Camfil Malaysia is strengthening industry-academic collaboration in molecular testing at UTAR

Stockholm, Sweden, 21^st January 2021 - Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) in Malaysia continues to expand its collaborative effort with the industry-leader, Camfil Malaysia, through the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) that came into effect on 1 January 2021.

The agreement will last for the coming five years and will provide both parties an exhilarating opportunity to collaborate in research and development (R&D), as well as to jointly organize short courses, seminars, talks, conferences, and workshops that will allow knowledge acquisition and expansion of networks. Other collaborative efforts include collaborative projects, industry advisory ventures, industry visits, curriculum development, trainings, and consultancy. It will also facilitate industrial placement and final year project of UTAR students.

Meanwhile, this agreement will also include the setting up of an international standard molecular gas testing facility for research and development. The facility will facilitate postgraduate research and development, and undergraduate teaching and learning activities related to air pollution, pollutants control, and remediation. With this facility, UTAR will be one of the pioneers in Malaysia to have such a modern testing facility for research and development in the field of gases pollutants.

The facility will also be used for the research in gas pollutant removal, which is a research currently conducted by Institute of Postgraduate Studies & Research (Kampar Campus) Deputy Director Prof Dr. Sumathi Sethupathi. Her research is titled "Adsorption of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and other pollutant gases from industrial stacks such as sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, etc. using adsorbents prepared from waste materials".

Prof Sumathi said, “the adsorbed gases will be also converted to value-added products such as methane, sulfur, and others. The facility developed by Camfil Malaysia will be helpful to further enhance my research products. The newly developed materials/adsorbents from my research output can be tested for its capability using the industrial-scale facilities. Furthermore, this new facility allows me to test my newly developed materials/adsorbents for a new type of pollutant gas i.e. chlorine gas. The facility shall be useful for my postgraduate students to advance the knowledge in gas pollution and remediation techniques. In the future, I can use this facility to test different types of toxic gases and solve many other industrial gas emission problems”.

She also mentioned that "We are keen to test other new materials developed by Camfil and UTAR researchers for the same purpose. Camfil's sponsorship to build a facility at UTAR will give new wings to testing where the performance of the materials developed for industrial-scale can be measured,” she explained. Renovations are currently in progress and the facility is expected to be completed in March 2021.

UTAR President Ir Prof Dr. Ewe Hong Tatn expressed his delight, and said, “The agreement will create a platform for both parties to start a series of new meaningful projects ranging from collaborative research, sharing expertise as well as other up-skilling initiatives for UTAR students. UTAR’s Faculty of Engineering and Green Technology (FEGT) and Camfil Malaysia will begin the strategic partnership to integrate the latest requirements from the industry in our course curriculum and research areas. This, in turn, will ensure UTAR students acquire the pertinent qualifications, acknowledgment and the industry gets suitably competent and qualified graduates as employees.”