Under-utilized palms

Oil palm processing generates 53.4 % mesocarp fiber (MF), 6.4 % pahn kernel shell (PKS), 21 % empty fruit bunch (EFB), and 58.3 % palm oil mills effluent (POME) from every wet fresh fruit bunch (FFB) basis (Hambali et al. 2010). The overall palm oil market is dominated by two countries Indonesia and Malaysia and these two accounts more than 85 % of the worldwide production (Sulaiman et al. 2011). The source of palm oil fruit bunch is very much related to palm oil industries. Palm oil producing countries such as Malaysia have more reserve oil palm plantation which lead to abundant source of empty fruit bunches. Previously, EFB was considered as a under-utilized source. Once it was viewed as an embarrassing liability of pahn oil waste but later due to dynamic research and innovation, the ability of oil palm fiber as valuable source embarks. In Malaysia itself, the production of empty fmit bunch reaches 21.34 million tons in year the 2011, which make Malaysia a major fiber producer (Mun 2011). 

Oil palm ash was utilized as an absorbent for dry-type flue gas desulfurization. The absorbents were prepared using water hydration method with the addition of other chemicals such as CaO and CaS04. The absorbents were then subjected to synthetic flue gas under various SO2 feed concentration (500 to 2000 ppm) and reaction temperature (65°C to 400°C). It was foimd that higher feed SO2 concentration reduces the time the absorbent could maintain 100% removal of SO2. On the other hand, higher reaction temperature was found to increase the reactivity of the absorbent. However, reaction temperature above SOO C was found to have negative effect on the reactivity of the absorbent. 

Utilization of By-product. Oil Palm Trunks and Fronds. Under normal plantation practices, the pruned fronds are placed along the palm interrows and act as mulch. Besides conserving soil moisture and reducing soil surface erosion, the fronds on decomposition return organic matter and slowly release plant nutrients to the soil (Table 27). 

Cost is always the main factor that determines large-scale utilization. However, the initial results suggest that the use of crude palm oil as an engine fuel would be 30% more costly compared with petroleum diesel under Malaysian conditions. 

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