Oil palm leaf fibre and its suitability for paper-based products

Due to the shortage of wood as origin materials for paper-based production, agro-residue materials have beenexplored in the quest of finding the best alternative fibre. Oil palm leaf (OPL) is one of agro-residue that has potential dueto its comparable characteristics with wood fibre. Studies on chemical compositions, fibre morphology, and mechanicalproperty of OPL have been carried out aiming to evaluate its potential as a substitute raw material for pulp and paper-basedproduction. The chemical compositions were analysed according to the TAPPI standard, Kurscher-Hoffner and chloritemethods accordingly. The mechanical property (tensile, tearing and bursting strengths) were determined as described inTAPPI test methods. Fibre dimensions were determined using Franklin method and analysed under the optical microscope.The content of cellulose in the OPL is determined to be 43.8%. Although, this result is lower than wood fibre (53%), OPLhas higher hemicellulose content (36.4%) than the wood fibre (27.5%). In addition, the lignin content (19.7%) of OPL is inthe low range of those in wood resources (18 - 25%). These parameters are important components to produce good qualitypulp and will provide high mechanical strength of the paper-based products. The measured fibre length of oil palm leaf(1.13 mm) is shorter than the wood fibre (1.90 mm). Meanwhile, the mechanical property of OPL showed lower indexesthan wood resources, however, tear (1.80 mN.m2/g) and burst (0.95 kPa.m2/g) indexes of OPL are higher than otherpublished and successful wood resources (Eucalyptus). Based on the analyses, the oil palm leaf is indeed a suitablealternative of raw material for pulp and paper-based industries