7 - Processing of oil palm trunk and lumber

Abstract

Oil palm, rubber, rice, cocoa, and coconut are the main agricultural commodities grown in Malaysia. According to Griffin et al. (2010), 17 Mt of agricultural residues have been estimated. More than three-third of these residues are dominated by oil palm, while the remaining consists of rice, forestry, and other residues such as rubber, cocoa, and coconut. Oil palm biomasses could be classified into two general types based on their generation sites. Oil palm trunks and oil palm fronds are readily available in planting sites. These two biomasses amount to 75% of the total oil palm biomasses. On the other hand, empty fruit bunches, mesocarp fibers, palm shell kernel, and palm oil mill effluent (POME) are generated at the mill sites after the extraction of fresh fruit bunch for palm oil. These biomasses make up to 25% of the total oil palm biomasses (Griffin et al., 2010). Annually, in Malaysia alone, the oil palm industry had generated a substantial amount of at least 30 million tons of underutilized residues in the form of trunks, fronds, empty fruit bunches, and leaves (Khalil et al., 2006). This chapter discusses the sawing, drying, and quality enhancement of oil palm trunk and lumber where different sawing patterns, drying methods, and quality enhancement procedures are reviewed.