Rushdan Ibrahim

• Ph.D., University of Manchester, England, UK
• Research Officer at Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM)

As global paper demand accelerates, concerns over deforestation from traditional wood pulp production underscore the urgent need for sustainable alternatives. This study explores sugar palm (Arenga pinnata) fibers, an abundant by-product in Malaysia, as a promising renewable source for papermaking. The research aims to optimize sodium hydroxide (Na...

Bamboo fibres, which are widely regarded as a contemporary environmentally sustainable resource, have been utilised in various industries including construction materials and packaging sectors. Malaysia possesses a diverse array of bamboo species, rendering it a significant resource for exploration. Five out of the 69 bamboo species discovered in M...

Concerns about the depletion of wood resources and the environmental impact of increasing demand for paper goods have led to the quest for alternate sources of fiber for pulp and paper manufacture. Non-wood fibers, such as agricultural residues, are seen as a sustainable and renewable source of fiber. However, due to changes in chemical composition...

The present invention relates to a process for producing pulp from lignocellulosic waste, comprising the steps of reducing the size of the lignocellulosic waste to a dimension of 10 - 30 mm in diameter and 3-6 mm in thickness; treating the lignocellulosic waste with an alkaline solution to substantially remove extractive and lignin therefrom; expos...

One way to minimize emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change is to reduce the use of wood as the main material for pulp and paper production. Therefore, non-woody plants such as bamboo can be alternatives as raw materials for pulp and paper. This study aims to determine the effect of the different bamboo species and age on th...

There has been much effort to provide eco-friendly and biodegradable materials for the next generation of composite products owing to global environmental concerns and increased awareness of renewable green resources. This review article uniquely highlights the use of green composites from natural fiber, particularly with regard to the development...

Production of pulp for paper making from non-wood fibrous raw materials is growing increasingly derived by the increasing demand for pulp and paper products and the insufficient wood supply. As a fast-growing and widely distributed graminaceous plant, bamboo has appeared as an important raw material for pulping and papermaking to mitigate the short...

Nanocellulose has emerged as one of the most significant green materials of the modern era over the last few years. Nanocellulose with nanometer widths are nature-based materials with unique and potentially valuable characteristics. These new nanocelluloses open up to natural polymer cellulose the strongly developing range of sustainable materials,...

Malaysia is a strategically situated country in Southeast Asia blessed with fertile agricultural land. With its rich agrobiomass resources as well as the booming agriculture industry, it is widely recognized that Malaysia has what it takes to develop its biomass industry. In parallel with the introduction of the National Green Technology Policy in...

Biomass from oil palm trees offers a lot of promise as a raw resource for making wood-based goods. The product quality was found to be equivalent to that of tropical wood goods. However, based on the oil palm biomass characteristic as contrasted to conventional wood, the fabrication procedure and parameters must be modified correspondingly. Because...

The availability of the raw materials needed to produce fibre is decreasing as demand for fibre increases over time. In an effort, to preserve natural biodiversity and improve waste management, this research aims to substitute available raw materials for wood fibres. Empty fruit bunch (EFB) is regarded as waste in the oil palm industry and is abund...

In the past decades, many different resources have been utilised to prepare nanofibre from the macrofibre of lignocellulosic fibre, including sugar palm fibre. There are different methods of disintegration that would lead to different types and sizes of nanofibres materials. These processing methods include mechanical treatments (high pressurized h...

For hundreds of years, humans have been relying on wood as the primary source for cellulose fibers. Unfortunately, with the exploding global pollution, wood suffers to meet the market demand causing natural forests to decrease at an alarming rate. In an effort to save the earth, finding a more sustainable alternative should be approached. Since the...

Research development on the production of biodegradable materials from renewable sources is increasing as environmental awareness rises over the year. Biopolymers, which are less expensive and abundant in nature, have recently received a lot of attention. However, cellulosic materials can experience bacterial attachment due to its characteristic. M...

