Biography
Prof. Farid Nasir Ani
Prof. Farid Nasir Ani
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia
Title: Microwave Milling in Oil Palm Industries
Abstract: 
This paper present a new technique of processing of oils from fruit bunches that could be used as food and fuels application. There are various seeds or fruits that are edible and non-edible which need to be process in obtaining their oils. The normal processes that are involved are drying, heating and pressing in getting the oils. Part of the oil could be used for power generation in processing the fruits or seeds. Several researches show that individual process could be processed using microwave energy. Microwave energy is clean, safe and economy, have been used in several applications such as telecommunication, medical, chemical, sintering, etc. Oil palm is the highest oil bearing plant per hectare that has been cultivated and process in more than 400 mills in Malaysia. Presently, the fibers are utilized in boilers for steam and power generation in most palm oil mills, whereas empty fruit bunches and oil palm shells have being utilized for other purposes. Contemporary microwave processing research on fresh fruit bunches cooking, processing of biomass and methyl ester(B100) will be presented. Looking at the individual microwave processing, the energy supply for heating and pressing could sufficiently being supply from the diesel electrical generator rather than a high capacity boiler. This presentation will discuss the possibility of reducing the energy, thus reducing the capital cost of the mill. Integrated microwave milling and using microwave boiler or smaller biomass boiler could be the future of the oil palm milling industries.
Biography: 
Dr F. N. Ani graduated from University of Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom in Mechanical Engineering in 1982. His MSc (Eng) in 1985 at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom in Thermodynamics and Related Studies. Later his PhD in 1992 from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom specialising in Fuel and Energy. He is currently a Research Professor at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Johor. He is also a Registered Professional Engineer, Member Institute of Engineers Malaysia (MIEM), Member Malaysian Invention and Design Society and Member Institute of Energy, Malaysia. Internationally, he is a member of American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and Fellow Member of Society of Operation Engineers (UK), Fellow Member of the Institution of Plant Engineers, (UK). Also he is a member of Member, Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (UK) and Chartered Engineer (UK).
He has spend about 34 years teaching Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics and undertaking research in the areas of Thermal Conversion of Biomass and Related Carbonaceous Wastes through Combustion, Pyrolysis, Gasification and Recycling to value added products. He has obtained several research grants with values of more than RM3 million from various sources such as IRPA (Ministry of Science, Technology and Environments, Malaysia), Ministry of Higher Education, Research University Grant, NEDO International Joint Research Grant, (Ministry of International Trade and Industry, Japan) and ASHRAE(USA). He has successfully supervised more than 40 post graduate students of which 15 of them are at PhD level. He has published 9 academic books and written more than 300 research papers in national and international journals and proceedings. He also received several invention and innovation awards from Petronas, Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment, MINDS, MINT, Institute Tenaga Malaysia, PECIPTA, UKM and Brussel, Belguim, Geneva, Switerland and obtained several patent granted and filings. His current Scopus H-Index is 19 with more than 1130 citations. His research publications were referred and cited by top universities in USA, UK, Korea etc, eg University of Cambridge (UK) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT-USA). His current interest is in the microwave processing of agricultural products for biofuels and related bio-materials.