Kinetics of oil palm empty fruit bunch phenolysis in the presence of sulfuric acid as a catalyst

Abstract

Oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) was successfully phenolyzed in the presence of sulfuric acid as a catalyst at different temperatures, reaction times, and percentage of catalyst used. Sulfuric acid was used as catalyst (5 and 8%) at the reacting temperature of 110–150°C with various reaction times. The kinetics parameters along with the weight of reacted EFB and phenol were calculated using the second- and third-order reaction kinetics models. The weight of the reacted EFB in phenol shows that about 97% of EFB was liquefied during the reaction. However, only 70% of phenol was reacted with EFB. The kinetic studies showed that the EFB phenolysis in the presence of sulfuric acid followed a bimolecular type of the second-order reaction. The activation energy calculated from the Arrhenius equation was 50.7 and 18.06 kJ/mol when the catalyst concentration was 5 and 8%, respectively. It can be depicted that the activation energy decreased as the catalyst increased. The reaction enthalpy showed that the liquefaction of EFB in phenol had dominantly followed the endothermic reaction. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2007