Natural fiber‐reinforced polymer composites are well‐recognized materials for construction, packaging, aerospace, and automotive industries due to their outstanding properties, such as high specific strength, low cost, renewability, ease accessibility, and lightweight. Hybridization of fibers has become a very popular technique to increase the prop...

Dry powder products are highly sensitive to oxygen and water vapour and must have a long shelf life. Currently, they are vacuum-packaged in sachets whose walls are made of a composite film that stops oxygen and water vapour from entering the package. Most of these composites are not biodegradable, a situation that the most agricultural company now...

A novel nanomaterial, bacterial cellulose (BC), has become noteworthy recently due to its better physicochemical properties and biodegradability, which are desirable for various applications. Since cost is a significant limitation in the production of cellulose, current efforts are focused on the use of industrial waste as a cost-effective substrat...

The totalnumberof Hibiscus species, tropical and subtropical, exceeds 300 (Anderson, 2006). Jamaica sorrel (Hibiscus sabdariffa), or roselle, is a rare plant bred in many temperate climates for its seeds, stems, leaves, and calyces; the dried calyces are used to make drinks, syrups, jams, and jellies (Eslaminejad & Zakaria, 2011). Roselle is an ann...

Natural fibers, such as corn, cassava, water hyacinth, cogon fiber, sugarcane, ramie, ginger, flax, kenaf, sisal, hemp, jute, oil palm fiber, and sugar palm, have gained considerable interest owing to their advantages, e.g., biodegradability, renewability, plenty availability, and good mechanical properties, compared with synthetic fibers. Natural...

Natural fiber is a fiber that is produced by geologic, animal, and plant processes. It has historically been used since ancient times to manufacture textiles, papers, clothes, and garments. It can be used as a component of composite materials, where the orientation of the fiber impacts the properties. Natural fibers, such as sugar palm, oil palm fi...

This chapter focuses on the top-down techniques (i.e., acid hydrolysis, ultrasonification, HPH, supermasscolloider, steam explosion, TEMPO oxidation, microfluidizer, and a combination of chemomechanical processes) used to prepare nanocellulose from various sources of natural fibers including crops, agricultural residues, forest woods, and forest by...

Biocomposites materials have been widely implemented in various applications and structures including armors, building, automotive, household, fishing, and sport equipment. This chapter reviews the mechanical properties and dynamic mechanical analysis of biocomposites. The mechanical properties of bionanocomposites may decrease after reaching a thr...

In this era of globalization, issues of improvement or development of current technologies will lead to improvements in life. One of the prevailing improvements is in the food processing industry, which consists of various stages: production, trade, packaging, transportation, storage, marketing, and consumption. One of the benefits of using bio‐bas...

This chapter draws the attention of researchers toward the reuse and recycling of bio‐based packaging products. Bioplastics are good for the future and end‐of‐life options, including reuse, organic recycling, energy recovery, and mechanical recycling. By using compostable plastic and biodegradable products, such as bags for food packaging, can stre...

Food packaging materials usually consist of various materials, such as paper and boards, glass, and aluminum, which are commonly available from plastics. This chapter provides insights regarding regulation aspects and global market of packaging for food industry applications in Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa, North America, and South America. Regu...

Soil incorporation and field burning have been the common practices for removing the rice straw. One way to utilize rice straw is as a raw material for pulp, which is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically, mechanically, or chemimechanically separating cellulose fibers from rice straw. Virgin pulps from cellulose fibers of rice s...

This chapter aims to review recent research activities related to various renewable sources for the application in packaging materials. It reviews the progress of research in renewable sources for bio‐based sustainable packaging materials. Environmental factors caused by conventional plastics have led to the development of biobased packages. Renewa...

Paper‐based packaging is seen as one of the alternatives to plastic as it is made from renewable and sustainable material and, most importantly, it is biodegradable. The pulp and paper industry is the downstream industry or the end user of the forest sector. Production of paper uses mostly fibrous raw material that can be further classified into pr...

