Malaysia set to use British green technology

British green technology firm RockTron has entered into talks with Malaysia’s main energy provider Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) about licensing its fly ash recycling technology.

Last year the Rocktron opened its first plant in Cheshire which takes fresh and stock-piled fly ash and turns it into a range of products including a substitute for cement, cutting carbon emissions.

The amount of cement that can be substituted by PFA is restricted but the firm has developed a special “benefication” process that takes out the materials that are detrimental to concrete and allows the substitution to exceed 50%.

RockTron Asia, which was set up last month, has signed a memorandum of understanding with TNB to beneficiate fly ash at Malaysia’s first RockTron plant.

RockTron Asia’s chairman, Dato’ Yazid Baba, said: “We estimate there is over six billion tonnes of stockpiled fly ash in the world - half of this in Asia. This waste is made up of valuable minerals we have been literally throwing away for decades”.

Over 2 million tonnes of fly ash are produced annually in Malaysia. In addition, it is estimated that 2.5 million tonnes are already stored in ash ponds and this amount is predicted to grow rapidly as energy demand expands to support the fast growing economy. A further 2 million tonnes of fly ash are also produced in Indonesia each year and ash production is predicted to double by 2013.