Sustainable Production of Value-Added Products from Fast Pyrolysis of Palm Shell Residue in Tandem Micro-Reactor and Pilot Plant

Abstract

The objective of this research is to develop and utilize bio-oil collected from palm shell through optimization of pyrolysis conditions and quantitative chemical characterization. To recover maximum value-added chemicals, the fast pyrolysis of palm shell was conducted in a tandem micro-reactor followed by the generation of bio-oil in a fluidized bed pilot plant. The experimental results from tandem micro-reactor showed that the high yield of value-added products such as anhydrosugars (levoglucosan, cellobiosan), and aromatics (phenols, guaicol) was obtained at a temperature of 500 °C and particle size of 600 μm. The higher temperatures favoured the production of carboxylic acids (acetic acids, propionic acid) and furans (hydroxymethyl furfural, furfural) accompanied by a reduction of aromatics from 6.5 wt% to 3.6 wt%. The maximum bio-oil yield obtained was approximately 60 wt% for a feeding rate of 100 g/h, particle size of 600 μm and temperature of 500 °C in the pilot plant. A GC-MS chromatography connected to the system indicated that the pyrolytic gas was predominantly composed of CO<inf>2</inf>. The experimental results and the subsequent physicochemical characteristics confirmed that the palm residue has the potential to be a good feedstock for pyrolysis process to produce biochemicals or biofuels. © 2019