Torrefaction of Oil Palm Wastes for Improvement of Gasification Process

• Main Author: Hisham Bin Osman, Hisham
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Teknologi Petronas 2009
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/817/1/Final_Report_%28Soft-bound%29_%282%29.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/817/
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Petronas

The project studies the biomass characteristic and the hidden problems behind it from become the main source of energy for this world. The use of gasification process as a technique to produce syngas which itself called fuels have certainly broaden the choice of using renewable energy as a replacement to current fossil fuels. The degradation of fuel storage in the whole world helps significantly to promote biomass as an alternative energy and at the same time, the need to find a suitable replacement. Therefore, gasification of biomass is seen as a future technology that can replace the current fossil fuels. However, the exploitation of this fuel sources through gasification does have drawbacks that need to be solved. Thus, this report, the torrefaction for Oil Palm Wastes for the improvement of gasification process was studied in order to improve its properties. Subsequently, it will enable biomass to be a much better fuel quality for combustion and gasification applications. For this study, palm wastes such as Palm Frond, Fiber and Kernel Shell are used to produce torrefied material and the factors affecting the process are investigated. The factors were the reactor temperature and the particle size. To analyze the characteristic of the biomass and to make comparison with the torrefied material, several analysis have been made. Thermal Gravimetric Analyzer(TGA) were used for proximate analysis where the decomposition regime was exhibited. The entire sample were analyzed for four main regions which are moisture content, volatile matter, fixed carbon content and ash content. The Ultimate Analysis were done using CHNS Analyzer were all the samples shows that the carbon content contributes to the major componenet. Halogen Moisture Analyzer(HMA) were used to analyze the moisture content of every samples and lastly, Bomb Calorimeter as a tool to determined the calorific value. Overall, the comparison was made to justify the improvement made by torrefaction process. It is found and suggested that for an optimum condition of torrefaction was at 280°C and particle size of 250 μm. Thus it is believed that with the improvements that were made to the biomass, it is viable to be promoted in the scale up production.