is a mixture of seven per cent palm oil methyl ester and 97 per cent fossil fuel-based diesel. The programme is part of the government’s efforts to bolster biodiesel usage in the energy sector to reduce carbon emissions as well as support palm oil prices.
Malaysia embarked on its B5 biodiesel (five per cent palm oil, 95 per cent diesel) programme in March 2006, mainly in diesel-powered government vehicles and commercial buses and trucks.
Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas said the B7 programme would involve 575,000 tonnes of biodiesel a year, compared with 300,000 tonnes under the B5 programme.
“The B7 programme will save 667.6 million litres of diesel a year and, hopefully, will be positive for crude palm oil (CPO) prices. Once the B5 and B7 programmes are a success, the government plans to implement the B10,” he said after officiating at a palm oil trade fair and seminar, here, yesterday.
The B10 biodiesel could gobble up one million tonnes a year.
He said the programme would help raise domestic consumption of palm oil-based biodiesel and hopefully push up crude palm oil prices, which touched RM1,800 last month, its lowest in five years.
He is confident that once the B7 programme kicks off, CPO prices could pick up due to higher demand and consumption.
“The extension on the duty-free exports of CPO until end 2014 is also expected to enable CPO prices to sustain above the RM2,000-a- tonne level,” he added.