ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY: Percival (left) is seen with SCD Probiotics founder and chief executive officer Matthew Wood. SCD Biotech is coming to the fore in addressing ecologically-friendly waste management solutions for industrial, commercial and home applications.
KUCHING: SCD Biotech Sdn Bhd (SCD Biotech) has come to the fore in the region as a proponent of all-natural organic technology to address environmentally friendly waste management solutions in industrial, commercial and residential environments.
The company, which was established in 2006 (with subsequent rebranding and restructuring early this year), is a licensee of US-based SCD Probiotics, a company which focuses on research and development (R&D) of effective and beneficial microorganisms called probiotics.
Locally, SCD Biotech concentrated on industrial waste water and palm oil mills while also tending to food and beverage (F&B) drainage waste, according to the company’s regional technical advisor Percival Panai in a recent interview with The Borneo Post.
“While the R&D and technology principles are the same across the board, the brands we offer here in Malaysia are different and we customise, formulate and manufacture them here to match the local market.
“Our products take a holistic approach to managing waste as they are environmentally safe, non-toxic as they eat up sludge, flush down sewage waste, clean drains and effectively enable continuous operation in industrial and commercial premises without having to shut down for offline maintenance or repair.”
The probiotics consist of varying consortia of already existing ‘good’ bacteria which have been scientifically proven to safely break down unwanted by-products of manufacturing or processing such as FOGS (fats, oils, grease and smell), commonly found in the F&B industry.
Elaborating on the broad range of applications, Percival cited three products: GSX for sewage waste management; ODX for general cleaning and anti-odor applications as well as POMEX for POME (palm oil mill effluent) in crude palm oil processing.
The company’s list of clients included palm oil mills, food processing plants, fast food outlets, dine-in restaurants, shopping malls and hotels. Some of them employed Automated Dosing Systems for regular interval maintenance to prevent build-up of solid waste and clogged drains.
In addition to treatment of waste water from commercial enterprises and industrial facilities, the company’s activities also encompassed areas from consumer household products, livestock, agriculture, aquaculture, environmental management systems to mitigating environmental pollution.
He emphasised on the effectiveness of the consortia technology in which multiple strains of probiotics were grown and proved to be more resilient in real world conditions.
When asked to estimate the average cost of treating a palm oil mill capable of processing 60 metric tonnes per hour, he stressed the caveat in differing amounts for an arbitrary scenario given several variables that came into play when determining cost.
That said, he revealed that treatment could cost about RM15,000 for the first month, followed by RM12,000 and RM8,000 for the second and third months respectively. Eventually, the regular maintenance cost could range from RM4,000 to RM6,000 per month.
On market expansion, he pointed out that while he was personally dealing with clients in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei in the capacity as technical support advisor, SCD Biotech has spread out its market reach to the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, India, China and Taiwan.