15.01.2021 (www.nst.com.my) - Industry players have been called to use alternative raw materials other than wood for manufacturing.

Malaysian Timber Industry Board (MTIB) director-general Mohd Kheiruddin Mohd Rani said utilising alternative raw materials from oil palm biomass, such as oil palm trunks, empty fruit bunches, oil palm frond, palm kernel shell, and other biomass, such as sawdust, kenaf, bamboo, rice husk and others, would add more value to the end product.

He said such a move would also contribute to a more cost-efficient, safe and environment-friendly industry.

"We are still in the midst of research and development as we only have four companies in the country that are venturing into plywood made from oil palm trunk, and four companies manufacturing wood plastic composite utilising sawdust and rice husk.

"Using such alternative raw materials will produce better end products. These alternative raw materials are the biomass from the commodities and agriculture sectors, as well as industrial timber residues.

"These materials are a form of renewable natural resources," he told the New Straits Times in an interview recently.

In Malaysia, a significant amount of biomass is generated every year across a variety of crops and plantations such as palm oil, coconut, rubber, wood and rice husk.

He said the palm oil sector was by far the largest contributor to the biomass resource in the country and that oil palm trees consisted of huge amounts of lignocellulosic materials in the form of empty fruit bunches, mesocarp fibres, palm kernel shells, fronds and trunks.

"One of the innovations that we have created is the mixing of metal with wood plastic composite. We can then produce structural panels, building materials for housing and load bearing construction, furniture and much more.

"With bamboo, we extract its fibres and turn them into textiles and panel products too. We utilise wood waste and its residues and mix them with other raw materials to make a complex and sustainable end product."

Kheiruddin said there was a need to understand the chemical components inside wood and plant fibre as these fibres demonstrate a high strength to weight ratio, low density and are stiff, non-hazardous and biodegradable.

He said this attracted attention from wood and composites industries to utilise wood and plant fibres as an alternative raw material.

With such an innovation, MTIB was awarded the gold medal at the Malaysia Technology Expo last year under the product innovation category.

MTIB is an agency under the Plantation Industry and Commodities Ministry which functions to regulate and develop the timber industry, to encourage effective utilisation of timber as well as overcome the issues pertaining to shortage of raw materials by promoting alternative raw materials to be used by the timber sector.

"We have also engaged with countries like Japan and Germany to learn and adapt to their technology on such innovations to make high value products.

"It is a win-win situation as we have raw materials and they have the technology. They sell their machines to us and we export our products to them or any other countries.

"We see that this is an important sector to develop. However, the response from the industry is slow and they are not keen to venture as the investment is quite high.

"We urge industries to venture into this innovation in order to improve their products.

"We will also continue to look for other alternative raw materials that can be used together with solid wood or timber materials," he said, adding that there was a need to stop deforestation in the country.

He said from 2018 to 2019, four local companies produced wood plastic composites which utilised wood residue and agriculture waste with an estimated sales value of between RM6 million and RM10 million a year.

For the same period, the other four companies produced veneer and plywood made from oil palm trunks valued at RM32 million.