A review on recycling ash derived from Elaeis guineensis by-product

Abstract

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) ash is defined as the waste generated after the combustion of oil palm biomass. Malaysia is one of the world’s largest producers and exporter of palm oil in the world, and there is approximately 4 million tonnes of oil palm ash generated annually. It is estimated that the amount of oil palm ash will keep increasing due to the high demand for palm oil globally. Normally, oil palm ash is disposed without any beneficial economic return value. The awareness of this environmental crisis has increased significantly over the past few years. With the evolution of ash utilization strategies, interest in oil palm ash in various research fields has grown. Through the effort of researchers and information available, the properties of the resulting materials are affected by the percentage of substitution and particle size of the oil palm ash. The major challenges in utilizing oil palm ash are discussed in this paper, as are the beneficial effects, which can include reducing the negative environmental impact and the product cost. Although the recycling of oil palm ash is still a new focus of interest, the main thrust of waste management in Malaysia will continue to focus on this kind of research and will attempt to solve the problem of disposal of the ash as well.