Fiber morphology of 3 species of bamboo namely Bambusa vulgaris, Gigantochloa levis, and Gigantochloa scortechinii at age of 1, 3, and 5 years, was evaluated. It shows that different species of bamboo have different properties in terms of their fiber morphology that consist of fiber length, fiber diameter, and lumen diameter. Fiber diameter, fiber...

Currently, high-strength fibers such as kevlar, carbon, spectra, glass fiber, carbon nanotube and zylon reinforced composite materials are commonly used in advanced transport structures. However, the world is changing and green material is at the forefront due to the depletion of inorganic materials such as petroleum and other mineral sources. Natu...

Over the following years, the number scientific articles and patents published has risen significantly in nanocellulose. Nanocellulose has grown as a sustainable and promising nanomaterial due to its superb properties, unique structures, low density, excellent mechanical performance, high aspect ratio, biocompatibility, and natural abundance. Nanoc...

The use of polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) polymers in various advanced applications have been certified long time ago due to their promising properties. Processing methods of biodegradable thermoplastic polymer are similar to conventional thermoplastics but required adjustment on processing parameters or incorporations of com...

Natural fibers are used as reinforcing materials in polymer composites due to some advantages such as renewable, low cost, environmentally friendly nature, and “good” strength and stiffness properties. Tensile, flexural, and impact testing are the typical major testing performed on natural fiber composites. In this presentation, sugar palm (Arenga...

Currently, the harmful gas emission, rapid climate change, air and water pollution, and deterioration of earth's land surface are mainly produced by the aggressive utilization of petroleum-based plastic and the unmanaged garbage disposal including dumping and burning of polymeric products and substances. Many experts from throughout the globe revea...

Increased awareness of environmental issues and policies regarding plastic packaging has led to an increase in the importance of using polymers obtained from renewable sources that are generally biodegradable. A renewable resource is a resource that can be used repeatedly and replaced naturally. Biopolymers have attracted a great deal of attention...

The use of polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) polymers in various advanced applications have been certified long time ago due to their promising properties. Processing methods of biodegradable thermoplastic polymer are similar to conventional thermoplastics but required adjustment on processing parameters or incorporations of com...

Nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) is a cellulose at nanoscale dimension that can offer multitude applications in various industrial sectors such as pulp and paper, composite, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and others. In this study, NFC was prepared from bleached kelempayan (Neolamarckia cadamba) pulp. The resulting NFC was added into laboratory handsheets...

Sugar palm (Arenga pinnata) starch and fibre are considered as a waste product of the agro-industry. The purpose of the current study is to determine the thermal, water barrier, and soil degradation properties of biodegradable plasticised sugar palm starch (PSPS) that contains sugar palm nanofibrillated celluloses (SP-NFCs) derived from sugar palm...

BACKGROUND In 2011, there were 4,016 wood-based processing mills in Malaysia including sawmills, plywood and veneer mills, furniture mills, timber preservation, kiln drying facilities, particleboard, MDF, laminated board, prefabricated housing, woodchip, wood cement boards and flooring factories in Malaysia (MTIB, 2018). The average mill recovery r...

A method for producing an antimicrobial biodegradable pulp molded article comprises the steps of forming pulp slurry from kenaf core containing gross fibers; treating the pulp slurry to acquire fragmentized fibers; grafting the kenaf core pulp with an antimicrobial agent; adding a sizing agent of 0.1% to. 2% by dry weight of kenaf core, a cationic...

The options for the disposal of rice straw are limited by the great bulk of material, slow degradation in the soil, harbouring of rice stem diseases, and high mineral content. Soil incorporation and field burning have been the major practices for rice straw disposal. Field burning is fast, economical and removes disease organisms, but is now tightl...

