IChemE announces Malaysia Awards 2026 winners

IChemE has announced the winners of the Malaysia Awards 2026, recognising outstanding achievements in chemical, process, and biochemical engineering.

This year's winners demonstrated the breadth of innovation across the profession, from process intensification for beauty and personal care products to strengthening contractor process safety practices, advancing renewable hydrogen technologies, and applying artificial intelligence to improve agricultural decision-making. Together, the winning projects highlight how chemical engineers are addressing industry challenges through innovation, safety, digitalisation and sustainable technologies.

Two new categories were introduced to the awards program this year: Digitalisation, AI and Automation, and Health, Wellbeing and Food. The inaugural awards were won by the Chemical Reaction Engineering Group (CREG) for its AI-driven oil palm fruit grading technology and PETRONAS Malaysia for its process-intensified clean beauty manufacturing project, respectively.

Other category winners include University of Nottingham Malaysia, Center of Excellence for NaNo Energy & Catalysis Technology (CONNECT), School of Energy and Chemical Engineering (SECE), Xiamen University Malaysia, CREG and Universiti Teknologi, Malaysia and PETRONAS Chemicals Ethylene, and PETRONAS Chemicals Polyethylene.

The winners were recognised at the IChemE Malaysia Awards ceremony held on 5 October in Kuala Lumpur.

Speaking at the awards, IChemE President Dr Ollie Folayan said: "We are operating in an era that demands greater innovation. Today, chemical engineers are pushing the boundaries of our profession into entirely new territories, and tonight’s awards perfectly epitomise this spirit. It was a pleasure to listen to presentations that highlight novel ways to apply chemical engineering principles - such as leveraging fluid dynamics to deliver more effective treatments for conditions like rheumatoid arthritis. With additional awards recognising breakthroughs in sustainability, digitisation, and carbon capture, the future of chemical engineering looks incredibly bright".

Now in its 13th year, the IChemE Malaysia Awards recognise excellence across categories aligned with the profession's key priorities, including energy transition, process safety, digitalisation and artificial intelligence, health and wellbeing, sustainable systems, and innovation.

All Malaysia Awards winners will automatically progress as finalists in the IChemE Global Awards 2026, one of the world's leading awards programs celebrating excellence and innovation in chemical and process engineering.

At the Award ceremony, Malaysian winners of the 2026 Young Engineers Awards for Innovation and Sustainability (YEAIS) competition were also recognised. Winners from the Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence and Engineering Biology categories were in attendance. The awards celebrate emerging talent and innovation while supporting IChemE's vision of engineering a sustainable world.

The awards ceremony was sponsored by Synthomer Malaysia and the Research Institute for Sustainable Excellence and Leadership (RISEL).

For more information about the IChemE Malaysia Awards, visit: https://www.icheme.org/training-events/awards/malaysia-awards/

For more information about the IChemE Young Engineers Awards for Innovation and Sustainability (YEAIS), visit: https://www.icheme.org/training-events/awards/young-engineers-awards-for-innovation-and-sustainability/