Abstract
Background: Vegetable oils have received a great attention to reduce depending on fossil fuels because of its biodegradable, low toxicity and being derived from renewable resources. Palm oil is the most important vegetable oil and it is transformed commercially into numbers of product. Nevertheless, great amount of energy have been wasted in oil production when residues such as palm rachis and palm cake are not used to obtain value-added products. Objectives: In this work, sensibility analysis was performed to palm-based biorefinery in order to evaluate the effect of process variations (stream leaving hydrogen separation stage and considering sludge as products instead of wastes) and exergy efficiency of gasifier on global exergy efficiency. Methods/Analysis: Physical and chemical exergies of process stream were quantified using a robust commercial simulation software. An exergy balance was performed to determine total exergy entering and leaving the system. Findings: The global exergy efficiency was 37.90% for original process, however, when sludge were considered as products, global exergy efficiency was 37.93%, showing a non-significant increase. In addition, exergy efficiency of gasifier did not affect considerably global exergy efficiency and the total exergy of wastes was reduced when stream of selexol leaving separation stage was assumed as product. Novelty/Improvement: These results indicated that exergy efficiency of palm oil; palm kernel oil and hydrogen production could be improved through adding commercial value to selexol wastes. Keywords: Exergy, Efficiency, Hydrogen, Palm, Vegetable oil
Highlights
Energy demand and depleting oil resources let to a search of sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative for fuel production[1]
Case 1: Figure 4 shows the effect of exergy efficiency of gasifier on global exergy efficiency
It is observed a linear relation between both efficiency, when exergy efficiency of gasifier increases from 0 to 100%, the global exergy efficiency of palm oil, palm kernel oil and hydrogen production process increases gradually from 34.58% to 37.90%
Summary
Energy demand and depleting oil resources let to a search of sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative for fuel production[1]. The palm and palm kernel oils are found in the flesh and seed (kernel) of the palm fruit, respectively[7] Byproducts such as rachis are renewable resource for obtaining combustible gas when biomass is subjected to gasification process under high temperature and using a gasifying agent as air, oxygen or steam[8]. Objectives: In this work, sensibility analysis was performed to palm-based biorefinery in order to evaluate the effect of process variations (stream leaving hydrogen separation stage and considering sludge as products instead of wastes) and exergy efficiency of gasifier on global exergy efficiency. Exergy efficiency of gasifier did not affect considerably global exergy efficiency and the total exergy of wastes was reduced when stream of selexol leaving separation stage was assumed as product. Novelty/Improvement: These results indicated that exergy efficiency of palm oil; palm kernel oil and hydrogen production could be improved through adding commercial value to selexol wastes
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