| Summary: | The abundance availability of oil palm stem during replanting period had caused major environmental issues to the surrounding. The lack of know-how about this material had caused the material to become such a waste without further utilization for its own good. This study aimed to observe the effect of microwave treatment on static bending properties of oil palm trunk (OPT) lumber. In order to reduce variability of sampling only the basal portion was used. The OPT lumber was modified using six microwave treatment combinations with different power intensity of 950, 700, 500, and 300 W at different exposure time of 5, 10, 15, and 20 min. Untreated OPT samples were used for comparison purposes. The bending properties determined were flexural strength (MOR) and flexural modulus (MOE) for microwave modified OPT lumber as well as untreated OPT lumber. The combinations of microwave treatment with 300 W power intensity with 20 min exposure time produced the best performance on static bending properties for outer and middle layer. This combination of microwave treatment also exhibits greater mechanical properties than untreated samples. © 2014 WIT Press.
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