Development of value-added Biomaterials from Oil Palm Agro-wastes

There is a wide spread availability and massive generation of oil palm agro-wastes in Malaysia. This calls for co-ordinated effort to manage the wastes and to develop value added products from them. Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) can be treated by physical and chemical processes to extract oil and cellulose. Cellulose is composed of a set of parallel chains of glucose molecule with anhydroglucose unit that has three hydroxyl carbon available (C-2, C-3& C-6) for derivatization. Cellulose chains form a highly ordered structure known as microfibril. Highly crystalline forms of cellulose are difficult to work with and often unpredictable in behaviour. Non-crystalline form on the other hand could be produced that would open up new possibilities for cellulosic-based biopolymers. Mesophases of cellulose could determine the order of molecular orientation, anisotropy of fiber. High tensile strength fiber depends upon the molecular arrangement in the cellulose crystallites.