Gasification Of Empty Fruit Bunch Research Articles

Syngas Production Through Non Catalytic Gasification of Empty Fruit Bunch and Catalytics Using Natural Bentonite

Syngas Production Through Non Catalytic Gasification of Empty Fruit Bunch and Catalytics Using Natural Bentonite

Carbon-neutral synfuel production via continuous solar H2O and CO2 gasification of oil palm empty fruit bunch

Solar gasification offers a promising carbon-neutral pathway to thermochemically convert waste biomass and solar energy into synfuel. In this study, a thermodynamic analysis of solar gasification of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) with H2O and CO2 gasifying agents was first performed to predict equilibrium product distribution. Subsequently, on-sun continuous solar gasification of EFB was experimentally carried out in a solar particle-fed gasifier to evaluate the influence of gasifying agent types (H2O and CO2), gasifying agent/EFB molar ratios (1.8–3.4), temperatures (1050–1350 °C), and to assess overall process feasibility and reliability. As a result, solar EFB gasification performed efficiently with both H2O and CO2 gasifying agents under continuous on-sun operation. Syngas product composition and gasification reaction rate strongly depended on gasifying agent type. Increasing temperature enhanced syngas yield and quality, and changed the CO/H2 mole ratio, especially in EFB + CO2 gasification. A gasifying agent/EFB molar ratio of 2.6 (slight excess of gasifying agents) and a temperature of 1300 °C were shown to be optimal for continuous solar EFB gasification. The maximum total syngas yield above 76 mmol/gdry_EFB, syngas lower heating value above 22 kJ/gdry_EFB, and energy upgrade factor above 1.37 were achieved from both EFB + H2O and EFB + CO2 gasification, which closely approached their theoretical equilibrium values. The maximum carbon conversion exceeding 93% and solar-to-fuel energy conversion efficiency up to 19.3% were achieved, demonstrating efficient EFB-to-synfuel conversion performance. Continuous solar EFB gasification with both H2O and CO2 was thus established to be a reliable process for EFB waste biomass valorization into high-quality and carbon-neutral synfuel.

Continuous solar-driven gasification of oil palm agricultural bio waste for high-quality syngas production

Empty fruit bunch (EFB) from oil palm is a solid agricultural bio-waste obtained from the edible oil process. Continuous solar-driven gasification of EFB offers a bright carbon–neutral avenue to convert both EFB bio-waste and renewable solar energy into sustainable and clean syngas. High-temperature concentrated solar heat is used to provide the reaction enthalpy, and therefore biomass waste feedstock is entirely dedicated to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide (syngas). Solar energy is stored as a high-quality syngas and can be easily transported as a convertible and dispatchable chemical form. In this study, the performance of continuous steam gasification of EFB, fully powered by concentrated solar heat, was experimentally investigated in a solar gasification reactor. Experiments were carried out with continuous EFB biomass injection to evaluate the influence of temperature (1100–1300 °C) and biomass feeding rate (0.5–1.8 g/min). As a result, syngas yields and reactor performance were substantially enhanced by rising the EFB feeding rate and gasification temperature. An optimal EFB biomass feeding rate enabling maximum gasification performance was found to be 1.4 g/min at 1300 °C and 1.0 g/min at 1200 °C. Carbon conversion approaching 97%, energy upgrade factor of 1.38, and solar-to-fuel energy conversion efficiency up to 20% were demonstrated. Finally, the maximum syngas yield was found to be 81.1 mmol/gdry biomass at 1300 °C (with H2 and CO as the main constituents), closely approaching the maximum theoretical expected value reached at thermodynamic equilibrium (85.2 mmol/gdry biomass). Combining concentrated solar energy and biomass waste gasification was shown to be a promising and sustainable pathway toward waste valorization into carbon–neutral solar fuels.

Kinetic parameter estimation for drying stage during gasification of empty fruit bunch

This paper presents kinetic parameter estimation of drying stage at different heating rates for representing drying behavior of empty fruit bunch (EFB) during gasification process. Kinetic constants based on Arrhenius law were estimated by using least-squares method by employing from thermogravimetric analysis data. The results show activation energy estimated are 14.53, 21.12 and 18.82 kJ/mol and pre-exponential factor estimated are 8.74, 236.37 and 275.36 min−1 for 10, 20 and 50 °C/min heating rates. The kinetic constants show good fit with experimental data where standard deviation lesser than 0.05 and R2 values above 0.98 are obtained indicating drying model is reliable to be used for designing biomass gasification.

