It started in an oil drum

Biochar is biomass heated with little or no air until it becomes a stable, porous carbon. Mixed into soil or compost it holds water and nutrients. Made carefully it becomes activated carbon, which sells for far more.

Prof. Ir. Dr. Juferi Idris began in 2016 with a modest grant to make biochar from landscape waste in a pilot reactor built from a steel oil drum, using the heat of the process itself to keep it going. In 2020 a larger grant scaled the same self-sustained carbonisation to coconut shell and other biomass, adding steam activation to make activated carbon. In 2021 vetiver grass became a slow-release biochar fertiliser for oil palm seedlings, with the leftover ash going to hydroponic vegetables.

Since 2023 the work has moved closer to the market, with two grants on composting with biochar and preparing it for commercial scale.

Elsewhere in the group, Dr Azil blends coconut shell biochar with xerogel to strip H2S from gas, and Prof. Syed Shatir turns sewage sludge into hydrochar fuel.