Technology Overview

Areca is a tropical Asian palm found widely in humid tropical forests across Southeast Asia. The areca fibres possess superior properties such as being light weight, strong, and high strength-to-weight ratio. Furthermore, acera fibre is biodegradable, non-toxic and eco-friendly and have a low maintenance cost.

Because of its nature, acera is classified as one of the non-timber forest products and commonly used for manufacturing eco-friendly tableware. Furniture manufacturers have also used acera as the raw material replacing wood to manufacture furniture products.

The replacement of wood helps reduce logging activities, increase environmental awareness, and enhance responsible consumption, reducing the current Sustainability challenge of deforestation and achieving sustainable development goals.

This technology offers areca-based material use for manufacturing ready-to-assemble furniture providing functional, customisable and minimalist design suitable for the Millennials consumers. Furthermore, the material is patented with low formaldehyde emission, which will help lower the barrier on product export to many countries with strict formaldehyde regulation. On a global market scale, the demand for eco-friendly furniture is projected to reach US$50.1 Billion by 2027. It is growing at a CAGR of 5.6% over the period 2020-2027.

The technology owner is looking for a potential partnership to co-create and develop new applications or products using their acera based material.

Technology Features, Specifications and Advantages

The features of this technology are :

• Non-timber forest product
• Low formaldehyde emission based on laboratory testing by LIPI using Indonesian Standard and Japan International standard method (SNI 03-2105-2006 and JIS A 5908-2003).
• An alternative material for replacing wood as the raw material

Potential Applications

The technology applies to any industries requiring the manufactured end product using wood. Some industries include (but are not limited to) :

• Furniture Manufacturing
• Wooden Pallets Manufacturing

Customer Benefit

Business Opportunities :

• Partnership with any companies interested to co-create and develop other products or applications using our technology
• The social benefit generated from the partnership will develop job creation and a new skillset for our community partners such as the waste collector, non-timber farmers and artisan
• Produce less waste and reduce GHGs emissions for areca instead of being burned by farmers polluting the air.