Influence of pretreatment for deashing of empty fruit bunches on pyrolysis products

Abstract

This paper reports the studies made on the fixed-bed pyrolysis of empty fruit bunches (EFB), on the pyrolysis products. EFB is one of the solid wastes that are rapidly increasing in the palm oil industry. EFB samples for pyrolysis feedstock preparation were treated using washing and sonication methods by manipulating the time, temperature, water ratio and sonication amplitude. The ash content of samples was calculated and the leachate collected from ash removal analyzed by XRF(X-Ray Fluorescence) to determine the elemental contents. Fixed-bed reactor pyrolysis unit was used to study the influence of sample variables of feedstock with ash content in the range of 7.2115 to 9.2551 wt%. All samples were heated at the rate of 50°C/min up to 420°C under the nitrogen flow of 100 ml/min. Bio-oil, char and gas yield from samples were also determined. The maximum yield of 53.7% of pyrolysis oil could be achieved at washed EFB sample at 70ºC for 7 hours, almost double the yield of untreated EFB.