Farid Nasir Ani

Preparing activated carbon from various nutshells by chemical activation with K2CO3

We have prepared activated carbons by chemical activation with K2CO3 from five kinds of nutshells: almond shell (AM), coconut shell (CN), oil palm shell (OP), pistachio shell (PT) and walnut shell (WN). When prepared at 1073 K, the activated carbons from all the nutshells had the maximum specific surface areas. According to the maximum values of specific surface areas, the activated carbons prepared were classified into two groups: Group-L and Group-S; the former group included activated carbons with high specific surface area and the latter included those with lower specific surface area, respectively. It was found that K2CO3 effectively worked as an activation reagent, but differently in the temperature ranges below 800 and above 900 K. Due to impregnation, cellulose and hemi-cellulose were modified by K2CO3 and accordingly the weight loss behaviors of the nutshells were changed in the temperature range below 800 K. In the temperature range above 900 K, carbon in the chars was removed as CO gas by the reduction of K2CO3 to increase the specific surface area and the pore volume. It was deduced that the difference between the specific surface areas of Group-L and those of Group-S correspond to the difference between weight loss behaviors in the temperature range above 900 K.

Microwave induced pyrolysis of oil palm biomass

The purpose of this paper was to carry out microwave induced pyrolysis of oil palm biomass (shell and fibers) with the help of char as microwave absorber (MA). Rapid heating and yield of microwave pyrolysis products such as bio-oil, char, and gas was found to depend on the ratio of biomass to microwave absorber. Temperature profiles revealed the heating characteristics of the biomass materials which can rapidly heat-up to high temperature within seconds in presence of MA. Some characterization of pyrolysis products was also presented. The advantage of this technique includes substantial reduction in consumption of energy, time and cost in order to produce bio-oil from biomass materials. Large biomass particle size can be used directly in microwave heating, thus saving grinding as well as moisture removal cost. A synergistic effect was found in using MA with oil palm biomass.

Pyrolysis and combustion kinetics of date palm biomass using thermogravimetric analysis

The present research work is probably the first attempt to focus on the kinetics of pyrolysis and combustion process for date palm biomass wastes like seed, leaf and leaf stem by using Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) technique. The physical properties of biomass wastes were also examined. Proximate and ultimate analysis of the date palm biomass was investigated. FT-IR analysis was conducted to determine possible chemical functional groups in the biomass. Results showed that date palm seed and leaf can be characterized as high calorific values and high volatile content biomass materials as compared to the leaf stem. Kinetic analysis of this biomass was also given a particular attention. It is concluded that these biomasses can become useful source of energy, chemicals and bio-char.

Pyrolytic oil from fluidised bed pyrolysis of oil palm shell and itscharacterisation

Biomass in the form of oil palm shellwas pyrolysed in an externally heated 5 cm diameter, 30 cm high fluidised bed pyrolysis reactorwith nitrogen as the fluidising gas and silica sand as the bed material. The pyrolysis oil wascollected in a series of condenser and ice-cooled collectors. The char was collected separatelywhile the gases were flared. The effects of process conditions, like fluidised bed reactortemperature, feed size and fluidisation gas flow rate on the product yields were studied. Theproduct yields were found to be significantly influenced by the process conditions. Thecomposition of oil was determined at fluidised bed temperature of 500°C at which the liquidproduct yield was maximum. The oil was analysed by Fourier Transform infra-red (FTIR)spectroscopy and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) techniques. In addition, thephysical properties of the oil were determined. The results showed that the oil was highlyoxygenated containing a high fraction of phenol-based compounds. Detailed analysis of the oilshowed that there was no concentration of biologically active polycyclic aromatic species in theoil. A brief preliminary economic analysis is presented at the end of the paper (see Appendix). ©1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Techno-economics of rice husk pyrolysis, conversion with catalytic treatment to produce liquid fuel

A study was carried out on the techno-economic analysis of the primary pyrolysis process and pyrolysis process with catalytic treatment converting rice husk waste to pyrolysis oil and solid char. The processes considered for detailed analysis were Fluidised Bed Fast Pyrolysis (FBFP) and Fluidised Bed Fast Pyrolysis with Catalytic Treatment (FBFPCT). The assessment was carried out in US

Pyrolysis of oil palm empty fruit bunch biomass pellets using multimode microwave irradiation

for three different-scale plants, of feed throughput 0.3, 100 and 1000 kg/h. The assessment showed that FBFP was economically better than FBFPCT for the production of primary pyrolysis oil that could be used as boiler fuel oil and for the production of catalytically treated, upgraded, liquid-products. The FBFP 1000 kg/h plant unit appeared to be economically feasible, with the lowest unit production cost of primary pyrolysis oil.

