The International Association for Palm Byproducts and the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) to organize the 2nd World Conference on Byproducts of Palms and their Applications (ByPalma), which is said to be the only conference solely focusing on the byproducts of palms and their current and future applications.
Dr. Mohammad Jawaid, Conference Chairman and High Flyer Fellow at Biocomposite Technology Lab (INTROP), Universiti Putra Malaysia said:
“The Palmae family includes a wide variety of species (e.g. date, coconut, oil, doum, sugar, etc.) and they’re considered the main source of livelihood for significant proportion of the world population. Their byproducts (secondary products) are often regarded as agricultural waste, despite that they represent a sustainable material base for a wide spectrum of industries ranging from compost, wood substitutes, pulp, up to fiber reinforcements for advanced composites. ByPalma conference highlights the great potential of the palm byproducts in the circular bioeconomy of the future!”
The conference is to be held ONLINE between 28-30 September 2021 and is featuring a rich programme, with diverse topics on utilizing palm byproducts in innovative applications! The programme includes 100+ presentations with speakers from 20 countries distributed across 9 sessions on palm byproducts in wood substitutes, fiber composite, biotechnology, natural fertilizers, food, design, paper, textile, and sustainable energy. It also features 2 special sessions on cutting edge research in utilizing oil palm trunk; the first is a joint Malaysian -Japanese project (SATREPS OPT) and the second is a joint German – Malaysian project.
Prof. Hamed El-Mously, Chairman of the International Association for Palm Byproducts said:
“We have brought together world-renowned experts and we will discuss with them what opportunities the palm byproducts have in store for us. The conference will provide an interdisciplinary platform for leading academic scientists, researchers, artisans, entrepreneurs and industry professionals as well as palm growers, to exchange recent developments, technologies, innovations, trends, concerns, challenges, and opportunities, related to palm by-products R&D, manufacturing, and crafts.”
The host institution of the conference is the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), a world renowned center of learning and research, and home to the Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP) which focuses on forest canopy management, bioresources valuation and sustainability, and sustainable utilisation of biocomposite products, biopolymers and derivatives.
UPM is located in Malaysia, which has the world’s second largest population of oil palm, with 4.49 million hectares of oil palm cultivation. Malaysia’s palm oil industry produces annually about 90 million tonnes of palm byproducts, including empty fruit bunches, oil palm trunks, and oil palm fronds, as well as palm oil mill effluent.
Dr. Mohammad Midani, Conference Co-Chair and Assistant Professor of Materials Engineering at the German University in Cairo said:
“ByPalma conference is truly a great chance to rediscover palm byproducts as a resource for the circular bioeconomy of the future, and to maximize their added-value and create an economical resource that can help in the sustainable development of vast rural areas in different countries in the world.”
The 1st round of ByPalma was held in December 2018 in Aswan, Egypt and it was a great success, with more than 250 attendees, from 94 research institutions, companies , NGOs and international organization, representing more than 30 countries. The organizers are hoping to build on this success with a stronger and bigger second round which was initially planned to be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia but was switched to ONLINE due to the current pandemic.
