The production of crude palm oil (CPO) in the mill generates a huge amount of biomass such as palm kernel shells (PKS), press fibres and empty fruit bunches (EFB). Press fibres are widely used as fuel in the mill boiler together with small quantities of PKS. With the current scenario where biogas from palm oil mill effluent (POME) is captured, and the use of the biogas for co-firing in the boiler is gaining popularity, the excess of these biomass by-products will be much more. In order for better and more effective utilisation, the conversion of this biomass into a more suitable form such as powder is very important. Commercial production of biomass powder at low cost is one of the approaches to enhance and create more new products and applications of oil palm biomass. There are several conventional pulverisation techniques such as cutting, drying, hammer milling, grinding and sieving. However, those methods are not economically viable for mass production of biomass powder into micron size due to their energy intensity and high wear and tear of the machinery. This new system called Nanomass Technology System (NTS) has been developed and tested to convert the biomass, particularly PKS into powder form using a single machine (Figure 1a).

Main Research: Ropandi Mamat