16/04/2012 (The Star) - In his travels across the country, William Wong often sees felled oil palm trees.

Wong explained that it is common practice to chop down and replace these trees every 25 years when they stop producing as much fruit. Trees that have grown too tall also make harvesting difficult, leaving estate owners with little choice but to fell them. There is little to be done with the felled trees except to mulch them up and spread that on the ground as fertiliser, he said. “Since Malaysia has banned open burning, there are not many ways to dispose of these trees. But I think it is such a waste and I see it everywhere across the country.”

The observation prompted Wong to seek for an alternative method to utilise the waste material. To overcome the problem, he capitalised on the idea of recycling oil palm trunks by processing and turning them into usable timber. Currently the managing director of Palm Wood Technology Sdn Bhd, a palm wood supplier, Wong processes these waste materials to be turned into furniture.

The company sources for oil palm trunks within Johor, from its base in Kulai. Being near the estates helps Wong cut down on expenses like transportation costs.

Creating wood
A series of careful and calculated steps make up the production process. “Like most timber, palm wood needs to be treated first for insects. Then, we dry it and do the selection process.”

The drying process plays a crucial role in palm wood production. “Palm wood has a moisture content that is four to five times higher than other timber like rubberwood, which takes about seven days to dry. Palm wood, on the other hand, takes about 30 to 40 days to dry before you can make any use of it.”

The anatomical make-up of palm wood makes it a much-desired element in furniture
production and interior decoration.

More important is the selection process. “Unlike other wood such as rubberwood or cengal, palm wood density can vary significantly and it ranges from 150 to 700kg per cubic metre (kg/cu.m). The challenging part is getting a consistent quality as well as the required quality from these oil palm trunks.”

According to Wong, timber with a density of 350kg/cu.m and above is generally applicable in the production of high-quality furniture.

“The problem is, a lot of furniture manufacturers immediately balk when they look at palm wood because of the perception that it is too soft for furniture production. But this is not true. Through careful processing techniques and selection, we can actually produce palm wood with a density of 400 to 600kg/cu.m.

“Of course, if you use a higher-density timber like rubberhood (which has a density of 500kg/cu.m), your furniture can handle a heavier load. But I don’t think there’s a point in that. Take a coffee table, for example, you’re obviously not going to dump 200kg on it so you do not really require high levels of density for furniture.”

Meanwhile, the anatomical make-up of palm wood also makes it a viable core material for lightweight boards. To date, Palm Wood Technology has developed two types of lightboards, which generally have a density level of below 250kg/cu.m.

“The Palm Tech Lightboard is lightweight and stable and can be easily processed, making it the perfect element for the production of furniture and interior decoration,” Wong said.

A bedroom set made of palm wood.

Meanwhile, the Palm Tec Sandwich has a three-layer cross-laminated timber structure with a core of transverse and longitudinal strips, resulting in a sturdier structure. Its ability to withstand heavy mechanical stresses also means it is more resilient to temperature changes, which usually cause timber to expand or shrink.

The concept of lightness also allows for higher mobility and more freedom for design, which in turn, saves cost on energy, fuel and handling. The Palm Tec Lightboard is the first lightweight board to be manufactured using palm wood on an industrial scale in Malaysia. The composite board is made from either MDF (medium-density fibreboard) or plywood top and bottom layers, combined with solid palm wood as core material.

“The lightboards are especially vital in aerospace and boat industries that demand light materials. It is also environmentally friendly because we only source for trees that have been chopped down for replanting,” said Wong.

New player
Palm wood is a rising star in the European market, especially in Germany, Russia and Britain, where Wong’s company exports to. It also supplies palm wood to Australia, China, India, Kazakhstan and South Africa.

In Malaysia, however, palm wood furniture is still relatively new. It was only commercialised about six years ago and the price of such furniture is still higher than those made from conventional timber because of the complicated production process.

“Raw palm wood can cost up to 10% more than timber like rubberwood while palm wood furniture can cost 10 to 30% more,” said Wong, though he reckoned that the environmental and durability aspects of palm wood outweigh its slightly higher cost.

For one, palm wood is resistant to water and termite infestations, which bodes especially well for our hot and humid climate. Wood typically deteriorates more rapidly and is more susceptible to termite attacks under these conditions.

William Wong, managing director of Palm Wood Technology,
says palm wood has a distinct grain which is easily identifiable.

On the aesthetic front, palm wood is identifiable by its “tiger grain” pattern, whereby trails of dots resemble tigers stripes.

It is also almost free of the cancer-causing formaldehyde. “You know that strong smell you get after you paint a room? That’s formaldehyde emission,” Wong said. “Compared to other timber, palm wood only emits about 0.7% of formaldehyde, so it is definitely healthier.”

In line with its efforts to go green, Palm Wood Technology has been recognised as eco-friendly by the Malaysian Timber Industry Board and the Malaysian Palm Oil Board.

The company has also been subjected to analyses of its greenhouse gas emission savings by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU) of Germany and yielded good results. The categories that were examined included raw material consumption, energy and waste, wastewater, emissions, land use, toxicity and hazard potential.

Not surprisingly, things have been looking up for the supplier. “We did encounter some problems at first, especially with manufacturers who have been reluctant to use palm wood but more and more people are open to it now.”