Simulation of biofuel production via fast pyrolysis of palm oil residues

Abstract

The main purpose of this present work is to optimize the biofuel production from the fast pyrolysis of three palm oil residues, namely palm shell (PS), empty fruit bunch (EFB) and mesocarp fiber (MF). Hence, a biofuel process is simulated using SuperPro Designer (SPD) software. The simulation includes pretreatment, fast pyrolysis, product collection, and upgrading sections. The developed SPD model was validated firstly with published data of the fast pyrolysisof wood oak in fluidized bed reactor. Secondly, the influence of the operating conditions such as pyrolysis reactor temperature and residence time on the fast pyrolysis of the different residues was examined. The obtained results indicate that temperature at 550°C is suitable for obtaining a maximum liquid yield. Moreover, it was found that 0.5s is the optimized residence time to maximize this liquid yield. Above the optimum residence time, an increase in the gas fraction and a decrease of the bio-oil and char fractions are observed. Comparison of the different residues indicates that the higher yield of liquid fraction was obtained from the EFB and MF while pyrolysis of the PS produced a higher yield of char. These product yields were strongly correlated to the biomass polymer components. The obtained correlation was in agreement with the products yields found in literature for various biomass sources. The developed model provides very useful information about different conditions of pyrolysis for oil palm residues and product yields. Moreover, the model can be generalized and help to assist in the optimization of the fast pyrolysis process of different biomass without performing heavy experimental investigations. Such model will contribute strongly to the intensification and the improvement of the biomass fast pyrolysis.