Effects of Gasification Temperature and Equivalence Ratio on Gasification Performance and Tar Generation of Air Fluidized Bed Gasification Using Raw and Torrefied Empty Fruit Bunch

This paper presents gasification performance study and tar generation at different gasification temperature and equivalence ratio using air fluidized bed gasification process. Empty fruit bunch (EFB) is selected as feedstock where two types of EFB were used which are raw EFB and EFB undergo torrefaction process as pretreatment. Experimental results show the synthesis gas yield, lower heating value (LHV), cold gas efficiency (CGE) and tar generation are steadily increased for both feedstock when gasification temperature is increased from 700 to 900°C. When ER is increased from 0.26 to 0.33 at fixed gasification temperature of 900°C, all gasification performances except LHV show an increment trend. Torrefied EFB shows superior performance in terms of producing more synthesis gas and better LHV compared to raw EFB. However, tar generated from torrefied EFB is higher than raw EFB. Based on tar component analysis, it has been found that 7 tar components are detected where all of tar components are classified as tertiary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) group for both feedstocks. Based on tar analysis, naphthalene is the most produced tar components obtained from gasification of raw and torrefied EFB.

Air gasification of empty fruit bunch: An Aspen Plus model

A thermodynamic equilibrium model was developed using Aspen Plus to simulate syngas production from air gasification of empty fruit bunch in a fluidized bed gasifier. The proposed model was used to conduct parametric study on gasification temperature, equivalence ratio, and feedstock particle size. The findings were validated against experimental data. Syngas adjustment was done on homogenous reactions to tune back overprediction of CO and H2 and underprediction of CH4 from the initial equilibrium model. High gasifier temperature in 800–1000 °C increases the heating value and carbon conversion (ηc). Both CO2 composition and ηc increased with ER's increment. The effects of ER are less significant in increasing ηc as compared to temperature. Significant influence is observed on the ηc drop and heating value at PSD range of 0.5–1.0 mm. The optimized lower heating value and higher heating value are 11.11 MJ/Nm3 and 12.18 MJ/Nm3 respectively at T = 1000 °C, ER = 0.15 and PSD < 0.3 mm.

Process simulation of hydrogen production through biomass gasification: Introduction of torrefaction pre-treatment

Torrefaction is a pretreatment method that converts biomass to a fuel-like substance that can replace coal for sustainable power generation. In this work, a thermodynamic-based process simulation model was developed to simulate the gasification of empty fruit bunch (EFB), with torrefaction as pretreatment, to determine the optimum conditions; equivalence ratio, reactor temperature, torrefaction medium concentration, steam-to-biomass (S/B) ratio and system configuration were studied to determine their influence on hydrogen concentration, higher heating value (HHV), syngas ratio and cold gas efficiency (CGE). The highest hydrogen yield was obtained at an S/B ratio of 1.3 at 800 °C, with a syngas ratio of 2.5 and a CGE of 84%. Concentration of torrefaction medium showed no effect on hydrogen concentration due to the simplicity of the model used, but work is in progress in this direction. Therefore, steam gasification is more suitable than air gasification in hydrogen production.

Techno Economic Analysis of Biomass to Methanol Plant Based on Gasification of Palm Empty Fruit Bunch

Biomass from palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) is considered as potential renewable energy sources to be developed in Indonesia. Palm EFB can be efficiently converted into valuable and useful methanol products through gasification. Research about methanol synthesis from various biomass has been done. However, Little research about methanol production based on palm empty fruit bunch gasification has been found, and no research yet on technoeconomic analysis of methanol plant construction based on palm empty fruit bunch gasification. The purpose of this research is to find early-stage feasibility of small-scale methanol plant model based on gasification of palm EFB. Method methanol plant design, investment cost estimation, operating cost estimation, and calculation to estimate profitability in terms of economic feasibility parameters. Economic analysis calculated that the total investment to build a methanol plant in this study was USD 87 508 479 with manufacturing cost per annum USD 6 127 014. Net Present Value (NPV) calculated was USD -51 721 064 and IRR at 1.1 %. Based on NPV and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) value, the construction of methanol plant is not feasible. Feasibility predicted to be obtained when the capacity of the plant increased fivefold.

