Wood-based downstream in Malaysia mostly rubberwood (RW) as their main raw material for manufactured products, and there is high demand particularly from  the panel composite sector. Recently, there was insufficient supply due to high proliferation of such industries in Malaysia. The unsecure supply and price hike of RW has led the panel industries to look for alternative raw material.

In 2011, Malaysia had 5 million hectares of oil palm areas. The oil palm biomass generated annually in the form of oil palm trunk (OPT), oil palm fronds (OPF) and empty fruit bunches (EFB) is about 80 million tonnes (dry basis). Out of that, a big portion (about 45 million tonnes) comes from the OPF obtained from pruning and replanting activities. Currently, OPF has not been commercially utilised other than left in the plantation as organic fertiliser.

Main Research: Zawawi Ibrahim