On October 3-4, 2024, CSWM UI participated in the Indonesia Palm Research Week (PERISAI 2024) held at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center. This prestigious event, themed “Green Gold: Transforming the Palm Oil Industry through Cutting-Edge Technologies,” was attended by researchers, academics, industry players, and government officials to discuss various innovations in the palm oil industry, including ongoing research on the utilization of palm oil waste, such as empty fruit bunches (EFB), into high-value materials.

PERISAI 2024 was opened by Eddy Abdurrachman, President Director of BPDPKS, who stated that the program aims to strengthen and develop the palm oil industry from upstream to downstream sectors and foster research interest in palm oil from an early stage. In addition, Didiek Hadjar Goenadi, Chairman of the Indonesian Investors Association, also attended and viewed BPDPKS as having facilitated palm oil research programs that can assist the palm oil industry in generating technologies and policies to achieve a strong palm oil industry in the global market. The event was also attended by Deputy II for Food and Agribusiness at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, Dida Gardera, and the Director General of Agro Industry at the Ministry of Industry, Putu Juli Ardika.

Representing CSWM UI, Prof. Dr. Ir. Mochamad Chalid, S.Si., M.Sc.Eng, presented his team’s research titled “Wood Plastic Composite (WPC) Application Using EFB as Eco-Friendly Construction Material for Housing.” The research, led by Adam Febriyanto Nugraha, S.T., Ph.D, involved several institutions such as the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), the Palm Oil Research Center (PPKS), and PT Polymindo Permata (Viro) as one of the WPC product manufacturing companies in Indonesia.

This research explores the utilization of EFB for WPC applications, from the study of raw material properties to common issues such as compatibility, requiring modification to produce high-quality WPC. Several treatments were applied to modify recycled PE using atmospheric plasma techniques, while EFB fiber modification was done using alkali treatment, fermentation, and atmospheric plasma techniques. The research is designed over two years, with the first year conducted at the laboratory scale and the second year as the scale-up phase.