Month: February 2020

Cake margarine provides lubrication, improve palatability (tenderness or shortness) and good taste to cakes. In the production of cake margarine, it is important that the oil blend has the right solid fat content (SFC) profile, β’ crystal stability as well as possesses manageable crystallisation rate. Main Researcher: Noor Lida Habi Mat DianEmail: nlida@mpob.gov.my

Santan Sawit was first introduced by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) as a novel product in 2008 (Zaida et al., 2008; 2012). It was prepared as an alternative to the traditional coconut santan. Santan Sawit is ready-to-use and in great demand in domestic market. The product is popular to consumers and marketed in local … Read more

Globally, approximately 164 million tonnes of dry mass of oil palm fronds are produced each year (Sauvant et al., 2015). At present, oil palm leaves are used as fodders or left to decompose in the field. Main Researcher: Dr Halimah MuhamadEmail: halimah@mpob.gov.my

The transformation of agriculturalbased economy to an industrial-based economy in Malaysia has driven the growth of downstream oleochemical industries. Many derivatives from palm-based oleochemical materials have been aggressively produced and examined for their potential applications. One of which is polymer materials that have vast applications in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, personal care, detergent and chemical industries. … Read more

Polyols are prepared from unsaturated vegetable oils by introducing hydroxyl groups at the position of double bonds (Narine et al., 2007). Hydroxyl groups can be introduced in many ways, resultingin different polyol structures, which when converted to polyurethane (PU), impart different properties to the final product (Lin et al., 2007). Primary hydroxyl groups in polyols … Read more

Global consumers are increasingly concerned with environmental issues and this has encouraged industries to introduce environmental-friendly products (Ragauskas et al., 2006). One of such industries that is adopting the ‘green’ movement is the polyol and polyurethane (PU) industries, where polyol producers and scientists worldwide have been actively producing polyols from renewable feedstock such as palm … Read more

Microemulsions are normally isotropic (or clear), very small in droplet size (<100 nm), low in viscosity and are thermodynamically stable solu-tions. However, the ordinary emulsions appear as milky white dispersions with higher viscosity, droplet size of >0.5 µm and are only kinetically stable. Thus, the properties of microemulsion systems have attracted many researchers, formulators, manufacturers … Read more

Oil palm trunk (OPT) is a naturally variable material, and thus, its physical and mechanical properties are far from homogeneous. For peeling of veneer, variations in basic properties-related parameters that include vascular bundles configuration, basic density distributions, moisture content gradients and shrinkage behaviour pose a challenge. Main Researcher: Kamarudin HassanEmail: kamardin@mpob.gov.my

The palm oil industry generates biomass in the form of oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB), oil palm trunk (OPT), oil palm frond (OPF), mesocarp fibre and palm kernel shell (PKS). It was reported that a total of 439 mills were in operation with a total of 95.38 million tonnes of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) … Read more

The production of charcoal normally involves the heating of the biomass raw material at temperatures between 300°C-500°C, in which volatiles are emitted and removed during the process (Payakkawan et al., 2014). The carbon content is thus enriched, and an initial porosity and some ordering in the carbon structure is formed. Main Researcher: Dr Astimar Abd … Read more