Plywoods: Processed Oil Palm Replanting Waste Brings Economic Benefits

In collaboration with the Indonesian Oil Palm Estate Fund (BPDPKS), researchers of Indonesian Oil Palm Research Institute (IOPRI) are conducting research to manufacture plywood from oil palm trunks adopting the technology of Sandwich Laminated Lumber. Based on this research, palm oil trunks could be manufactured into any desired forms, including furniture and building structures for both interior and exterior use. This new kind of plywood is another advantage of oil palm replanting program since the trunk, which is used as the raw material, is abundantly available from replanting program. This research is conducted by the team of Erwinsyah, Rudi Hartono, Apri Heri Iswanto, Tito Sucipto, and Atika Afriani. “The trunk is cut into pieces and then stacked like a sandwich then converted into board sheets with Phenol Formaldehida, Urea Formaldehida, Biomatex, Isosianat, and Epoxy glue,” Erwinsyah said. Plywood from oil palm trunk is possible to produce since raw materials are easy to find. Almost 300 thousand hectares plantation are replanted every year generated oil palm trunk up to 25,4 million m3. [googlepdf url=`http://www.bpdp.or.id/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/GRS-K15-Kayu-Lapis.pdf` download=`Download` width=`600` height=`800`]