Studies on the morphological and chemical properties of Sago Bark and the feasibility of laccase binding of sago bark fibres for the production of fibreboard

A study to investigate the possibility of producing sago bark-based fibreboard through laccase binding was carried out utilising sago bark waste samples sourced from a sago processing factory. As the source material would normally consist of barks from sago palms of different stages of maturity, a complementary investigation on the variations in morphological and chemical properties of the barks was conducted on sago palms at five growth stages. Anatomical and morphological examination of sago bark fibres / (SBF) using electron microscope revealed that much of the fibre dimensions (fibre length, fibre width, fibre lumen width and fibre wall thickness) decrease with the plant age and height. However, the variations found were not significant enough to justify separate product development studies using samples from the different growth stages. The same was concluded for results on the chemical composition analysis. SBF were found to possess moderately short fibre length with thick cell wall and small lumen width. These physical characteristics depict a relatively strong fibre property with high tear strength. On this basis, it was envisaged that the best possible industrial use of SBF is for fibre-related composite products (such as fibreboards). Analysis of the chemical composition revealed that sago bark possessed high percentage (± 70%) of holocellulose content. The high holocellulose content would reflect a higher yield of fibres during defibration of sago bark for fibreboard production