Tapping Indonesia's bioenergy potential: Solid biofuel production from banana leaves by employing hydrothermal treatment

Abstract

Agricultural and agroindustrial wastes are increasingly being used for the generation of fuel products. Banana residues has a potential to be used as biomass energy sources in tropical country due to its availability, fast growing characteristic of banana plant, carbon neutrality and the fact that each banana plant bears only one stem of fruit. Thermal conversion of biomass to higher energy density fuels is gaining a growing interest as it is sustainable and has a potential to reduce greenhouse gasses. However, many forms of biomass in the waste stream, including banana residues, have very high moisture content, which makes them both inefficient to store, transport, and process using conventional technology. The hydrothermal treatment (HT) is known for converting high moisture content solid wastes into dried, uniform, pulverized, coallike solid fuel. In the present study, banana leaves was characterized and subjected to HT in a batch process to evaluate the suitability of these biomass sources for solid fuel production. Banana leaves was treated via HT at the temperatures of 180 and 200° C with the holding time of 30 min. The results showed that HT can increase the carbon and energy content of banana leaves, while the ash content decreased with the increased of temperature. The calculated value for theoretical potential power generation from treated banana leaves is 3.8 GW. These results showed that the production of solid fuel from banana leaves by employing hydrothermal treatment can contribute to the development of renewable energy, especially in Indonesia.

The technical, economic, and environmental feasibility of a bioheat-driven adsorption cooling system for food cold storing: A case study of Rwanda

“…As a result, hydrothermal treatment was introduced to remove the biomass moisture content at a lower temperature than the pyrolysis and gasification processes, using a water/steam medium. As a result, it increased the carbon content and heating value and reduced the ash content [21]. There are several CO2 capture methods, which exist at different levels of commercialisation, including physical and chemical absorption, adsorption, membrane, and cryogenics [22].…”