The World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing or BIOWORLD is the world’s largest industrial biotechnology event for business leaders, investors and policy makers in biofuels, biobased products, and renewable chemicals.

Entering its eighth year, the recent event organised on May 8-11, 2011 by Washington based Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO) attracted more than 1,000 high-profile scientists, executives, government officials and investors for an exchange of ideas in Toronto.

At this congress , Professor Ramlan Aziz, Director of Institute of  Bioproduct Development (IBD) was invited as a Plenary Speaker and Panel Member for the session on Renewable Feedstocks: Global Needs, Local Solutions.

He presented the case of 70 million tonnes per year oil palm biomass that can be developed into   economically attractive and ecologically beneficial chemicals, materials, fuels and energy for industries.

IBD and BE-Basic research group based at Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands has been asked by Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM) of the Prime Minister’s Office to set up a consortium to accelerate the development and commercialisation of oil palm biomass technologies.