Abstract
As developing nations strive for economic sustainability, effort is geared towards exploiting biomass materials that could have alternative uses to their conventional low valued uses in order to achieve this goal. It is because of this that palm kernel shell, a byproduct of oil palm processing, is characterized for its application in construction and water treatment industries. The materials physical and chemical properties determined using standard methods show that it can find useful application in light weight construction as material filler and as sorbent material for industrial water treatment. The results of the x-ray photo spectrometry (XPS) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) reveal that the palm kernel shell (PKS) contains surface elements, morphology and crystalline qualities well required of material fillers in construction and adsorption industries. These can add to the market values of palm kernel shell as against its direct combustion and wastage of the material at oil palm processing mills. Key words: Oil palm kernel shell, characterization, adsorbent, x-ray diffraction, micro porosity.
Highlights
In Indonesia, Malaysia and several West African countries, oil palm is commercially cultivated in plantations where trees are grown on a 25 to 30 year rotation followed by removal and replanting (Durst et al, 2004)
Though palm kernel shell (PKS) is typically either burned or abandoned, the present study suggests its use as a valuable co-product water treatment and as filler for building and construction materials
Palm kernel shell is characterized for use as a sorbent in water treatment technology, as a filler material in the construction industry
Summary
In Indonesia, Malaysia and several West African countries, oil palm is commercially cultivated in plantations where trees are grown on a 25 to 30 year rotation followed by removal and replanting (Durst et al., 2004). Because of the magnitude of this industry, several residues are co-produced with palm oil. These include: the empty fruit bunch (EFB), palm fruit fiber (PFF), palm oil mill effluent (POME) and palm kernel shell (PKS). Palm kernel oil (PKO), the PKS (as residue) has been regarded as ‘waste’ from palm oil processing by. It has been shown that approximately 15 to 18 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches are produced per hectare per year and PKS comprises about
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