Palm oil (Elaeis guineensis Jacq) is one of the most productive commodity crops in Indonesia. Oil palm Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB) are a collection of fibers left after separating the fruit from sterilized fresh fruit bunches. Dr. Ihak Sumardi and colleagues investigated the possibility of EFB becoming pulp raw material in the future by measure its water content, ash content, extractive, lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose as well as fiber morphology, suggesting the potential use of EFB as pulp raw material for paper making.

Article Citation:
Sumardi, I., Hadiyane, A., Rumidatul, Al., Melani, L. 2020. Characteristics of Empty Palm Bunch Fibers as Alternative Pulp Material. Am. J. Appl. Sci. 17: 129-134.

Full paper is published inAmerican Journal of Applied Sciences : http://thescipub.com/abstract/10.3844/ajassp.2020.129.134

Image (first page):
Empty fruit bunches of oil palm (source : https://www.bpdp.or.id/)
Micrographs of the morphology of EFB fibers (source: Sumardi et al. 2020)
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Profile of Dr. Ihak Sumardi:
https://sith.itb.ac.id/en/ihak-sumardi/