There is increasing interest to use oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) to make pulp and paper in Malaysia. With its large cultivation of oil palm, EFB is amply available (an estimated 5 million tonnes a year, dry weight). As a cellulosic material of oil palm, it can be used to make pulp without depleting the nation’s forest resources. MPOB and SEA Pacific PaperTech Sdn Bhd have developed the PALMORTM Accelerated Pulping System to process EFB fibre bundles to paper pulp. It gives a much higher yield (typically 78%) and requires much less chemicals and energy than the high speed single disk refiner in mechanical pulping. In addition, it is a continuous operation.

Main Research: Kamarudin Hassan