Open AccessThermal pyrolysis of empty fruit bunch (EFB) in a vertical fixed-bed reactor
Author(s) -
Alina Rahayu Mohamed,
A. N. Awang,
Noor Hasyierah Mohd Salleh,
Razi Ahmad
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/932/1/012007
Subject(s) - pyrolysis , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , yield (engineering) , nitrogen , methane , frond , chemistry , biomass (ecology) , char , volumetric flow rate , materials science , pulp and paper industry , nuclear chemistry , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , botany , composite material , agronomy , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering , biology
In the production of crude palm oil, huge quantities of solid biomass waste is generated such as empty fruit bunch (EFB), palm fronds and palm–pressed fibre (PPF). This inevitably resulted in the environmental pollution due to its natural conversion to methane. In this study, thermal pyrolysis of EFB was conducted using a fixed bed reactor. The factors such as nitrogen gas flowrate and holding time that affect the distribution of pyrolysis product yields were being investigated by evaluating the percentage product yields. It was determined that at nitrogen gas flowrate of 300 cm 3 /min and 30 mins holding time, the maximum bio-oil yield of 46.20 % was attained with gas and char yield of 21.79 % and 32.01 % respectively. The existence of functional groups in bio-oil was analyzed by Fourier Transfrom Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopy. It was identified that the bio-oil has several functional groups such as hydroxyl (OH), ketone/aldehyde (C=O) and ester (O-C=O) groups. The dynamic viscoscity of bio-oil was analyzed by Brookfield viscometer. It showed that the viscosity of bio-oil decreased with increasing temperature from 25-50 °C.