• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.8
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• pp.1084-1091
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• 2012

Xylooligosaccharides are functional foods mainly produced during the hydrolysis of xylan by physical, chemical, or enzymatic methods. In this study, production of xylobiose was investigated using oil palm empty fruit bunch fiber (OPEFB) as a source material, by chemical and enzymatic methods. Xylanase-specific xylan hydrolysis followed by xylobiose production was observed. Among different xylanases, xylanase from FXY-1 released maximum xylobiose from pretreated OPEFB fiber, and this fungal strain was identified as Aspergillus terreus and subsequently deposited under the accession Number MTCC- 8661. The imperative role of lignin on xylooligosaccharides enzymatic synthesis was exemplified with the notice of xylobiose production only with delignified material. A maximum 262 mg of xylobiose was produced from 1.0 g of pretreated OPEFB fiber using FXY-1 xylanase (6,200 U/ml) at pH 6.0 and $45^{\circ}C$. At optimized environment, the yield of xylobiose was improved to 78.67 g/100 g (based on xylan in the pretreated OPEFB fiber).

• Proceedings of the Polymer Society of Korea Conference
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• 2006.10a
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• pp.358-358
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• 2006

The graft copolymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA), butyl acrylate (BA) and acrylamide (AAm) onto oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fiber were successfully carried out in aqueous solution using $H_{2}O_{2}/Fe^{2+}$ as initiator. For all monomers the percentage of grafting increases with the amount of monomer and can be controlled by setting the appropriate reaction conditions. The optimum reaction period were found to be 120 minutes for all monomers whereas the optimum temperature and the amount of initiator needed for grafting depend on the type of the monomer used. The mechanisms of grafting vinyl monomer onto OPEFB were proposed. The grafted products were characterized by gravimetric analysis, FTIR and SEM.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.36-42
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• 2012

The empty fruit bunch fibers(EFB) of oil palm were examined for optimal utilization of the EFB fibers. The EFB fibers were obtained by shredding EFB, followe by removal of fines. The surface properties of the fibers were modified with various pre-treatments, such as hot water extraction, the soaking treatments with NaOH, $ClO_2$ and n-hexane. The changes in the fiber surface were examined with FT-IR method, which showed the changes in chemical compositions such as pectin, lignin, and etc. according to the pre-treatment methods. And the z-directional tensile testing of the fiber mold made of the treated EFB fibers showed the changes in the bonding strength by the pre-treatments. The fiber mold made of EFB fibers treated with $ClO_2$ showed the greater increase in the tensile energy absorption although the NaOH treatment resulted in the severer impact on the EFB fibers.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.56-64
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• 2014

The applicability of oil palm EFB(Empty Fiber Bunch) to the papermaking process as a functional organic filler was investigated in this study. Since the EFB has similar chemical composition to the lignocellulose materials such as wood fiber, the fines of EFB was applied to the handsheet paper as an alternative to wood powder which were used as an organic filler to improve water removal efficiency and bulk. The experiments showed that the EFB fines resulted in the higher water removal efficiency at the wet pressing process and leaded to the higher bulk than those of wood powder. In case of 10 % addition of organic filler, the strength properties were not significantly changed. Those results suggested that the EFB could be used as a new organic filler for improving water removal efficiency and bulk property.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.439-449
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• 2014

RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard) has increased wood pellet demand dramatically in recent years in Korea where self-supply rate of wood pellet is not more than 10%. However global production capacity of wood pellet is prospected to be unable to meet the global demand after 2020. Therefore it is urgently needed to develop new sustainable biomass energy resources which can replace wood pellet at lower cost. As a result of this study EFB (empty fruit bunch) and MF (mesocarp fiber), the representative solid palm biomass, are estimated to be generated at the rate of 20 and 28 million tons per year (based on 10% moisture content) in Malaysia and Indonesia, respectively in 2012. Total annual generation rate of EFB and MF is estimated as 48 million tons per year only in Malaysia and Indonesia in 2012. With calorific value of over 90% of wood pellet EFB is expected to be a excellent biomass energy resource which can replace wood pellet. EFB can be utilized as fuel for power generation or industrial purpose. However EFB may not be a proper fuel for domestic and greenhouse heating because of its high ash content.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.67-74
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• 2016

