Pyrolysis of biomass: comparison features of biochars produced from various biomass by Pyrolysis

Abstract

Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB), rubber seed and coconut husk as one of a variety of biomass, which can produce new products in terms of the quality of current char production and soil nutrients in raw materials. The main objective of this process is to examine the effects of pyrolysis temperature, heating rate and holding time of pyrolysis. The tube furnace was used to study these parameters. The second objective is to determine the characteristics of char from biomass pyrolysis. EFB, coconut husk and rubber seeds were seen as a source of renewable energy. In this study, the experiments were carried out by a tube furnace to determine the effect of holding time, temperature, heating rate on char product and the raw material. In the pyrolysis experiment, for pyrolysis temperature of 400°C, 500°C and 600°C the char yield has increased at temperature of 500°C. However at temperature 600°C the char yield had been decreased. While the heating rate of 6°C/min, 8°C/min and 10°C/min showed char production decreases as the increased the heating rate to 10°C/min. These study also determined the holding time at 60 minutes, 90 minutes and 120 minutes for each char sample. The effect of char yield has increased at 90 minutes more than 60 minutes and 120 minutes. The char product showed the highest percentage of potassium in the XRF analysis. While FTIR analysis showed that each char yield had a functional group of aromatic char the was an effective production. The use of SEM had shown the char has been decomposited to loose structure, while the used of TGA had shown each biomass sample has a low percentage of moisture content.