The Evaluation on Three Types of Malaysian Dolomites as a Primary Catalyst in Gasification Reaction of EFB and Tar Cracking Efficiency

The conversion of biomass into hydrogen-rich syngas has been getting attention recently as it has potential sustainability benefits of agricultural residues. In this study, gasification of empty fruit bunch (EFB) was performed using a various calcined Malaysian dolomite catalyst which denoted as P1, P2 and P3. The physicochemical properties of the catalysts were examined using XRF, XRD, BET and SEM. The effect of various catalyst to biomass (C/B) ratio (varied in the range of 0.05 to 0.3 in an increment of 0.05) of P1, P2 and P3 catalyst in EFB gasification was evaluated at gasifier temperature of 850 oC. The gas produced was analyzed by GC. The effect of various C/B ratio on tar conversion was also examined. The result showed, with lower impurities in calcined dolomites and high content of active sites (CaO-MgO) improve the characteristics of P1 and P2 in crystalline structure contributes to a significant reduction in tar cracking (~ 78 % and 75 %, respectively) and higher H2 yield (32.25 mg H2/g EFB).

Hydrogen Gas Production from Gasification of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) in a Fluidized Bed Reactor

Malaysia is one of the largest producers of palm oil and this industry plays an important role in Malaysia economic growth. As this industry grows larger, a significant amount of oil palm waste is generated, creating the problem of overloading biomass waste. Since the oil palm waste has many significant uses such as empty fruit bunches (EFB), the interest in production of hydrogen gas as the renewable energy from EFB also increases. The most common and favorable thermochemical processes to produce the hydrogen gas is gasification process in fluidized bed reactor. Regardless of tremendous experimental studies done on effectiveness of using EFB for production of hydrogen, the process implementation in industry is still discouraging. This is due to lack of proven technology and high capital cost of investment. In this study, a computational modeling was developed for EFB gasification in fluidized bed gasifier using the ASPEN PLUS simulator (v. 8.8) to optimize the gasification temperature, pressure and to study the different of chemical behavior. The results indicated that increase in temperature will increases the production of hydrogen and enhances carbon conversion efficiency. The optimum temperature and pressure was 850 °C and 1.035 bar respectively. The result shows that the char was removed significantly after several gas cleaning process. The final product for purified hydrogen gas is 14.5 kg/hr which is around 21% of hydrogen yield. Based on the result, it indicates that EFB has a potential to be used as a source of energy in a future.

Biomass to methanol plant based on gasification of palm empty fruit bunch

Biomass from Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) has the potential to be employed as raw material for renewable energy sources in Indonesia. EFB can be efficiently converted into valuable fuel products through gasification to produce syngas. Syngas is a suitable basis for added value products development. One of type biomass that has big potential to be utilized is palm EFB biomass. Research about methanol synthesis from various biomass has been done, though little research about methanol production based on EFB gasification. The purpose of this research is to simulate methanol plant model based on gasification of palm EFB. The method covers the step to perform a simulation of the model and methanol plant design. Electric power requirement has been investigated at 3 417 kW, and 67 % of its demand can be fulfilled by steam generation cycle and internal combustion engine (ICE) fuelled by off-gas, while the deficit fulfilled by diesel powered ICE. The flow rate of methanol produced is 85 % of EFB feed flowrate. Energy efficiency is 92 % once electricity energy added to liquid product energy content. The developed model reflects the initial step toward circular economy principals as well as the basis for analysis of the methanol production from EFB biomass gasification profitability.

Single stage dimethyl ether plant model based on gasification of palm empty fruit bunch

Biomass from empty fruit bunch (EFB) is considered as potential renewable energy sources to be developed in Indonesia. EFB can be efficiently converted into valuable and useful fuel products through gasification. Gasification is a process of biomass conversion into syngas. Syngas is a raw material for most other chemical products, such as Methanol, Ammonia, and DME. One of the biomasses that has big potential to be utilized is palm EFB waste. Research about DME synthesis from various biomass has been done, though little research about DME production based on EFB gasification. The aim of this research is to simulate single stage DME Plant Model based on gasification of EFB by assuming that the gasification reaction and DME synthesis reaction are under equilibrium condition. Method encompasses step to perform simulation of the model and DME plant design. The model predicts yield of DME product in agreement with published real DME plant operation. The result shows flow rate of DME produced is 50% of EFB feed flowrate and 73% energy efficiency obtained for pre-treated EFB. Electric power requirement has been investigated at 4096 kW and can be fulfilled by DME Plant through steam generation cycle and internal combustion engine fuelled by DME product. The model developed will be used as a basis for techno-economic analysis of DME plant based on EFB gasification.

