Production of Bio-oil from Fast Pyrolysis of Oil Palm Biomass using Fluidised Bed Reactor

Abstract

Biomass is a renewable resource that can potentially be used to produce biofuels via the fast pyrolysis process. Oil palm biomass are a rich biomass resource in Malaysia, and it is therefore very important that they be utilized for more beneficial purposes, particularly in the context of the development of biofuels. The use of this pyrolysis technique can significantly contribute to reduce the biomass volume because more biomass can be consumed as raw material for bio-oil production. In this study, the thermal conversion of oil palm biomass via fast pyrolysis was carried out using a fluidised bed reactor. Several process parameters i.e types of oil palm biomass, pyrolysis temperature and particle size that can affect the yield of the pyrolysis products were investigated. EFB, trunk, frond and palm kernel shell (PKS) were used to investigate the effect of different oil palm biomass on pyrolysis products. The temperature used was in the range of 400-600 ºC and particle size of EFB was < 90 – 180 µm. The results indicated that the optimum yield of bio-oils (47.4 wt.%) was obtained using EFB having a particle size of 107-125 µm at pyrolyzed temperature of 500 ºC. The bio-oil and bio-char produced were characterized via physicochemical and spectrometric analyses. The calorific values of bio-oil ranged from 21 to 22 MJ kg^-1 while that of bio-char 22-25 MJ kg^-1.

Keywords: Pyrolysis, oil palm biomass, bio-oil, bio-char, renewable energy