Owing to the huge plantation areas and active palm oil extraction, huge amounts of biomass are generated continuously. Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) is one of the major oil palm biomasses produced, which accounted for up to 23 million tons annually. OPEFB fibers have many great purposes for reinforced biocomposites, hydrogels production and also a great source for sugar and bioenergy production. Various applications of oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) would be hindered by the presence of residual oil. This study aimed to remove and recover the residual oil from OPEFB using an integrated system, high pressure water spray system (HPWSS). The performance of the HPWSS was evaluated at different temperatures and water pressures, and the residual oil collected was recovered through water shaking method and tested for biodiesel application. A maximum of 84.9% of residual oil was removed by HPWSS at 60 °C and 8960 kPa and the highest residual oil recovery of 58.8% was observed at 95 °C, using power shaking 5 and 90% of dilution. The following ranges of deterioration of bleachability index (DOBI), free fatty acid (FFA), and peroxide value (PV) for the residual oil were 1.21 to 2.67, 7.11 to 10.4%, and 4.85 to 7.56, respectively. Biodiesel with different blends of recovered residual oil (5%, 10%, and 15%) showed lower values (9.87, 9.57, and 9.56 Nm) of brake torque as compared with diesel (10.89 Nm). Overall, this study showed the potential of HPWSS to obtain an acceptable quality of residual oil from OPEFB to be used in any value-added product generation.

Figure 1: Schematic assembly view of high-pressure water steam treatment of OPEFB in oil palm mill.

Figure 2: Physical effect of OPEFB bunch for (a) untreated OPEFB, (b) HPWSS treated OPEFB, (c) closed-up of HPWSS treated OPEF, and (d) fungal growth on HPWSS treated OPEFB after 3 days

Source: Chang Jie Chu, Halimatun Saadiah Hafid, Farah Nadia Omar, Abdul Aziz Hairuddin, Mohd Noriznan Mokhtar, Azhari Samsu Baharuddin, and Minato Wakisaka (2023). Improvement of Residual Oil Recovery from Oil Palm Biomass Using High Pressure Water Steam System for Biodiesel Production. BioResources 18(1), 1664-1683 (https://doi.org/10.15376/biores.18.1.1664-1683)

Date of Input: 23/06/2025 | Updated: 26/09/2025 | ainzubaidah