A new technique to pyrolyse biomass in a microwave system: effect of stirrer speed

Oil palm empty fruit bunch pellets were subjected to pyrolysis in a multimode microwave (MW) system (1 kW and 2.45 GHz frequency) with and without the MW absorber, activated carbon. The ratio of biomass to MW absorber not only affected the temperature profiles of the EFB but also pyrolysis products such as bio-oil, char, and gas. The highest bio-oil yield of about 21 wt.% was obtained with 25% MW absorber. The bio-oil consisted of phenolic compounds of about 60-70 area% as detected by GC-MS and confirmed by FT-IR analysis. Ball lightning (plasma arc) occurred due to residual palm oil in the EFB biomass without using an MW absorber. The bio-char can be utilized as potential alternative fuel because of its heating value (25 MJ/kg).

Optimization and characterization of bio-oil produced by microwave assisted pyrolysis of oil palm shell waste biomass with microwave absorber

A new technique to pyrolyse biomass in microwave (MW) system is presented in this paper to solve the problem of bio-oil deposition. Pyrolysis of oil palm shell (OPS) biomass was conducted in 800 W and 2.45 GHz frequency MW system using an activated carbon as a MW absorber. The temperature profile, product yield and the properties of the products were found to depend on the stirrer speed and MW absorber percentage. The highest bio-oil yield of 28 wt.% was obtained at 25% MW absorber and 50 rpm stirrer speed. Bio-char showed highest calorific value of the 29.5 MJ/kg at 50% MW absorber and 100 rpm stirrer speed. Bio-oil from this study was rich in phenol with highest detected as 85 area% from the GC-MS results. Thus, OPS bio-oil can become potential alternative to petroleum-based chemicals in various phenolic based applications.

Carbon molecular sieves produced from oil palm shell for air separation

In this study, solid oil palm shell (OPS) waste biomass was subjected to microwave pyrolysis conditions with uniformly distributed coconut activated carbon (CAC) microwave absorber. The effects of CAC loading (wt%), microwave power (W) and N2 flow rate (LPM) were investigated on heating profile, bio-oil yield and its composition. Response surface methodology based on central composite design was used to study the significance of process parameters on bio-oil yield. The coefficient of determination (R(2)) for the bio-oil yield is 0.89017 indicating 89.017% of data variability is accounted to the model. The largest effect on bio-oil yield is from linear and quadratic terms of N2 flow rate. The phenol content in bio-oil is 32.24-58.09% GC-MS area. The bio-oil also contain 1,1-dimethyl hydrazine of 10.54-21.20% GC-MS area. The presence of phenol and 1,1-dimethyl hydrazine implies that the microwave pyrolysis of OPS with carbon absorber has the potential to produce valuable fuel products.

A study on large scale cultivation of Microcystis aeruginosa under open raceway pond at semi-continuous mode for biodiesel production

Gas separation technology by adsorption processes has been widely applied in many related industries, such as petrochemicals, biochemical, environmental technology, oil and gas industries. Oil palm solid waste, the palm shell, was utilized to prepare carbon molecular sieve (CMS) by carbonization for air separation. The effect of different carbonization temperatures on the pore structures and adsorptive properties for oxygen and nitrogen was investigated. CO2 was used as the probing adsorbate at 298 K to characterize the micropore volume and surface area of the CMS. The efficiency in kinetic based separation of air, i.e. selective adsorption of oxygen from nitrogen, was evaluated from the adsorption capacity curves. Results showed that within 1 min of time, one of the samples had shown excellent separation capability, and the O2/N2 selectivity as high as 48 could be obtained. This kinetic selectivity of air was greatly influenced by the carbonization temperatures. The excessive heat at high temperatures has reduced the micropore volume and surface area of the adsorbents, but it has enhanced the oxygen-selective pathway compared with nitrogen. However, the excellent selectivity has affected the overall adsorption capacity to become lower due to the reduction in micropore volume. This study has identified the palm shell as the potential starting material in the preparation of CMS.