Palm oil and rubber wastes to stop landslides

Landslides and erosion bring much grief and suffering to people in many parts of the world. To alleviate this problem, researchers have developed a cheap and practical solution which uses palm oil and rubber wastes to control the top soil and slope stability.

BIO-GEOMAT for Erosion Control and Slope Protection

Malaysia has approximately 4 million hectares of oil palm plantation and has emerged as the world's leading producers and exporter of oil palm. This oil palm fibre by-product such as empty fruit bunch, oil palm trunk and oil palm frond are produced in quantities of the order of million of tones per annum. The total of waste is more than 30 million tones per annum which generate more than 8 million tones of empty fruit bunch.

This innovation is to be used for engineering purpose such as erosion control and slope protection. Currently material to control slope stability and erosion is made of synthetics and they are very expensive.

The Bio-Geomat was put on trial and was designed to be able to improve the top soil from eroding and was further stabilised by planting small plants such as grass, long grass and other creepers. This is to allow environmentally friendly surroundings and also provide the primary factor to strengthen the bonding between the Bio-Geomat and the soil.

The implementation of the layer of fiber in between the plant and soil can improve the soil cover structure thus erosion due to wind and water could be minimized. Out of all the biotechnical methods, biogeotechnical soil cover with this fiber method shows very good results in controlling the erosion. This is proven by the lab test done in the lab.

The advantages of the Bio-Geomat is that it is cheap and it is a by product material i.e. Waste material of fruit bunch from palm can be processed for making mat and formulated together with/without soil rubberized material from waste tyres i.e. Bio-Geomat and Bio-RGeomat respectively, as soil cover for erosion and slope protection material.

The Bio-Geomat acts as 5 IN 1 Product:
 Protective layer
 Reinforcement
 Drainage
 Separator
 Bonding

Researchers:
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Fauziah Ahmad
Prof. Dr. Sabarudin Mohd (KUKTEM)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Abdul Khalil Shawkataly
Ahmad Halmi Ghazali
Dziauddin Zainol Abiding

For pictures and more information, please contact:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Fauziah Ahmad
Universiti Sains Malaysia
(Contact details available to registered journalists)

Published: 03 Aug 2006

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Universiti Sains Malaysia 11800 Minden Penang

++604-6533888 (Main Campus), ++609-7651704/00/11(Health Campus), ++604-5937788 (Engineering Campus)
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http://www.researchsea.com/html/experts.php/eid/205/research/fauziah_ahm... Associate Professor Dr Fauziah Ahmad
http://www.usm.my Universiti Sains Malaysia