A review: Characteristics of oil palm trunk (OPT) and quality improvement of palm trunk plywood by resin impregnation,”

Abstract

Due to the shortage of solid wood as a raw material of plywood and the abundance of oil palm trunk (OPT) waste in Malaysia, OPT has become one of the potential replacements for timber. However, OPT plywood has low performance compared with commercial plywood, due to the poor properties of OPT. There are many recent studies related to quality improvement using thermosetting impregnation, especially with formaldehyde-based resins such as urea formaldehyde (UF) and phenol formaldehyde (PF). Nevertheless, there are very limited studies related to palm trunk plywood using thermoplastic impregnation and formaldehyde-free adhesive. Formaldehyde effects can be avoided by replacing it with a thermoplastic adhesive, such as acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), to enhance and improve the quality of the plywood manufactured from OPT. In Malaysia, palm trunk plywood is used currently for non-structural materials such as formworks, cabinets, and packaging material. Hence, the enhanced quality of palm trunk plywood with a formaldehyde-free thermoplastic adhesive could produce a higher quality palm trunk plywood.