New uses for oil palm biomass increase investment confidence at POIC
26/03/2025 (The Borneo Post), Kota Kinabalu - News of new ways to use empty fruit bunches (EFB) from oil palm has further validated pioneering investment in Sabah using a variety of biomass generated in Sabah’s big oil palm industry.
Research reports coming out of an Ujungpandang Polytechnic in South Sulawesi, Indonesia claimed encouraging results in the use of EFB fibres to strengthen composite building materials for ceilings and walls.
“The results may still be preliminary, but EFB has always been known to possess enormous potentials in applications such as the more traditional uses in making compost and generate electricity,” said Datuk Fredian Gan, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the state-owned POIC Sabah Sdn Bhd which is the developer of the POIC Lahad Datu industrial park and owner of POIC Lahad Datu Port.
Last February, local company Legenda Biomass Sdn Bhd bought 19.5 acres of land at POIC Lahad Datu and announced a RM400 million plan to go into a series of biomass-based industries. This investment augur well with the objectives of the state’s Sabah Biomass Policy which was approved by the state cabinet in February 2024.
It was the first sizable investment into biomass since the federal government-backed National Biomass Strategy in 2011 recognised the biomass potentials in Sabah, especially in making biofuel from biomass.
Sabah is Malaysia’s second largest oil palm-planting state with over 1.55 million hectares. EFB is one of the five biomass waste products from the oil palm industry. They also include fronds/trunks (from the plantation), EFB, mesocarp fibres and palm oil mill effluent (POME, from the processing mill) and palm kernel shells (from kernel crushing plant, where palm kernel oil originates).
Tens of millions of tons of the biomass are produced yearly in Sabah but utilisation has been fragmented and not optimised due largely to supply chain constraints. Industrial average estimates each hectare of oil palm trees capable of producing 23.3 metric tons of EFB a year.
“We were told that Legenda’s focus is to produce refined carbon products which are in wide demand. We are sure the Sulawesi findings about EFB uses will inspire greater confidence in the sector’s growth,” Gan added.
Malaysia, the world’s second largest oil palm grower, has just under six million hectares of the crop. Indonesia, the leader, has 16.8 million hectares.
The Ujungpandang Politechnic report is titled “Development of Hybrid Composite of Empty Palm Fruit Bunches and Glass Which is Strengthened with Polyester For Application In House Ceiling.”
Among other outcomes, the report said that tests have scientifically proven that the addition of EFB to polymer can increase the strength of building materials that could potentially substitute conventional plywood, gypsum, asbestos and PVC.