Five petroleum companies in Malaysia announced on 21 November that they would be upgrading biodiesel blending facilities at 35 terminals across the country in readiness to mix up to 30% biodiesel (B30) in diesel fuel.
The five firms - Petronas, Shell, Petron Malaysia Refining, Chevron Malaysia and Boustead Petroleum Marketing - have agreed to carry out engineering design to upgrade their petroleum terminals, with the government allocating up to RM35M (US$8.39M) for the work.
Primary Industries Minister Teresa Kok said Malaysia had started implementing B10 for the transportation sector on 1 February 2019, which had not required any upgrading works.
With B20 to be introduced in the transport sector in phases starting January 2020, it made sense to upgrade the terminals to handle up to B30, if the higher blend was introduced in the future, she said.
B20 implementation was targeted to be completed by June 2021.
Kok also said the Malaysian standard for B20 was being finalised and set to be published by December 2019.
