2 UMP products win Malaysia Commercialisation Year 2019 (MCY 2019) Awards

Translation by: DR. ROZAIMI ABU SAMAH, FACULTY OF CHEMICAL AND PROCESS 
                         ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

The product of Ts. Mohd Najib Razali from the Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), MNRg-Treat, used to treat oily wastewater using green technology formulation, was awarded the Researcher Entrepreneur Award at the Malaysia Commercialisation Year 2019 (MYC 2019), organised by the Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment & Climate Change (MESTECC), held on 10 October 2019. 

Meanwhile, the Electric Nose or e-Nose, developed by Associate Professor Dr. Muhammad Sharfi Najib from the Faculty of Electrical & Electronic Engineering Technology and Associate Professor Dr. Saiful Nizam Tajuddin from the Faculty of Industrial Sciences and Technology won the Emerging Innovator Award.

Both winners received RM100,000 worth of prizes including trophy and certificate.

According to Mohd Najib, MNRg-Treat is a natural formulation product that separates oily wastewater and helps treat industrial wastewater to meet environmental standards.

“The trapped oil residue will be treated as a secondary product, grease oil, which is available at very reasonable prices. 

“This innovative product is capable of improving the quality of the environment and has been sold and used nationwide,” he said.

The research conducted since 2012 has been supported by several university research grants, including the MyRA Incentive Fund (Lab2Market) grant UIC161003 – Bio-Coagulant and Smart System for Sustainable Water Treatment and a RM500,000.00 grant from the Bumiputera Entrepreneurs Startup Scheme (SUPERB) under the Bumiputera Leadership Agenda Unit (TERAJU) to support the business ideas.

MNRg-Treat has been licenced and commercialised under a start-up company called MNR Multitech Sdn. Bhd.

Meanwhile, the UMP e-Nose technology has been developed to replace the use of human and animal nose for industrial application. 

Interestingly, this technology is fully backed up with scientific data and has been used by international companies such as Ajmal Perfume, the largest agarwood producer in the world to analyse the quality and purity of agarwood resin and related products. 

The technology is also used by Sime Darby Oil, Thailand to analyse the quality and freshness of their cooking oil.

e-Nose is being commercialised by a UMP spin-off company called Synbion Sdn. Bhd.

Both of these companies are mentored by Technology Park Malaysia (TPM) and the products were launched on the award presentation event in conjunction with the 10th International Greentech & Eco Products Exhibition & Conference Malaysia 2019 (IGEM 2019) in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC).

Also present at the event were the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), Professor Dr. Kamal Zuhairi Zamli, Dean of Commercialisation, Dr. Nur Aainaa Syafini Mohd Radzi and Chief Executive Officer of UMP Holdings Sdn. Bhd., Syed Mohamad Hamzah Al-Junid Syed Abdul Rahman.