Abstract
Hydrothermal pretreatment of biomass can improve fuel characteristics based on the decomposition properties of subcritical water. Thus, this study used a hydrothermal treatment to improve the fuel characteristics of empty fruit bunches (EFBs), which are generated as waste after palm oil extraction. The experimental reaction temperature was increased from 180 °C to 250 °C at an interval of 10 °C and the mass ratios between the dry sample and water content were set to 1:8 and 1:16 so that the sample was sufficiently immersed. Additionally, the material properties of EFB under hydrothermal treatment conditions were investigated using mass and energy yields, elemental analysis, proximate analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, derivative thermogravimetry, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis of the reaction products. As the reaction temperature increased, the fixed carbon content and heating value increased because volatile matter, including oxygen, was removed first, which is similar characteristics to coal. All analyses revealed that the water content exhibited little influence on EFB material properties since the samples were sufficiently immersed in water. Thus, it is not necessary to add more water that required for sample immersion for the hydrothermal treatment of EFB.
Highlights
Fossil fuel energy sources have represented a large proportion of global power production over recent decades but have contributed to climate change through increased greenhouse gas emissions
As of 2015, the area of global palm cultivation amounted to 17.32 million ha, which leads to a large number of empty fruit bunches (EFBs) discharged as waste biomass after palm oil production, predominantly in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand [4]
EFB generated after palm oil production was used after drying and the distilled water was used in the hydrothermal treatment
Summary
Fossil fuel energy sources have represented a large proportion of global power production over recent decades but have contributed to climate change through increased greenhouse gas emissions. To address this problem, coal can be replaced with renewable energy sources such as solar heat, wind power, and hydropower, as well as fuels obtained from waste and biomass or a mixture of the two [1,2,3]. This study analyzes the influence of hydrothermal treatment on the solid fuel characteristics of EFB under various reaction temperatures and water content conditions. Changes in the material properties of EFB are investigated through proximate analysis, elemental analysis, heating value analysis, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), derivative thermogravimetry (DTG), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) analysis of the reaction products
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