Oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) contain about 70%-80% holocellulose, which comprises about 40%-45% and 30%-35% of cellulose and hemicellulose, respectively, as well as 18%-22% lignin (Basiron and Husin, 1996). These lignocellulosics can be utilised for the production of fibrereinforced biocomposites (Mariko et al., 2016) and fine chemicals such as glucose and xylose (Siew et al., 2013). Due to their high content of cellulose and hemicellulose, EFB can be exploited for the extraction of high value-added lignocellulosic fine chemicals. One of the strategies is to convert the cellulose and hemicellulose into fermentable sugars such as glucose and xylose (Astimar et al., 2000a, b).