Autothermal reforming of palm empty fruit bunch bio-oil: thermodynamic modelling

Empty fruit bunch, a significant by-product of the palm oil industry, represents a tremendous and hitherto neglected renewable energy resource for many countries in South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The design and simulation of a plant producing pure hydrogen through autothermal reforming (ATR) of palm empty fruit bunch (PEFB) was carried out based on successful laboratory experiments of the core process. The bio-oil feed to the ATR stage was represented in the experiments and in the simulation by a surrogate bio-oil mixture of 11 organic compounds shown to be main constituents of PEFB oil from previous work, and whose combined elemental composition and volatility was determined to be as close as possible to that of the real PEFB bio-oil. The experiments confirmed that H2 yields close to equilibrium predictions were achievable using an in-house synthetised Rh-Al2O3 catalyst in a packed bed reactor. Initial sensitivity analysis on the plant revealed that feed molar steam to carbon ratio should not exceed 3 for the optimal design of the ATR hydrogen production plant. An overall plant efficiency of 39.4% was obtained for the initial design, this value was improved to 67.5% by applying pinch analysis to enhance the integration of heat in the design. The proposed design renders CO2 savings of about 0.56 kg per kg of raw PEFB processed. The proposed design and accompanying experimental studies together make a strong case on the possibility of polygeneration of H2, heat, and power from an otherwise discarded agricultural waste.

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Conversion of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) Biomass to Bio-Oil and Jet Bio-Fuel by Catalytic Fast-Pyrolysis Process

ASM Science Journal ◽

10.32802/asmscj.2020.508 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 ◽

pp. 1-11

Author(s):

Haryanti Yahaya ◽

Rozzeta Dollah ◽

Norsahika Mohd Basir ◽

Rohit Karnik ◽

Halimaton Hamdan

Keyword(s):

Oil Palm ◽

Zeolite Y ◽

Fast Pyrolysis ◽

Batch Process ◽

Zeolite Catalysts ◽

Catalyst Loading ◽

Empty Fruit Bunch ◽

Catalytic Fast Pyrolysis ◽

Compound Distribution ◽

Bio Oil

Oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) biomass is a potential source of renewable energy. Catalytic fast-pyrolysis batch process was initially performed to convert oil palm EFB into bio-oil, followed by its refinement to jet bio-fuel. Crystalline zeolites A and Y; synthesised from rice husk ash (RHA), were applied as heterogeneous catalysts. The catalytic conversion of oil palm EFB to bio-oil was conducted at a temperature range of 320-400°C with zeolite A catalyst loadings of 0.6 - 3.0 wt%. The zeolite catalysts were characterised by XRD, FTIR and FESEM. The bio-oil and jet bio-fuel products were analysed using GC-MS and FTIR. The batch fast-pyrolysis reaction was optimised at 400°C with a catalyst loading of 1.0 wt%, produced 42.7 wt% yields of liquid bio-oil, 35.4 wt% char and 21.9 wt% gaseous products. Analysis by GCMS indicates the compound distribution of the liquid bio-oil are as follows: hydrocarbons (23%), phenols (61%), carboxylic acids (0.7%), ketones (2.7%), FAME (7.7%) and alcohols (0.8%). Further refinement of the liquid bio-oil by catalytic hydrocracking over zeolite Y produced jet bio-fuel, which contains 63% hydrocarbon compounds (C8-C18) and 16% of phenolic compounds.

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Thermal Behaviour of Slurry Prepared from Clermont Bituminous Coal and Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch Bio-Oil

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.906.153 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 906 ◽

pp. 153-158 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Hazlin Hamdan ◽

Munawar Zaman Shahruddin ◽

Ahmad Rafizan Mohamad Daud ◽

Syed Shatir A. Syed-Hassan

Keyword(s):

Power Plants ◽

Room Temperature ◽

Bituminous Coal ◽

Inert Atmosphere ◽

Empty Fruit Bunch ◽

Blend Ratio ◽

Thermogravimetric Analyzer ◽

Bio Oil ◽

Pyrolysis Behaviour ◽

Fuel Technology

Investigation on the pyrolysis behaviour of coal-biooil slurry (CBS) fuel prepared at different ratios (100:0; 70:30; 60:40;0: 100) were conducted using a Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA). The selected coal sample was Clermont bituminous coal (Australia), while Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) was used as source of bio-oil that was thermally converted by means of pyrolysis. Thermal degradation of CBS fuel was performed in an inert atmosphere (50mL/min nitrogen) under non-isothermal conditions from room temperature to 1000°C at heating rate of 10°C/min. The proportions of CBS fuel at 70:30 and 60:40 blends were observed to have influenced the fuel properties of the slurry. The addition of bio-oil will shift the temperature region towards early devolatilization. Meanwhile, the thermal profiles of the blends, showed potential trends that followed the characteristics of an ideal slurry fuel where highest degradation rate was found at the blend ratio of 60:40 biooil/coal. These findings can be useful to the development of a slurry fuel technology for application in the vast existing conventional power plants.

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Pyrolysis of palm empty fruit bunch: Yields and analysis of bio-oil

MATEC Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/matecconf/201815401036 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 154 ◽

pp. 01036 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Bachrun Sutrisno ◽

Arif Hidayat

Keyword(s):

Palm Oil ◽

Liquid Product ◽

Chemical Characterization ◽

Oil Industry ◽

Empty Fruit Bunch ◽

Pyrolysis Process ◽

Biomass Waste ◽

Promising Alternative ◽

Bio Oil ◽

Liquid Yield

The palm oil industry is currently growing rapidly and generating large amounts of biomass waste that is not utilized properly. Palm empty fruit bunch (PEFB), by product of palm oil industry is considered as a promising alternative and renewable energy source that can be converted to a liquid product by pyrolysis process. In this work, pyrolysis of PEFB was studied to produce bio-oil. Pyrolysis experiments were carried out in a bench scale tubular furnace reactor. The effects of pyrolysis temperatures (400–600 °C) at heating rate of 10 °C/min to optimize the pyrolysis process for maximum liquid yield were investigated. The characteristics of bio-oil were analyzed using FTIR and GC–MS. The results showed that the maximum bio-oil yield was 44.5 wt. % of the product at 450 °C. The bio-oil products were mainly composed of acids, aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, phenols, and oligomers. The chemical characterization showed that the bio-oil obtained from PEFB may be potentially valuable as a fuel and chemical feedstock.

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