PALMOILMAGAZINE, KUALA LUMPUR – Two decades ago, Dato’ Lim Thiam Huat, founder and CEO of Nextgreen, envisioned transforming palm oil biomass waste into higher-value products while mitigating environmental impacts from the industry.
He began researching methods to process the abundant empty fruit bunch (EFB) into pulp, ultimately leading to patented technology that enables Nextgreen to convert palm oil biomass into sustainable products.
Through its integrated bio-process at Taman Teknologi Hijau (Green Technology Park), Nextgreen has successfully transformed by-products of palm oil production into valuable items, including pulp and paper, animal feed, and renewable energy. Today, Nextgreen is at the forefront of the green economy, paving the way for other commodity industries to address waste through innovative solutions.
As quoted by Palmoilmagazine.com from the official page of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), Nextgreen was founded to tackle environmental challenges within Malaysia’s palm oil industry, the second largest in the world. Drawing on his background in the construction industry, Lim sought ways to repurpose waste materials.
At that time, the concept of a circular economy was not widely recognized in the industry, but Lim identified an opportunity to address biomass waste, particularly the significant issue posed by empty fruit bunches.
Nextgreen was the pioneer of the innovation to solve palm oil industrial issue by conversing EFB to be high value – products. He said,”We would confirm that there would be zero waste, no troubled side products, no more negative impacts for the environment.” The innovation was the basic to change the wastes to be energy and taking advantage on circular economic concepts. (P2)
