FEASIBILITY STUDY INTO THE PRODUCTION OF A VALUE-ADDED

FUEL FROM EMPTY PALM OIL FRUIT BUNCHES BY PYROLYSIS

Abdullah, M.M., Faulkner, D., Hariraj, S., Hanson S.*, Selvarajoo, A. , Tee, C.Z.
Depeartment of Chemical and Environmental Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus
Jalan Broga
43500 Semenyih
tel: 03 8924 8128 fax: 0. 8924 8017
e-mail: svenja.hanson@nottingham.edu.my

biomass,; char; drying; empty fruit Bunches (EFB); pyrolysis

ABSTRACT
Empty fruit bunches (EFBs), like most raw biomass, suffer from high moisture contents, low calorific
values and a short ‘shelf-life’. With moisture contents in the order of 65%wt their value as a fuel is
limited. Storage without further processing leads to rapid degradation of the plant material. This makes
their utilisation as a fuel unattractive, unless there is heating demand on-site when they become available.
Simple processing steps such as drying and pyrolysis can produce a fuel that is valuable enough to be
stored, and even transported to another site if there is no on-site demand.
This project looks into the possibility of producing a char from EFBs. Moisture content was identified as
one of the determining factors and its impact on the pyrolysis product yield and char quality was
investigated experimentally.
Energy balance calculations were carried out to compare the increase in energy density from raw biomass
to char with the energy input required to achieve it. The variables under investigation were the drying
temperature and the final pyrolysis temperature.
Final temperature was found to have a far more significant impact than moisture content, but after a
suitable dwelling temperature has been selected, the addition of a drying stage can improve char yield and
quality, at an energy penalty which is likely to be smaller than anticipated.