agricultural waste fibers have been found to be suitable as reinforcement in cement-based composites, but studies on oil palm fiber as reinforcement in gypsum-cement wall panels are scarce. a mixture of two equal weights of gypsum and cement, with water-binder ratios of 0.45 and 0.55 were prepared. in each mix a varying percentage of fiber contents of 2%, 3% and 4% by weight of the binders were...

Palm pressed fiber (PPF) is a by-product from oil extraction of oil palm fruits. It has unique characteristics resulting from the combination of palm mesocarp fiber, kernel shell and crushed kernel. The present study on different extraction methods for PPF indicated that conventional hexane cold extraction would be the more preferable method compared to soxhlet and reflux method due to the yiel...

Various farm wastes were investigated as substrates for Pleurotus tuber-regium. The highest mushroom harvest (fresh weight) was obtained from oil palm fruit fiber substrate and the lowest yield was from yam (Dioscorea sp.) peelings. Casing enhanced yield from all substrates. Oil palm fruit fiber spawn is an alternative to the sclerotium in propagating the fungus. Some fungi and pests were assoc...

Torrefaction is a pretreatment method for upgrading biomass as solid fuels. To provide flexible operations for effectively upgrading biomass at lower costs, the aim of this study was to investigate the properties of oil palm fiber and eucalyptus pretreated in nitrogen and air atmospheres at temperatures of 250-350°C for 1h. Based on energy and solid yield and introducing an energy-mass co-benef...

Oil palm biomass, namely empty fruit bunch and frond fiber, were pretreated using a planetary ball mill. Particle sizes and crystallinity index values of the oil palm biomass were significantly reduced with extended ball mill processing time. The treatment efficiency was evaluated by the generation of glucose, xylose, and total sugar conversion yields from the pretreatment process compared to t...

Poly(ethyl hydrazide) grafted oil palm empty fruit bunch (peh-g-opefb) fiber has been successfully prepared by heating poly(methylacrylate)-g-opefb at 60 °C for 4 h in a solution of hydrazine hydrate in ethanol. The chelating ability of peh-g-opefb was evaluated based on removal of Ni(II) ions in aqueous solution. Adsorption of Ni(II) by peh-g-opefb was characterized based on effect of pH, isot...

The reaction characteristics of four biomass materials (i.e. oil palm fiber, coconut fiber, eucalyptus, and Cryptomeria japonica) with non-oxidative and oxidative torrefaction at various superficial velocities are investigated where nitrogen and air are used as carrier gases. Three torrefaction temperatures of 250, 300, and 350 °C are considered. At a given temperature, the solid yield of bioma...

Agricultural waste fibers have been found to be suitable as reinforcement in cement-based composites, but studies on oil palm fiber as reinforcement in gypsum-cement wall panels are scarce. A mixture of two equal weights of gypsum and cement, with water-binder ratios of 0.45 and 0.55 were prepared. In each mix a varying percentage of fiber contents of 2%, 3% and 4% by weight of the binders were...

In this study, microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) was extracted from oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) cellulose which was earlier isolated from oil palm EFB fibre. In order to isolate the cellulose, the chlorination method was carried out. Then, the MCC was prepared by simultaneous ultrasonic and alkali treatment from the isolated α-cellulose. Based on mass balance calculation, the yields for MCC...

Agricultural waste fibers have been found to be suitable as reinforcement in cement-based composites, but studies on oil palm fiber as reinforcement in gypsum-cement wall panels are scarce. A mixture of two equal weights of gypsum and cement, with water-binder ratios of 0.45 and 0.55 were prepared. In each mix a varying percentage of fiber contents of 2%, 3% and 4% by weight of the binders were...