Analytical and microwave pyrolysis of empty oil palm fruit bunch: Kinetics and product characterization

• Published in: Bioresource technology 2020-08, Vol.310, p.123394-123394, Article 123394
• Main Authors: Francis Prashanth, P., Midhun Kumar, M., Vinu, R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ash content; Biofuels; Biomass; Elaeis guineensis; Empty oil palm fruit bunch; Fast pyrolysis; Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy; Fruit; fruits; gas chromatography; Hot Temperature; Kinetics; Microwave pyrolysis; Microwaves; Palm Oil; phenolic compounds; Py-FTIR; Py-GC/MS; Pyrolysis; spectrometers; technology; temperature
• ISSN: 0960-8524; 1873-2976
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.123394

[Display omitted] •Detailed study on analytical fast pyrolysis of washed and unwashed empty fruit bunch.•Apparent activation energy of fast pyrolysis was 30–39 kJ/mol.•High selectivity to long chain carboxylic acids (37%) in Py-GC/MS pyrolysates at 700 °C.•High selectivity to phenolic compounds (74%) in bio-crude from microwave pyrolysis.•Higher heating value of bio-crude from microwave pyrolysis was 30 MJ/kg. This study is focused on kinetics and product distribution from untreated empty oil palm fruit bunch (EOPFB) biomass and treated EOPFB using analytical pyrolysis combined with gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer and Fourier transform infrared spectrometer, and microwave pyrolysis. Industrial water wash led to significant reduction in ash content of EOPFB from 5.9 wt% to 0.7 wt%. Isothermal mass loss data collected in the temperature range of 400–700 °C showed that fast pyrolysis in the Pyroprobe® reactor followed diffusion-controlled kinetics with apparent activation energies of 30.4 and 39.6 kJ mol−1 for untreated and treated EOPFB, respectively. Analytical pyrolysis of untreated EOPFB resulted in high selectivity to fatty acids, while phenolics dominated the pyrolysates from treated EOPFB. The selectivities to phenolic compounds were 74% and 57% from treated and untreated EOPFB, respectively, via microwave pyrolysis. The higher heating values of bio-crude from microwave pyrolysis of untreated and treated EOPFB were 30.1 and 29.7 MJ kg−1, respectively.