Costly separation techniques are required to extract chemicals from renewable agricultural wastes because of the many complex components present. For example, pyrolysis oil from oil palm shells contains phenols and phenolic compounds that are a feedstock for producing surfactants, and more than 40 other components. In this research, we used pyrolysis oil from oil palm shells as feedstock for alkylation and sulphonation. This approach removed the step on extraction of phenols. Analyses of the product showed that it contained the same surfactant and had similar properties to those using extracted phenols as feedstock. © 2010 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.