Co-production of hydrogen and power from palm mill wastes

An integrated system to harvest efficiently the energy from palm mill wastes, which are empty fruit bunch (EFB) and palm oil mill effluent (POME), is proposed and evaluated. The proposed system adopts the supercritical water gasification (SCWG) of mixed EFB and POME, which is integrated with also with chemical looping and power generation. To minimize the exergy loss throughout the system, and therefore, optimize the energy efficiency, process design and integration is conducted by employing the principles of exergy recovery and process integration technologies. Hydrogen is set as the main output, while power is produced by utilizing the heat generated throughout the process. Process simulation is conducted using a steady state process simulator Aspen Plus V8.8. Energy efficiency is defined into three categories: hydrogen production efficiency, power generation efficiency, and total energy efficiency. From process simulation, the integrated systems show high total energy efficiency. Further study should be performed to investigate the effect of EFB/POME ratio, gasification temperature, SCL pressure condition on the system performance including total energy efficiency.

The Effect of Operating Temperature and Equivalence Ratio in an Entrained Flow Gasification of EFB

Abstract Biomass is a renewable and sustainable source of energy that can be used to generate electricity and other forms of power. Rapid economic growth in developing countries, growing energy demand, high dependence on global and local transportation, pollution, depletion of sources, and endangered national security of energy importing countries have raised the awareness of the need for non-fossil based renewable energy sources. This paper presents the effect of operating temperature and equivalence ratio (ER) on the gasification of empty fruit bunch (EFB) in an entrained flow reactor. EFB is one of the most abundant biomass source in Malaysia, being the second largest palm oil processing nation in the world. The temperature ranges of between 700 °C to 900 °C and ER of 0.2 to 0.4 were studied to find the most optimum condition for biomass gasification in an entrained flow gasification system. It was found that the production of synthesis gas increases as the temperature increased, along with the carbon conversion and higher heating value of gas product. The most optimum operating temperature and ER for biomass gasification in the entrained flow gasifier were found at 900°C and 0.3 respectively.

Empty fruit bunch (EFB) gasification in an entrained flow gasification system

&lt;p&gt;Biomass has become one of the most commonly used renewable sources of energy in the last two decades. Empty fruit bunch (EFB) is one of the examples for the biomass that is used as a renewable energy source. From the palm oil processing industry, only 10% are the final products such as palm oil and palm kernel oil, while the remaining 90% are harvestable biomass waste in the form of EFB, palm kernel shell (PKS) and oil palm frond (OPF). This overload amount of biomass waste will cause an abundance of waste which will also affect the environment. To convert EFB into usable energy in ways that are more efficient, less polluting, and economical, gasification has merge as one of the most favorable technological innovations in synthesis gas (syngas) production. The main aim of this work is to study the EFB gasification in an entrained flow gasification process based on the different operating temperature (700&lt;sup&gt;°&lt;/sup&gt;C to 900&lt;sup&gt;°&lt;/sup&gt;C) and equivalence ratio, ER (0.2 – 0.4), evaluated based on the production of gases such as hydrogen (H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;) and methane (CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;). It was found that as the temperature was increased from 700&lt;sup&gt;°&lt;/sup&gt;C to 900&lt;sup&gt;°&lt;/sup&gt;C, the production of H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; and CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; increased while CO was decreased. The optimum ER value of 0.30 was found to attain the highest Cold Gas Efficiency (CGE) value of 74.03% at 900°C.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Chemical Engineering Research Bulletin 19(2017) 43-49&lt;/p&gt;

Gasification of empty fruit bunch with carbon dioxide in an entrained flow gasifier for syngas production

The main objectives of this work are to study the gasification of EFB in an atmospheric entrained flow gasifier, using carbon dioxide (CO2) as its gasifying agent and to determine the optimum gasification operating conditions, which includes temperature and the oxidant to fuel (OTF) ratio. These were evaluated in terms of important gasification parameters such as the concentration of hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO) produced the syngas ratio H2/CO and carbon conversion. The gasification reactions take place in the presence of CO2 at very high reaction rate because of the high operating temperature (700°C - 900°C). The use of CO2 as the oxidant for gasification process can improve the composition of syngas produced as in the Boudouard reaction. Rise of reaction temperature which is 900°C will increase the concentration of both H2 & CO by up to 81 and 30 respectively, though their production were decreased after the OTF ratio of 0.6 for temperature 700°C & 800°C and OTF ratio 0.8 for temperature 750°C. The operating temperature must be higher than 850°C to ensure the Boudouard reaction become the more prominent reaction for the biomass gasification. The syngas ratio obtained was in the range of ≈ 0.6 − 2.4 which is sufficient for liquid fuel synthesis. For the carbon conversion, the highest fuel conversion recorded at temperature 850°C for all OTF ratios. As the OTF ratio increases, it was found that there was an increase in the formation of CO and H2. This suggests that to achieve higher carbon conversion, high operating temperature and OTF ratio are preferable. This study provides information on the optimum operating conditions for the gasification of biomass, especially the EFB, hence may upsurge the utilization of biomass waste as an energy source.

