Recovery of Pulp from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch and Used Paper for Sustainable Paper Production

Agricultural waste residue such as empty fruit bunch (EFB) has great potential as an alternative feedstock in pulp and paper industry. This study provides insights into the use of EFB as an alternative non-wood fibre resource for pulping and papermaking. EFB was mixed with used paper (UP) according to the ratio of 100:0, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75 on dry basis. The hemi-cellulose and lignin contents in EFB was removed by soda-pulping using 15% w/v sodium hydroxide for 30 minutes at 100°C. Chemical analyses were performed to determine the ash content, lignin content, and the cellulose content (Rowel method). Physical and mechanical properties of the EFB/UP paper were characterised according to the TAPPI Standards including grammage, porosity, moisture content and tensile strength. The average fibre length of all EFB/UP papers showed different fibre length ranging from 1.0 to 1.2 mm. EFB25 (25% EFB) was found to have the least moisture content of 7.28% meanwhile EFB100 had the least ash content of 2.28% and the highest cellulose and lignin content of 45.22% and 26.5%, respectively. EFB25 demonstrated the highest tensile index of 2.01 Nm/g. There are no major colour changes and no trace of fungal growth on the surface of all paper samples after 4 weeks of storage without temperature and humidity control. It was found that paper with EFB25 displayed good physical appearance with grammage of 59.8 g/m2 that is almost comparable to commercialised paper of 70 g/m2 and suitable for writing.