Shifting gears: Malaysia bets on indigenous plant for EV future • FRANCE 24 English

Shifting gears: Malaysia bets on indigenous plant for EV future • FRANCE 24 English

[Music] The road to get there is rugged and requires crossing a river with no bridge. Deep in Kinabalu Park in the Malaysian state of Saba is Mongus substation, home to a garden where scientists are researching a plant Malaysia hopes will help it become a key player in the global electrical vehicle supply chain. So this one looks healthy. As you can see, the plant is almost uh 5 years, isn’t it? Volanthis rufus Cheney is part of a group of plants known as hyperaccumulators. They can absorb high levels of metals from soil into their tissues without suffering toxicity. Saba in Borneo has an abundance of what’s known as ultramafic soil enriched in nickel. This area is very special especially on the Borneo side because we have the teetonic or topographic that ultramaric and ultra based soil that mean it has a natural heavy metals concentration especially the nickel and the cobb. Nickel is a vital component in lithium ion batteries used in EVs. But traditional mining contaminates water and pollutes the air. It’s also responsible for mass deforestation. Malaysia is looking to tap into the plant’s potential and be at the forefront of green extraction using a technique called phyto mining. Metal is harvested from the burnt ashes of the plant. Here scientists are measuring nickel levels in these plants with a special filter paper. So as you can see here after we crush the the leaf here and then we squeeze it as you can see the filter color change to pink color. So this pink color indicate the presence of nickel. The deeper the shade of pink the higher the concentration. This consider high concentration because from the indicator here it show pink color show high amount of nickel. Sir, for Malaysia, the challenge is whether it can mine nickel this way on an industrial scale. Part of that depends on how well the plant grows. Without enough water, seedlings like this struggle to survive. Sometimes this is our challenge to the keep maintain especially for the young seedling. But whenever they already grow, it’s no problem anymore. Then there’s the question of how much you can actually harvest. The researchers say 20,000 micrograms of nickel can be extracted per 1 g of biomass. That’s about 100 kg per hectare of land. Behind Malaysia’s effort to establish itself in the global EV supply chain is Nano Malaysia Bahad. The government agency’s mission is to create jobs and business opportunities in nanotechnology sectors. Dr. Reszul Kyrie Ahmad is eyeing phytoer mining as a means of developing Malaysia’s own EV batteries. We are heavily invested in developing the local ecosystem in a sustainable way of electric vehicles in Malaysia. So we discovered that the government of Malaysia have pretty much opened up the doors for the EV industry to proliferate in a very in the shortest period of time. the end of this year, we have a target to establish 10,000 EV charging station in Malaysia. Much of Nano Malaysia’s research is being kept under wraps. Nearby Singapore may hold some of the answers on whether it can really become commercially viable. Scientists at Nanyang Technological University are developing techniques to increase the amount of metal hyperaccumulators can absorb. [Music] These microscopic images show where metals are isolated in different parts of the plant. Professor Lamyang Ming leads the research here and says particles can be modified to increase uptake. They can double the concentration. It’s already an improvement. So, it’s actually a development that can go over time. I think it’s totally feasible and I think it’s a it’s a good direction to take as well. If phyto mining does take off in Saba, it could transform people’s lives. Despite its rich natural resources, it’s one of Malaysia’s poorest regions. Vivian Jeffrey is a groundsman at Monga substation and lives in a shack with his family of five. They struggle to get by. Jeffrey hopes the research will one day change their fortunes. I hope this opportunity can help provide a good education for my children and hopefully in the future my children can get better jobs. Nano Malaysia has set its sights on 2026 to begin harvesting its crops. Commercializing its mining capabilities will take time, but it aims to cement Malaysia’s role in the competitive global EV market. [Music]

Malaysia was once a leader in Southeast Asia’s automotive sector, even producing the region’s first national car. But in recent years, it has struggled to keep pace with neighbours like Thailand and Indonesia, who are rapidly advancing in the electric vehicle (EV) industry. Now, Malaysia is turning to an unlikely source – an indigenous plant – as it looks to shift gears and carve out a place in the global EV supply chain. Patrick Fok reports.
#phytomining #EV #Malaysia

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