“Land is already in shortage because of population growth,” said You. “Arable land is decreasing, as are forests. It is time to stop cutting down trees to make pulp and paper.”
He called algae pulp the “material for the future”.
“We can obtain methane gas and ethanol from seaweed,” said You. “We have developed the technology and got a patent. Our new commercial factory is designed to self-generate energy through fermentation of methane gas from agar. And agar is a by-product of pulp production and therefore costs nothing.”
Said Phang: “It is sustainable. There is no conflict with tropical rainforests because it grows in the sea. And as it grows, it photosynthesises and removes carbon from the environment. So if you have a business cultivating large areas of seaweed, you’re removing carbon and can, in fact, sell carbon credits and make money. And seaweed is very good at removing (excessive) nutrients from water, which helps clean the sea.”
According to Phang, the project has a third objective, which is to find a Malaysian equivalent of the South Korean gelidium species.
“And if we can find one, which I believe we have, then we can do hybridisation with the Korean species,” she said. “So we will have a species that belongs to Malaysia and we can safely develop this made-in-Malaysia species, which may have very good properties.”