Improvement in Durability of Oil Heat Treated 16-Year-Old Acacia mangium in Laboratory Tests

Improvement in the durability of oil heat treated Acacia mangium through accelerated laboratory tests was studied. A. mangium logs of 16-year-old harvested and segregated into the bottom, middle, and top portions. These were oil-heat treated in a stainless-steel tank with oil palm oil as a heating medium at temperatures 180, 200 and 220 °C for the duration of 30, 60 and 90 minutes respectively. The wood samples dried and grounded into sawdust, air-dried again before undergoing durability tests. Accelerated 12 weeks laboratory durability studies conducted on the treated A. mangium. Fungi of Pycnoporus sanguineus, Gloeophyllum trabeum and Coriolus versicolors inoculated on the woods. Untreated samples used as controls. The results showed that durability of the wood improved with an increase in temperature and duration of the treatment. The oil heat treatment process reduced the attack of G. trabeum from 5.02%, 4.41% and 4.38% in the control samples to 0.54-4.55%, 0.91-4.41% and 1.08-4.38% at the bottom, middle and top portions, respectively. The attack of C. versicolors reduced from 11.48%, 14.27% and 15.68% in the control samples to 1.87-10.19%, 3.10-12.69 and 4.78-15.10% at the bottom, middle and top portions. However, the attacked of P. sanguineus were less effective with 31.42%, 18.24% and 10.53% in control samples to 3.71-10.18%, 5.74-14.59% and 4.37-17.08% at the bottom, middle and top portions. Heavy colonization of mycelia occurs in vessels of the untreated A. mangium wood in comparison to the oil heat treated wood observed through scanning electron microscope

Potential of oil palm trunk starch as flocculant for contaminant of emerging compound removal

In this preliminary study, a natural flocculant is developed from an oil palm trunk. The flocculant further tested for its ability in turbidity and COD removal with additional of atrazine in wastewater and demineralised water matrix. At the optimum dosage of 20mg/L, the developed cationic OPT starch able to remove around 95% turbidity and 85% COD. In addition, the cationic OPT starch also show the ability to remove spiked atrazine from both water matrixes to the maximum range of 55-85%. In conclusion, the developed oil-palm based flocculant show great potential for real-world application with added cost-effective benefits

Study on Ultimate Properties and Crystallinity Index of Torrefied Biochar from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch

This study was conducted to characterize the elemental properties and crystallinity index of the torrefied oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) biochar from torrefaction process via furnace intended for being as an alternative renewable energy sources. The influence of three major torrefaction parameters namely particle size, holding temperature and residence time was investigated. Characterization of torrefied OPEFB biochar had been done by elemental analyser and X-ray diffraction (XRD) for ultimate properties and crystallinity index respectively. The carbon element in the torrefied OPEFB biochar was increased when the holding temperature and residence time increased while oxygen element amount is decreasing. This is due to decomposition of hemicellulose occurred in this region. For crystallinity index (CrI) by XRD, there was decreasing pattern occurred as the holding temperature and residence time increased from 200–300°C and 30-90 minutes respectively. This shows that the torrefied OPEFB biochar’s cellulose crystallinity is reduced as the cellulose become completely amorphous