Palm Kernel Shell (PKS) of Oil Palm Waste Pyrolytic Bio-Oil for Bio-Fuel Products

The worldâ??s demands on the limited natural resources that are used to power industrial society are diminishing as the demand rises. In complementing the petroleum industry to overcome worldwide energy crisis and to reduce greenhouse gas emission, bio-fuel has emerged as a compelling renewable energy source. In this paper, bio-oil is produced by pyrolysis method, a widely accepted feasible thermal conversion process in the absence of oxygen. The biomass used are palm kernel shells (PKS), one of the main oil palm tree residues which are now extensively sold as complementary fuel around the world. The process was performed in a microwave pyrolyzer at a temperature of 350 °C and a reaction time of 90 min with the use of 0.25-0.50 mm of ground PKS sample. The bio-oil produced is treated via distillation technique to yield both residue and distillate. This paper summarizes the characterization of PKS pyrolytic bio-oil before and after distillation (residue and distillate), and further determines similarities in terms of compositions between bio-oil and petroleum product which in this case is gasoline. Results obtained from FTIR, GC-MS and GC-FID analysis identified the existence of desired organic compounds, specifically benzene, xylene and phenol groups in PKS pyrolytic bio-oil. Acid value of the samples were also determined and the distillate shows low acidity which indicates low corrosivity of the samples. However, the calorific values obtained were much lower as compared to gasolineâ??s due to high water content in the PKS bio-oil. It can be concluded that distillation of PKS bio-oil does improve the quality of the bio-oil but further modification or improvement on the distillation or treatment method needs to be done with the aim of reducing the water content of bio-oil.

Keywords: Renewable energy, Energy Crisis, Pyrolysis, Bio-oil, Palm Kernel Shell.