Bio-oils from Pyrolysis of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches

Abstract

Problem Statement: The palm oil industry generates an abundance of oil palm biomass such as the mesocarp fibre, shell, empty fruit bunch (EFB), frond, trunk and palm oil mill effluent (POME). For 80 million tonnes of fresh fruit bunch (FFB) processed last year, the amount of oil palm biomass was more than 25 million tones. The objectives of this study were to: (i) Determine the effect of various pyrolysis parameters on product yields and (ii) Characterise liquid product obtained under different condition. Approach: In this study, pyrolysis of oil palm Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB) was investigated using quartz fluidized fixed bed reactor. The effects of pyrolysis temperatures, particle sizes and heating rates on the yield of the products were investigated. The temperature of pyrolysis and heating rate were varied in the range 300-700 °C and 10-100 °C min 1 respectively. The particle size was varied in the range of <90, 91-106, 107-125 and 126-250 µm. The elemental analysis and calorific value of the bio-oil were determined. The chemical composition of the oil was investigated using chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques. Results: Under the experimental conditions, the maximum bio-oil yield was 42.28% obtained at 500 ºC, with a heating rate of 100 ºC min

Characterisation of Pellets Made From Oil Palm Residues in Costa Rica

“…The percent volatile of pellets obtained in this study (Table 2) is lower than that obtained by Sukiran et al (2009) for EFB pellets, for which the reported value is 81.90%. And this difference can be again attributed to different growing conditions of oil palm (Chiew and Shimada, 2013).…”

A review of recent laboratory research and commercial developments in fast pyrolysis and upgrading

“…Tables Table 1 Overview of Fast Pyrolysis Developments. Biomass Type Biomass woody iroko, albizia, beech, spruce [183], pine [92,110,114], white oak [113], larch [111], sawtooth oak [100], mallee [95,98,99], bamboo sawdust [184], pine, forest residues and eucalyptus [50], waste furniture sawdust [103] agricultural residues empty fruit bunches [66,80,81,185], soyabean harvesting residues [72], cotton-stalk [107], corn straw [186], corn cobs and stover [187], rice husk [102,105], rice straw [184], corncob, straw and oreganum stalks [188], maize stalks [106] industrial byproducts grape skins and seeds [94], barley biomass/product streams [189], lignin [91]. non-woody switchgrass [109], jute-stick [190], alfalfa, reed canary grass, eastern gammagrass [191], miscanthus [104], barley straw, rapeseed straw, reed canary grass [50] waste products guayule [192], soybean oil [193], fish waste [194], sewage sludge [195], chicken and turkey litter [196,197].…”

Renewable Energy from Palm Oil Empty Fruit Bunch

“…Currently, thermo-chemical technology for converting PEFB into energy has been studied in laboratory or bench scale. Many studies nowadays focus on the pyrolysis of PEFB for bio-oil production in lab-scale, both fixed bed and fluidized bed reactor and it can be evidenced that the maximum yield of bio-oil produced from pyrolysis of PEFB without catalysts occurs at the temperature of about 500 °C and the lower heating value of bio-oil is approximately 20 MJ/kg (Abdullah & Bridwater, 2006;Abdullah et al, 2007;Azizan et al, 2009;Sukiran et al, 2009;Yang et al, 2006). The utilization of catalyst can promote the pyrolysis reaction and the maximum bio-oil can be obtained at lower temperature of about 300-350 °C with shorter residence time (Amin & Asmadi, 2008).…”