The demand of environmental friendly packaging materials such as pulp mold has been increased. The application of the oil palm biomass, EFB (Empty Fruit Bunch) fiber as natural raw materials to the pulp mold could increase the usability of the pulp mold by the reduced production cost brought from the relatively low cost of EFB. The effects of the EFB(Empty Fruit Bunch) fibers on the properties of pulp mold and on the process efficiency were evaluated in this study. The pulp mold samples were prepared with mixture ONP (Old news paper) and EFB by using laboratory wet pulp molder. The changes in the drying efficiency were measured with the changes in the solid contents of pulp mold samples during drying process. The efficiency of the surface coating treatment on the pulp mold depending on the condition of the pulp mold samples were also evaluated in order to improve the water resistance properties of pulp mold. The addition of EFB increased the drying efficiency by providing the bulkier structure and the higher water contact angle, which indicated the better water resistance properties. The water resistance were improved by the surface coating treatments and the application of surface coating on the pulp mold at the higher moisture contents resulted in the higher improvement in the water resistance. The bulkier structure originated from the application of EFB fiber reduced the effects of the surface coating, which could be overcome by the control of surface coating process.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.67-74
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• 2013

Organosolv ethanolamine pulping for oil palm empty fruit bunches(EFB) were evaluated in this study. The screen yield by the ethanolamine pulping were higher than that by the soda pulping at the same operation conditions. The higher concentration of ethanolamine solvent resulted in the higher yield and the lower contents of residual lignin. The EFB pulp fibers were the narrower in fiber width but the higher in coarseness than those of the hardwood pulp fiber, while the fiber length of the EFB pulp fiber were similar to that of the hardwood fiber. The intrinsic zero span tensile testing showed the EFB pulp fiber by the 80% ethanolamine pulping were the stronger than the fiber by the soda pulping. The results of this study supported that the ethanolamine pulping could be used as an alternative pulping method for the EFB.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.231-243
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• 2014

In this study, the potential of biomass, which is generated from oil palm cultivation and crude palm oil (CPO) production of Indonesia was assessed in the aspect of energy content. The types of oil palm biomass were classified on the basis of the cultivation stage and the CPO production stage. In the cultivation stage, biomass is considered to be produced from its' root, trunk and frond. Other possible biomass resources such as empty fruit bunch (EFB), palm kernel shell (PKS) and fiber were included in the CPO production stage. As results, total biomass from damaged plantation area of Indonesia was estimated to be annually from 3 million to 16 million tons in 2011. From CPO mills, approximately 49 million tons/yr of biomass residues were estimated to be annually occurred. Their total energy content from each biomass source in cultivation stage was analyzed to be from 593,000 to 3,197,000 TOEs in terms of gross calorific value. In the case of CPO mills, around 22.7 million TOEs was estimated to be potential energy producible by biomass based on gross calorific value of dry basis. If moisture content considered, net calorific value was analyzed to be decreased to 16.3 million TOEs. Based on the results, the total energy contents of all oil palm biomass were estimated to be up to 25,919,000 TOE in terms of gross calorific value. CPO : Crude Palm Oil, EFB : Empty Fruit Bunch, FFB: Fresh Fruit Bunch, PKS : Palm Kernel Shell, OPF : Oil Palm Frond, PKOC : Palm Kernel Oil Cake, ISPO : Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil Commission, TOE : Tone of Oil Equivalent.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.18-28
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• 2014

Renewable Portfolio Standards(RPS) is a regulation that requires a renewable energy generated from eco-friendly energy sources such as biomass, wind, solar, and geothermal. The RPS mechanism generally is an obligatory policy that places on electricity supply companies to produce a designated fraction of their electricity from renewable energies. The domestic companies to supply electricity largely rely on wood pellets in order to implement the RPS in spite of undesirable situation of lack of wood resources in Korea. This means that the electricity supply companies in Korea must explore new biomass as an alternative to wood. Palm kernel shell (PKS) and empty fruit bunch (EFB) as oil palm wastes can be used as raw materials used for making pellets after their thermochemical treatment like torrefaction. Torrefaction is a pretreatment process which serves to improve the properties including heating value and energy densification of these oil palm wastes through a mild pyrolysis at temperature typically ranging between 200 and $300^{\circ}C$ in the absence of oxygen under atmospheric pressure. Torrefaction of oil palms wastes at above $200^{\circ}C$ contributed to the increase of fixed carbon with the decrease of volatile matters, leading to the improvement of their calorific values over 20.9 MJ/kg (=5,000 kcal/kg) up to 25.1 MJ/kg (=6,000 kcal/kg). In particular, EFB sensitively responded to torrefaction because of its physical properties like fiber bundles, compared to PKS and hardwood chips. In conclusion, torrefaction treatment of PKS and EFB can greatly contribute to the implement of RPS of the electricity supply companies in Korea through the increased co-firing biomass with coal.