The Potential of Oil Palm Leaf Fibre in Paper-making Industry

Abstract

Utilization of agro-based fibre for paper making has been the subject of interest in order to expand the usage of renewable resources as well as reduced the dependence on wood pulp. As one of the major countries in palm oil production, some of the waste from the oil palm plantation like the oil palm fronds, empty fruit bunches, and its leaf is a potential source of non-wood industry which can be used as raw material in the paper industry manufacture. This study was done to examine the potential of palm leaves to be used as a raw material of non-wood resources in the papermaking industry. In this study, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) pulping and process was employed to investigate the effectiveness of lignin removal for good fibre production. The concentration of the pulping agent was fixed at 7% at treatment of 1-7 hours to investigate the best condition for defibrillation of the cellulose fibre. Based on this study, it was found that the soda pulping produces fibre that can be molded into paper sheet without any binding agent. The morphology of the fibre observed under Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) shows that, soda pulping fiber consist of individual micro fibrils that are well separated. Both tensile strength and tear index gives highest value at 1.93 kg/cm2 and 37 Nm2/kg respectively at 7 hours treatment time. his reflects that lignin removal effectively occurred in soda pulping. Tensile strength found to increases with treatment time and both tensile strength and tear index of the paper falls within the value comparable to commerical non-wood paper. The paper produced has rough surface and has the potential to be develop for craft paper.