Composition, characteristics and socioeconomic benefits of palm kernel shell exploitation-an overview

Intensive research has increased the creation of new biomaterials with specific engineered properties. It is on record that a large amount of these biomaterials waste are generated by the processing of palm oil that invariably causes an environmental problem. This review study sheds light on various applications that palm kernel shell (PKS) has been used for in the recent years and applications that could also be considered in the near future. It has been reported that tropical belt of Africa, Asia and Brazil are the highest producers and exporters of palm oil across the globe and by implication the most producers of the PKS. The PKS as a biomaterial waste product got after the processing of palm oil has been extensively utilized in the various form of applications for both technical and environmental benefits varying from additive, energy production, reinforcement, aggregation, water purification and as well as a composite matrix. It was observed that great use of this waste product is prominent in the structural components, automotive parts as well as water detoxifier. The PKS-powder has been characterized in this review through the use of Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. The milling was done with the aid of digital Vibratory disc milling machine for 0, 10, 15 and 20 min. Zero min was taken to be when it was sieved with a 300 µm ASTM standard sieve. It was established in the study that the duration of the milling affects volume, surface area, particle size, pore size distributions, micro structure and some other mechanical properties as well as the morphology of the powder. The particles size got reduced from 300 µm to average diameter of 200 nm. The variations in elemental compositions of palm kernel shell powder from as they were affected by milling. The micrographs revealed that there was a tremendous reduction in grain size from 300 µm to about 200 nm.