By Asmahanim Amir
Pix Ikhwan Hashim

BANGI, Jan 7, 2016 – Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment (FKAB), Prof Dato’ Dr Ir Abdul Wahab Mohammad with his team have won the prestigious Toray Award through their research about Nanofiltration and Ultrafiltration Technologies for Water and Wastewater Treatment.

The research project was done using nanofiltration and ultrafiltration technologies to solve the problem of water treatment for channelling to industries.

Prof Abdul Wahab said studies the studies had been done since the past 10 years with the cooperation of Indah Water Consortium (IWK), Sime Darby and KLK Oleochemicals.

“When I applied this award, I had given the explanation and highlighted about the fundamental aspects of our research, such as how the research helped to solve the industry’s problems as it focused on industry.

“We have done this project at Cyberjaya. We have already studied the performance process and reused domestic water taken from houses. We used these technologies to get very clean water to recycle ,” he told the UKM News portal, here today.

He said among the research that they did included processes and cost effectiveness of the techniques.

“We proposed solutions on how the water from this technology can be used for industry. When water that has been used go down the drain, then to the river, it pollutes the river. When that happens, we need to do more treatment. So it wastes our time,” he said.

He expressed hope that UKM will nominate more lecturers and researchers to compete in the Toray Awards in the future.

“We have many talented lecturers and researchers conducting research. I Hope UKM can provide a platform and identify researches eligible to be endorsed,” he said.

For the 2015 Toray Awards, more than 20 researchers have submitted their  participation, but only four were shortlisted and only two of them have been announced as winners.

Prof Abdul Wahab received the award with another researcher from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) at the Malaysia Toray Science Foundation (MTSF), 22^nd Prize Presentation Ceremony, held in Kuala Lumpur on Nov 24, 2015.

He and his team – Prof Ir Dr Siti Rozaimah Sheikh Abdullah (UKM), Assoc Prof Dr In Nurul Hasyimah Mohd Amin (MICET, UniKL) and Dr Hassimi Abu Hasan (UKM)  received certificates and RM30,000 cash.

Prof Dato’ Abdul Wahab is the third UKM recipient of this award after Prof Dato’  Abdul Latif in 1996 and Prof Dato’ Dr Roslan Abdul Shukor in 2005.

TMSF is part of the foundation that started in Japan and funded directly by the Toray Science Foundation of Japan to promote science and technology by supporting the effort undertaken by scientist, young researchers and lecturers in science.

The award was established in 1994 and attracted worldwide attention, involving three annual programmes of Science and Technology Awards, Science and Technology Research Grant and Science Education Award.