A method of producing pulp from rice straw comprising the steps of pre-treating the rice straw with 0.5% (w/v) to 5% (w/v) of a pulping agent in an aqueous phase to remove first chemical entities from the rice straw; separating the pre-treated rice straw from the aqueous phase containing pulping agent and first chemical entities; exposing the core...

Nanocrystalline cellulose is a renewable nanomaterial that has gained huge attention for its use in various applications from advanced biomedical material to food packaging material due to its exceptional physical and biological properties, such as high crystallinity degree, large specific surface area, high aspect ratio, high thermal resistance, g...

Sugar palm fiber (SPF) is an agro‐waste plant that can be used as potential source of biomass for various biomaterial applications. In this study, sugar palm nanofibrillated cellulose (SPNFC) that was isolated from SPF was used as a nanofiller to reinforce sugar palm starch (SPS) to produce bionanocomposites. To attain SPNFCs, SPF was undergo stron...

To overcome the obvious drawbacks of biopolymers, such as low strength, low stiffness and low water resistance, and to expand their applications in various sectors, natural fibre, for instance micro/nano-kenaf fibre (Hibiscus cannabinus), sugar palm fibre (Arenga pinnata), cassava bagasse (Manihot esculenta), and oil palm fibre (Elaeis guineensis)...

Sugar palm (Arenga pinnata) fibres and starches are considered as agro-industrial residue in the agricultural industry. This paper aims to investigate the effect of different concentrations (0-1.0 wt%) of sugar palm nanofibrillated cellulose (SPNFCs) reinforced sugar palm starch (SPS) on morphological, mechanical and physical properties of the bion...

This paper aims to study the degradation rate of sugar palm nanofibrillated cellulose (SPNFCs) and sugar palm starch (SPS). SPNFCs were isolated from sugar palm fiber, while SPS is extracted from sugar palm trunk. The SPNFCs were reinforced with SPS biopolymer as biodegradable reinforcement materials of different diameter/length based on the number...

A method of producing paper comprising the steps of shredding oil palm empty fruit bunches to a desired fiber length, pulping the shredded fibers using sodium hydroxide, sodium sulfide and anthraquinone at a temperature ranges from 150 °C to 180 °C, disintegrating the pulp in water to form an aqueous slurry and producing paper using the aqueous slu...

Electrical insulating paper and pressboard have been widely used in transformers for several years. They are mostly made from softwood pulp. Currently, several tons of paper insulation and pressboard are used in large and medium transformers. With the rapid development of power industry in the world, the demand for cellulosic continues to grow, lea...

Sugar palm (Arenga pinnata) fibre is considered as a waste product of the agricultural industry. This paper is investigating the isolation of nanofibrillated cellulose from sugar palm fibres produced by a chemo-mechanical approach, thus opening a new way to utilize waste products more efficiently. Chemical pre-treatments, namely delignification and...

A method of producing paper comprising the steps of pulping kenaf fibres using sodium hydroxide, sodium sulfide and anthraquinone, bleaching the pulp, beating the kenaf pulp in water to form an aqueous slurry and mixing paper additive to the bleached pulp subjected for paper-making.

Nitrocellulose based powders are extensively in military application used as propellant in bullets, shells, and various missiles for tube munitions. In this study, Rhizophora, Palm Oil Bunches-Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB) and kenaf fibres were used as raw materials to produce nitrocellulose suitable for replace gunpowder. All raw materials are convert...

Gun powder is predicted to be more expensive in relation to the world oil shortage crisis in the future. However, cellulose (generic chemical formula (C6H10O5) is the carbohydrate that makes up the main structure of plants. It is more economical especially for countries with a lot of natural resources and rain forests like Malaysia. The finding of...

Heat transfer coefficients were obtained for a range of non-wood kenaf bast pulp fiber suspensions flowing through a circular pipe heat exchanger test loop. The data were produced over a selected temperature and range of flow rates from the flow loop. It was found that the magnitude of the heat transfer coefficient of a fiber suspension is dependen...

