Malaysian University to Commercialise Ecopreneur Award Winning Research

KOTA SAMARAHAN (Sarawak,Malaysia), June 25 (Bernama) -- Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) plans to commercialise its findings of the water treatment research from sago processing factories which was awarded the "Best CEO Award" in the ECOPRENEUR 2012 held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, last week. Its vice chancellor Prof Dr Khairuddin Abdul Hamid said it was hoped that with their readiness to closely cooperate with the involved industry, would help ensure environment in Sarawak to remain clean and free from pollution. "UNIMAS has actually carried out a lot of scientific research related to the environment preservation and the latest was the finding on the water treatment research on sago processing factories which we will be commercialised for the benefit of the sago industry in Sarawak," he told reporters here, Monday. He said, UNIMAS would also conduct research on wastewater treatment from palm oil factories. Dr Khairuddin said UNIMAS was in the process of finding a formula to tackle oil spills in the sea through sediment methods or using bacteria. Speaking of the ECOPRENEUR 2012 award, he said a business plan on a water treatment plant for a sago processing factory was submitted by Dr Azham Zulkharnain from Unimas' Department of Molecular Biology and adjudged the winner of the Ecopreneur competition which came with USD100,000 (RM310,000). Members of Azham's team included Dr Zainab Ngaini, Associate Prof Dr Nazlina, Nordiana Ahmad Nordin, and two students, Mohd Ismail Salim and Vannessa Lawai while the research was funded by the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water. --BERNAMA