A new oxidative degradation method was developed for separating hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin from an oil palm shell waste, and for converting them into valuable chemicals. The method is basically a two-step process in which the shell pretreated in hot water at 180 °C was oxidized with 30%-H 2 O 2 at 60 °C (first-stage oxidation) under ambient pressure with or without an Fe catalyst. To increase the product yield and selectivity, a second-stage oxidation of the watersoluble components obtained from the first-stage oxidation was also performed in the presence of the Fenton reagent at 25 °C. Through the hot water treatment, hemicellulose in the palm oil shell was successfully recovered as saccharides, leaving lignin and cellulose. Through the firststage oxidation without the Fe catalyst lignin was converted to water-soluble compounds containing small molecular weight fatty acids such as HCOOH and CH 3 COOH, and almost pure cellulose was recovered in 22% of yield on carbon basis. After the second-stage oxidation, the yield of small molecular weight fatty acids reached 30 wt % on the oil palm shell basis. The proposed method was expected to be a new route for converting low grade resources into valuable chemicals.

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