The name of the second author is Bao D. Ho. His name is now corrected above and in the published version of the article.

The effect of Semantan bamboo virgin pulp on the recycled paper properties enhancement, for corrugated paper manufacturing, has been studied. The pulping of Semantan bamboo revealed that pulping condition with 15% alkali charge and 150 °C cooking temperature with 8000 beating revolutions leads to good paper properties. The paper tensile index was 8...

Nitrocellulose based powders are extensively in military application used as propellant in bullets, shells, and various missiles for tube munitions. In this study, Rhizophora, Palm Oil Bunches- Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB) and kenaf fibres were used as raw materials to produce nitrocellulose suitable for replace gunpowder. All raw materials are conver...

Carbon fibres are available in several different grades, which are dependent on the raw materials and temperatures used in carbonisation. Carbon fibre can be made from four types of raw materials which are polyacrylonitrile (PAN), pitch, lignin, and rayon. Both PAN and pitch are petroleum based, lignin is extracted from pulping black liquor while r...

In Malaysia, there are about 29,000 hectares of banana planted, producing about 530,000 metric tonnes of fresh banana and estimated total value about RM 294.5 million per year. One hectare of banana plantation will produce 220 tonnes’ waste or one tonne of banana will produce four tonnes of banana trunk. The production of 530,000 metric tonnes of b...

In papermaking, blending or mixture of fibres is one of the ways to enhance mechanical properties of paper. The objective of this study was to evaluate the properties of paper manufactured from mixture of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) and kenaf fibres. The papers were prepared according to 10, 30, 50 and 70 percentages of kenaf whole stem blende...

The study of pulp suspension flow is one of the most significant scientific interests since the considerable changes in the flow behavior of water were noticed after adding a small amount of fiber to water. The rheological studies on Kenaf pulp (a fiber crop) suspensions revealed that concentration has a great influence on variations of viscosity a...

Characterization of nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) from oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) using ultrasound has been investigated. Cellulose from OPEFB pulp was gained by soda-anthraquinone (AQ) pulping and bleaching processes. The ultrasound with 20 kHz frequencies and 700 W output power was used in order to produce the NFC. Results were assess...

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of beating on rice straw pulp and paper properties. The rice straw pulps were produced from pulping process using chemi-mechanical pulping (CMP) method and then were beaten. Pulp produced with and without beating was evaluated for apparent density and freeness. The beaten pulp showed significantl...

The present research highlighted the use of different plant-based phytochemical extracts on the dissolution of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) bundles in aqueous solution. Three new plant extracts (i.e., Cinnamon, Barley grass and Androganis Pinnaculata) were introduced in this research on top of the previously studied green tea and tannic acid as dispersa...

According to the National Timber Industry Policy (NATIP) 2009-2020, during the Third Industrial Master Plan (IMP3) period (2006-2020), exports of the timber industry is targeted to reach RM53 billion by 2020 at an annual growth rate of 6.4 percent. The policy identified several ways forward for Malaysian timber industry to sustain and enhance compe...

Microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) is a product derived from cellulose and used in pharmaceutical and food industries for various purposes; emulsion stabilizers, bulking agents, thickeners and stabilizers. This study look into the production of MCC from a forest pioneer species available in Malaysia (Acacia mangium) for various applications. Acacia m...

The performance of coir fiber in the production of linerboard made from soda-anthraquinone (soda-AQ) pulp was evaluated. Based on chemical analysis, the composition of coir fiber is suitable for the pulping process. Out of nine pulping conditions characterized, a pulping condition of 18% active alkali for 90 min cooking time was chosen. These condi...

This study explores the benefits of using Amphoteric PAM (aPAM) and Cationic PAM (cPAM) as a dry strength agent in coir based paper. The aPAM and cPAM were incorporated to coir pulp slurry in different dosages (0.5% - 2.0%) during stock preparation. Industrial grade of potassium aluminum sulfate (alum) was used for all sets handsheet. For each trea...

