Abstract
Oil palm biomass is a non-woody lignocellulosic biomass that has a high potential at the south of Thailand for biofuels and bioenergy applications. Pyrolysis of oil palm biomass to produce biofuels such as bio-oil, biochar, and pyrolysis gas is still challenging. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate the yields and qualities of pyrolysis products obtained from oil palm trunk (OPT), oil palm fronds (OPF), and oil palm shell (OPS) using an agitated bed pyrolysis reactor. These biomasses were pyrolyzed at pyrolysis temperatures of 400, 450, and 500°C while the other operating parameters were fixed. The results showed that the different types of oil palm biomass and pyrolysis temperatures affected the product yields and qualities. The OPF pyrolyzed at 500°C provided the highest liquid yield. The liquid product contained a relatively high water content with a low pH value, leading to highly-oxygenated compounds as indicated by gas chromatography-electron ionization/mass spectroscopy technique (GC-EI/MS). The higher heating value (HHV) of the liquid product was 18.95-22.52 MJ/kg. The biochar had a relatively high HHV ranging from 25.14 to 28.45 MJ/kg. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated that the resultant biochar had a porous structure surface with a surface area of 1.15-4.43 m2/g as indicated by BET. The pyrolysis gas contained a low composition of combustible gases, leading to a low HHV.
Highlights
The applications of biomass for biofuels and bioenergy are gaining interest worldwide, as fossil fuels such as crude oil, coal, and natural gas face depletion as a result of the ever-growing demands (BP, 2019)
The proximate analysis showed that the moisture content, volatile matter, fixed carbon content, and ash content of the oil palm trunk (OPT), oil palm fronds (OPF), and oil palm shell (OPS) were in the ranges of 7.50-8.18, 66.59-74.06, 14.92-23.98, and 1.24-3.42, respectively
The moisture content of the dried biomass was lower than 10%, which is appropriate for pyrolysis processes (Bridgwater et al, 1999; Pattaya and Suttibak, 2012; Ahmad et al, 2017; Mishra and Mohanty, 2018)
Summary
The applications of biomass for biofuels and bioenergy are gaining interest worldwide, as fossil fuels such as crude oil, coal, and natural gas face depletion as a result of the ever-growing demands (BP, 2019). Reliance on fossil fuels creates negative environmental impacts, which contribute to global warming and climate change. The global consumption of fossil fuels impacts the environment and poses a risk to energy systems in terms of both energy security and energy sustainability, in the countries that need to import fossil fuels (Rathore et al, 2016). In light of these concerns, many countries, both developed and developing, are looking to overcome these issues by searching and innovating renewable energy resources. The potentiality of biomass in each country or region depends on a variety of factors, such as location, climate, weather, available local plantations, agricultural activity, and industrial processing
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