Emerging technologies for value-added use of oil palm biomass

Abstract

The palm oil industry has been continuing to help in mitigating poverty and drive socio-economic growth through job opportunities and infrastructure development in the suburbs. However, as the industry expands rapidly, production goes hand in hand with waste generation. With current utilization by mills, a large quantity of oil palm biomass is left underutilized. Existing practices allow only a proportion of biomass to be used as mulching agents in plantations and fuel boilers, while trunks and fronds are left to decompose for carbon cycling. A lot of work has been done on bio-product development using oil palm biomass, including biochar, activated carbon, bio-oil, compost, nanocellulose, biosugar, bioelectricity, biohythane, bioplastic, and bioenergy. This review puts together the latest pieces of evidence of technological progress in the valorization of oil palm biomass for value-added use. Overall, it was demonstrated that oil palm biomass can be converted into highly valuable feedstock via several pretreatment routes. Moreover, several challenges were identified and urgently need to be improved. This review will give a glimpse of how effective oil palm biomass is as the main feedstock for these high value-added bioproducts.