This study was to investigate the suitability of coir fibers as an alternative material in making pulp and paper. Maceration process was used to characterize the fiber. Soda-AQ pulping with various combinations of active alkali (18-22%) and cooking time (90-150 minutes) at fixed temperature was done. Physical properties evaluated were density, brig...

A b s t r a c t The effect of bamboo portions and beating revolution on paper made from Gigantochloa scortechinii was determined. The bamboo was pulped using soda-anthraquinone (AQ) pulping comparing two pulping conditions (alkali 15 & 20%, temperature 160 & 170°C) for different bamboo portions consisted of top, middle and bottom. Hand sheets from...

Natural fiber materials continue to grow in importance globally in a wide variety of industrial sectors because of their sustainability and technical properties. Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus, L.) is one of the most economical important crops for soft fiber production, particularly in the Asian-Pacific region. It grows quickly rising to a height of 3...

Malaysian is a net importer of pulp and paper. In 2008, Malaysian was importing more than a RM 5 billion of pulp, paper and recycled paper. Most of these products are made of wood from natural or plantation forests. Malaysia generates about 20 million tones industrial residues of oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB). The EFB can be converted into pul...

The utilisation of coir fibre can create economic and environmental advantages. This study was carried out to investigate the influence of bleaching and pulping on the properties of coir fibre pulp and paper. The coir fibre pulp was chemically analysed; pulped by chemical-mechanical pulping (CMP) process and bleached by elementary chlorine free (EC...

Treatment of the abundant oil palm empty fruit bunches with alkaline peroxide chemicals and subsequent fibrillation at varying mechanical energies resulted in favourable morphological changes of the generated fibers. The produced fibrous mass composed of intensely fibrillated elements ranging from micro to nanodiameter fibrils. nanofibrils and webs...

The increasing popularity of the oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) as a source of non-wood fibre has prompted a variety of research on processing and utilisation of the material. In an attempt to define the characters, reusability and end-of-life, oil palm EFB was processed by the alkaline peroxide variable treatment (APVT) systems. Low synergy be...

nanofibrillation of the oil palm empty fruit bunches, EFB, by synergizing the alkaline peroxide chemicals and a subsequent refining process was found to liberate useful fibrous mass. Of these, the nanofiber web materials were found to render smoothing effect by covering the trough between bound fibers and thus, hiding the true morphology of fibers...

Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied to optimise processing variables in achieving high polymer loading in compressed sesenduk (Endospermum diadenum) wood. Central composite design (CCD) using RSM with three process variables, namely, phenol formaldehyde concentration (PC), pre-curing time (PCT) and compression ratio (CR) was used in this...

Studies based on locally available kenaf for paper, textile, carboxyl methyl cellulose, carbon fibre and nanocellulose production are still limited. The objectives of this invention are: To introduce a new method for producing rayon grade dissolving pulp from Malaysian whole kenaf stalk. The utilisation of kenaf for dissolving pulp and subsequently...

The effect of soda-AQ pulping conditions and beating revolution on the mechanical properties of paper made from Semantan bamboo (Gigantochloa scortechinii) was studied. The bamboo chips were pulped using MK digester pulping unit with 10 to 20% alkali charge and 150 to 170 o C cooking temperature. The screened yield varies from 38.7 to 48.4%, and ea...

The effect of soda-AQ pulping conditions and beating revolution on the mechanical properties of paper made from Semantan bamboo (Gigantochloa scortechinii) was studied. The bamboo chips were pulped using MK digester pulping unit with 10 to 20% alkali charge and 150 to 170°C cooking temperature. The screened yield varies from 38.7 to 48.4%, and each...

Mahang Gajah (Macaranga gigantea) is the world’s largest genus of pioneers which has a short life span of 15-30 years before being replaced by successive species and can reach up to 30 m in height. It grows rapidly in logged-over forest and can be found in Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and Sulawesi. In Malaysia, reports indicated t...