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Biochar has received a great attention recently due to abundant biomass left in Malaysia. Besides that, the application of biochar in environmental aspects widely used in the world to improvise soil fertility and water quality. In this research, biochar is produced from rice husk (RH) by pyrolysis at 500 °C using fixed-bed tube reactor. Then the biochar will be blended with coal fly ash (CFA) using the ratio of rice husk biochar (RHB) to CFA (0.2:0.8, 0.5:0.5, and 0.8:0.2) to be further analyzed on their characteristics. From proximate analysis, the ash content is increasing while moisture content, volatile matter, and fixed carbon decrease as the ratio are decrease. For determination of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur, the result from ultimate analysis indicates that hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen increase as the ratio increases. Based on the BET result, the surface area is increase proportionally to the ratio (0.2:0.8, 0.5:0.5, 0.8:0.2). Based on this research, RHB has a great potential to be applied as an adsorbent. However, blended RH with CFA are not giving desire result to be used an adsorbent. It is believed that introduction of CFA will offer some magnetic effect to the sorbant to attract pollutants.Keywords: biochar, biomass, coal fly ash, pyrolysis, rice husk Abstrak Biochar telah diberi perhatian besar baru-baru ini disebabkan kuantiti biojisim terbuang ini yang amat banyak di Malaysia. Selain itu, biochar ini banyak digunakan di dalam aspek alam sekitar iaitu secara meluas untuk penambahbaikkan kesuburan tanah dan kualiti air. Dalam penyelidikan ini, biochar dihasilkan dari sekam padi (RH) oleh proses pirolisis pada 500 °C menggunakan reaktor tiub lapisan tetap. Kemudian biochar akan dicampurkan dengan abu terbang (CFA) batu arang menggunakan nisbah sekam padi biochar (RHB) kepada CFA (0.2:0.8, 0.5:0.5 dan 0.8:0.2) seterusnya dianalisis ciri-ciri mereka. Dari analisis proksimat, kandungan abu bertambah manakala kandungan lembapan, jirim meruap dan karbon tetap berkurang dengan pengurangan nisbah RHB kepada CFA. Untuk nilai karbon, hidrogen, oksigen, nitrogen dan sulfur, keputusan dari analisis muktamad menunjukkan kadar hidrogen, karbon dan nitrogen dan sulfur meningkat dengan peningkatan nisbah RHB kepada CFA. Berdasarkan keputusan BET, luas permukaan meningkat secara berkadaran kepada nisbah (0.2:0.8, 0.5:0.5, 0.8:0.2) RHB kepada CFA. Berdasarkan penyelidikan ini, RHB mempunyai potensi besar untuk digunakan sebagai satu bahan penjerap. Walaubagaimanapun, dengan mencampurkan RH dengan CFA tidak memberi keputusan positif untuk diguna pakai sebagai bahan penjerap. Penambahan CFA dipercayai akan memberi kesan magnet kepada bahan penjerab bagi menarik bahan pencemar.

Food waste samples from various categories were examined for their energy content. In this work, the objective was to characterize the energy contents in food waste to assess their potential for renewable energy resources. The food waste samples that were analysed included tofu, carrot, corn, chicken, biscuit, rice and beef. The food wastes were characterized by proximate analysis using Thermogravimetric Analyser (TGA) and by ultimate analysis using Elemental Analyser (CHNS-O). The energy content in food waste was then evaluated using various higher heating value (HHV) correlations that were researched and established by many researchers. The results from both analyses demonstrated that the energy content from the higher heating value (HHV) calculated by using different equations indicated the food waste usage as an energy source. The highest HHV was found in the beef. Among the samples prepared, it can be observed that the most efficient ‘waste-to-energy’ sample is the protein-based food because this food has the highest amount of volatile matter with the lowest amount of ash content and fixed carbon content. Plus, protein food gives the highest percentages of carbon and hydrogen elements in order to help the combustion process going perfectly in order to convert it into an energy source.

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