Optimal behavioral performance and power generation potential from palm oil mill industry: Case study using downdraft gasification with power generation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Considering Malaysia's position as a leading producer of palm oil, it wastes appears to be a promising renewable energy source. Thus, present work compares optimal behavioural performance and power generation potential from the palm oil mill wastes, including empty fruit bunch (EFB) and palm kernel shell (PKS). Aspen Plus software is used to perform a sensitivity study, investigating the influence of temperature and equivalence ratio (ER) on syngas output, syngas composition, and power generation. Temperature increase (600◦C to 1000◦C) leads to increase in H2 and CO and decrease in CO2 and CH4 composition. At optimal operating condition, temperature for EFB and PKS is at 740◦C and 865◦C while ER is at 0.25 for both feedstocks. The low heating value (LHV), cold gas efficiency (CGE) and total syngas output happens to be around 4.84 MJ/Nm3, 48.89% and 259.18 kg/hr for (EFB and 4.01 MJ/Nm3, 51.27 % and 312.97 kg/h for PKS. EFB shows higher capability to produce more quality syngas and generate more power compared to PKS. From economic perspective, EFB brings more revenue (115 million/year) than PKS (111 million/year) for 10 MW plant capacity by considering electricity as the main product.