Development of decanter cake into commercial by product in Sarawak

The palm oil production in Malaysia have increase dramatically due to high demand from foreign countries. In Malaysia , there are abundant of biomass wastes produced especially from palm oil industry in which these wastes can be manufactured into new products. During the processing of palm oil mill, significant amount of wastes are produced such as founds, trunk, empty fruit bunch , shells and fiber. These wastes a re categorized as biomass wastes. Therefore, this study is conducted to determine the feasibility of utilizing biomass wastes from palm oil mill especially decanter cake as a commercial products particularly as organic and semi organic fertiliser for oil palm plantation. The study focuses on the state of Sarawak in which a set of questionnaires are developed in order to collect data and information on production of decanter cake produce. In addition, an optimization programming is developed by using matrix method to compare the chemical composition of commercial fertilizer to the decanter cake with organic and inorganic fertiliser especially on percentage of nitrogen, phosphorus a nd potassium (NPK). Besides that, the produced fertiliser is briquetted a nd a n experiment testing of the product has been conducted to test the ability of fertilizer to absorb water, moisture content of the fertilizer, density and amount of fines produce. It is found that Decanter cake with organic materials a re insufficient to supply nutrient as in commercial fertiliser. As such inorganic materials are added to enhance the nutrient composition in which compatible to commercial fertiliser. In term of briquetting properties it found that produced briquette meet the requirement. Therefore, decanter cake feasible to be manufactured as commercial product