Thermal Transformation of Palm Waste to High-Quality Hydrocarbon Fuel
1
Department of Chemical Science, Faculty of Science, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Universiti, Barat, Kampar 31900, Perak, Malaysia
2
SW Ecolife Enterprise, Taman Bandar Baru, Kampar 31900, Perak, Malaysia
3
Department of Chemistry and Environmental Science, Medgar Evers College, The City University of New York, 1638 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11225, USA
4
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 05840, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Fuels 2020, 1(1), 2-14; https://doi.org/10.3390/fuels1010002
Received: 27 May 2020 / Revised: 2 August 2020 / Accepted: 6 August 2020 / Published: 11 August 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Feature Papers in Fuels)
Empty fruit bunches (EFB) are waste products in the palm oil industry. Upon pressing of EFB, a liquor is produced which contains low grade fats, oils, and greases (FOG). These are the least valuable products of palm oil production, and are often discarded as waste. It is shown here that the EFB pressed liquor can be thermally transformed at or below 350 °C to produce a series of hydrocarbons in the range of kerosene and diesel fuel. This is distinctly different from other studies of biofuels from palm oil, which were based entirely on biodiesel (fatty acid methyl ester (FAME)) and biogas production. Furthermore, this transformation takes place without addition of an external catalyst, as was shown by comparison to reactions with the potential Lewis acid catalysts, ferric sulfate, and molecular sieves. The product distribution is similar to that obtained from brown grease, another waste FOG stream obtained from the sewage treatment industry, although the products from palm oil waste are less sensitive to reaction conditions.
View Full-Text
Keywords:
palm oil waste; hydrocarbon fuel; thermal transformation
▼
Show Figures
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Kuan, C.Y.; Neng, M.L.Y.; Chan, Y.-B.; Sim, Y.-L.; Strothers, J.; Pratt, L.M. Thermal Transformation of Palm Waste to High-Quality Hydrocarbon Fuel. Fuels 2020, 1, 2-14. https://doi.org/10.3390/fuels1010002
AMA Style
Kuan CY, Neng MLY, Chan Y-B, Sim Y-L, Strothers J, Pratt LM. Thermal Transformation of Palm Waste to High-Quality Hydrocarbon Fuel. Fuels. 2020; 1(1):2-14. https://doi.org/10.3390/fuels1010002
Chicago/Turabian StyleKuan, Chai Y.; Neng, Mark L.Y.; Chan, Yu-Bin; Sim, Yoke-Leng; Strothers, Joel; Pratt, Lawrence M. 2020. "Thermal Transformation of Palm Waste to High-Quality Hydrocarbon Fuel" Fuels 1, no. 1: 2-14. https://doi.org/10.3390/fuels1010002
Find Other Styles