Preliminary Study on Analysis of The Chemical Compositions and Characterization of Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) In Malaysia

摘要

Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) is the most important crop of Malaysia. Malaysia can be considered as the world's largest producer and exporter of crude palm oil. The objectives of this work are to analyze and investigate the chemical compositions and the characterization of empty fruit bunches. The chemical compositions of EFB are analyzed using National Renewable Energy Laboratory method. Milled empty fruit bunches submitted to different treatments are characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, carbon-hydrogen-nitrogen analyzer (CHN), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), and surface morphology. Chemical compositions which are analyzed include glucan, xylan, arabinan, extractive, ash and lignin contents. The compositions of EFB are determined in two forms which are extractive free sample and native whole sample. The results obtained show that extractive free sample has higher glucan and xylan contents which are 37.8% and 20.5% as compared with whole native sample which are 34.3% and 19.7% respectively. However, the contents of arabinan and lignin of extractive free sample which are 1.5% and 21.8% are much lower than whole native sample which are 2% and 28.7% respectively. The ash content for both samples is 5.2%. The result for extractive analysis of extractive free sample is 15%. The basic functional groups and elements which present in EFB are obtained by FTIR and CHN analysis respectively. TGA analysis curve shows the decomposition of EFB peak value at 312.5°C. The morphology study of EFB carried out using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) shows a roughness surface.