Advanced power generation using biomass wastes from palm oil mills

This study focuses on the energy-efficient utilization of both solid and liquid wastes from palm oil mills, particularly their use for power generation. It includes the integration of a power generation system using empty fruit bunch (EFB) and palm oil mill effluent (POME). The proposed system mainly consists of three modules: EFB gasification, POME digestion, and additional organic Rankine cycle (ORC). EFBs are dried and converted into a syngas fuel with high calorific value through integrated drying and gasification processes. In addition, POME is converted into a biogas fuel for power generation. Biogas engine-based cogenerators are used for generating both electricity and heat. The remaining unused heat is recovered by ORC module to generate electricity. The influences of three EFB gasification temperatures (800, 900 and 1000°C) in EFB gasification module; and working fluids and pressure in ORC module are evaluated. Higher EFB gasification leads to higher generated electricity and remaining heat for ORC module. Power generation efficiency increases from 11.2 to 24.6% in case of gasification temperature is increased from 800 to 1000°C. In addition, cyclohexane shows highest energy efficiency compared to toluene and n-heptane in ORC module. Higher pressure in ORC module also leads to higher energy efficiency. Finally, the highest total generated power and power generation efficiency obtained by the system are 8.3MW and 30.4%, respectively.

Catalytic Flash Gasification of EFB for Hydrogen Production Using Zeolite Supported Metal Oxide Catalysts

Empty fruit bunch (EFB) waste is produced in large amount in Malaysia from intense oil palm agriculture activity. Direct usage of EFB as a source of energy is not economically feasible and ideally should be upgraded before it can produce green energy economically. Current gasification processes produces a lot of tar while yielding low amount of hydrogen. Flash gasification of EFB with the presence of catalysts shows improvements over the uncatalysed reaction. In this study, by using a high surface area support catalyst of ZSM-5 with the presence of 1% Ni, Zn, or Fe metal loading is sufficient to enhance the hydrogen production. ZSM-5, NiO/ZSM-5, CuO/ZSM-5, Fe2O3/ZSM-5 and ZnO/ZSM-5 catalyst with 1 wt % loading were prepared via the wet impregnation method. XRD patterns of the prepared catalysts shows almost identical peaks patterns which indicates high dispersion of dopants on the support catalyst Flash gasification was carried out at 900°C under isothermal heating conditions with 10 sccm 4.99% O2 diluted in He. Syngas produced was then analysed using an online quadrupole mass spectrometer. Catalytic activity for hydrogen production is the highest for NiO/ZSM-5 followed by ZnO/ZSM-5, Fe2O3/ZSM-5, ZSM-5.

Medium-scale gasification of oil palm empty fruit bunch for power generation

This paper focuses on the performance of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) gasification using a medium-scale downdraft gasifier for power generation. The EFB gasification process was carried out at a feed rate of 126 kg/h within operating temperatures of 850–950 °C. The gasification performance was monitored based on the syngas composition, syngas calorific value (CV) and the gasification cold gas efficiency (CGE). The results show that the EFB gasification performance increases with the increasing of the operating temperature, especially in terms of the syngas CV and the gasification CGE. Operating temperature of 850–950 °C is found to be the ideal temperature range for the EFB gasification process in this medium-scale gasifier to obtain a favourable syngas CV and gasification CGE for engine application. The EFB gasification also produces a relatively low-tar syngas yield and is expected to generate 106 kWe of electricity at a temperature and feed rate of 900 °C and 126 kg/h, respectively. Based on the analysis, the EFB gasification using a medium-scale downdraft gasifier is a very promising process for power generation due to its favourable gasification performance.

Thermogravimetric Analysis of Char Waste from the Air Gasification of Empty Fruit Bunch Briquette.

The thermal decomposition behavior of char waste produced from the air gasification of Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) briquette was examined using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). A comparison between the thermal decomposition behavior of char waste and EFB briquette is also presented. The results indicate that the char waste produced decreased from 22 % to 18 % with increasing temperature from 600 °C to 700 °C during gasification. This is due to the effect of high temperatures on the primary char decomposition reactions. It was observed that char degradation occurs in two steps; char degradation I & II with weight losses of 17 % and 32 % respectively. This showed that only ~ 50 % char was decomposed during thermal analysis, hence higher temperatures are required to ensure complete decomposition. The TGA curve for EFB briquette showed that complete thermal decomposition of EFB briquette occurs in four stages namely; drying, devolatization, reduction and char degradation. The most significant weight loss 2.51 mg or 49.31 % occurred during devolatization.