The development of vascular bundles from oil palm trunk waste was carried out to produce value-added products in the form of commercial yarn. The prior patent underlying this research is patent number IDS000006288 concerning the method of separating vascular bundles from oil palm trunks using a pressure cooker. There is also the Kasart product, a commercial product made of artistic oil palm wood that is already available on the market. The purpose of this research is to process vascular bundles separated from their parenchyma into yarn using mechanical and chemical methods, then compare their properties and characteristics.

The mechanical method involved grinding the vascular bundles between two rotating plates (rotary plates) until the constituent fibers separated one by one. The resulting fibers were then twisted into 2–3 strands to produce continuous yarn. Adhesive could be added during twisting to strengthen the yarn. The adhesive used was thermoplastic styrofoam dissolved in an organic solvent. The characterization of both yarn types (without and with adhesive) included tensile strength tests and prototype performance observation using a non-machine loom (ATBM).

The chemical method selected was the standard pulping process using a digester with 3% (b/v) NaOH solution at a 4:1 (w/w) ratio (3% NaOH : vascular bundle). The resulting fibers were staple fibers that had not undergone bleaching. These staple fibers were then spun into continuous yarn. For comparison, the staple fibers were bleached with commercial sodium hypochlorite. The characterization of both yarn types (without and with bleaching) included tensile strength tests and prototype performance observation using a non-machine loom (ATBM).

To support the discussion in publication, further tests were conducted to measure yield, moisture content, cellulose content, hemicellulose content, and lignin content of each type of yarn produced (four types: mechanical without adhesive, mechanical with adhesive, chemical without bleaching, and chemical with bleaching).