The recognition of nanocellulose has been prominent in recent years as prospect materials, yet the ineffectiveness of nanocellulose to disperse in an organic solvent has restricted its utilization, especially as a reinforcement in polymer nanocomposite. In this study, cellulose has been isolated and defibrillated as cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) from oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) fibers. Subsequently, to enhance its compatibility with UV-curable polyurethane (PU)-based resin, the surface hydrophilicity of CNF has been tailored with polyethylene glycol (PEG), as well as reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The dispersibility of reinforced modified CNF in UV-curable PU was examined through the transmittance interruption of resin, chemical, and mechanical properties of the composite printed using the stereolithographic technique. Evidently, the enhanced compatibility of modified CNF and UV-curable PU was shown to improve the tensile strength and hardness of the composites by 37% and 129%, respectively.

The breakdown of lignocellulosic biomass into fine chemicals is an essential subsequence process of bioconversion technology. However, the manner of decomposition can contribute significantly to inefficiency of the overall conversion. Certain low molecular weight byproducts of the lignin and hemicellulose within lignocellulosic hydrolysate are toxic, making it necessary to carry out a complicated detoxification process. In this study, detoxification of hydrolysate was performed by the adsorption and catalytic oxidation, as well as the integration of both techniques on the targeted compounds of acid-soluble lignin (ASL) and synthetic furfural. In spite of the high selectivity of its adsorption and catalytic oxidation, by relying on just these techniques, the hydrolysate was unable to completely remove ASL and furfural. However, by depositing Fe(0) nanoparticles on the surface active sites of the adsorbent, the integration of the adsorption-oxidation technique provided sufficient performance in the removal of ASL and furfural.

Absorption is one of the effective, simple and economical methods to remove oil from oily wastewater. The most widely used approach is to utilize lignocellulosic biomass as oil absorbent. However, the hygroscopic of cellulose have limited the oil-water separation capability of lignocellulosic fibers. In this study, the surface functionality of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) fibers was slightly altered by grafting reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The modified EFB fibers show a distinct morphological and chemical characteristics changes as the surface of fibers has been coated with rGO. This was supported by FTIR analysis with the diminishing peak of hydroxyl group region of EFB fibers. While the surface modification on EFB fibers shows a diminution of a hydrophilic characteristic of 131.6% water absorption in comparison with 268.9% of untreated EFB fibers. Moreover, modified fibers demonstrated an oil-water separation increment as well, as it shows 89% of oil uptake and improved similar to 17 times of oil selectivity in oil-water emulsion than untreated EFB fibers.