Dr. Sivapalan Kathiravale has over 25 years of experience in the waste management field and currently heads the Centre of Excellence for Waste Management in Malaysia under the patronage of CENVIRO and Khazanah National. He is a Chartered Waste Manager, and was instrumental in establishing the first Refuse Derived Fuel Plant in Malaysia with a commercial value of about RM 150 Million. He was the, lead researcher, technical consultant and acted in the capacity of technical advisor to the first pilot scale plant and the consequent scale up to commercial plant for the conversation of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) to Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF).
In his capacity as the principal analyst with the Malaysian Industry Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT) under the Prime Minister’s Office, he has been the lead for establishing a Biomass Action Plan for the nation targeting the SME involvement in the Biomass Sector. He was part of the 3 lead consultants in establishing the National Green Technology Foresight, which chartered the way forward for Malaysia in green technology towards 2030. In his capacity at MIGHT, he was leading the foresight for the waste industry for the country through various projects and inputs like working with the RMK 11 team and the SCP team to come up with the various reports.