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Effect of acid catalysts on hydrothermal carbonization of Malaysian oil palm residues (leaves, fronds, and shells) for hydrochar production

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Abstract

Malaysian oil palm industry produces a significant amount of oil palm residue as solid wastes. These solid wastes are comprised of oil palm residue which contains the stem, fronds from the farms, empty fruit bunch (EFB), mesocarp fibre (MF), and palm kernel shell (PKS) from the oil palm–processing factories. These residues are not successfully reused for other purposes, and the current dumping methods can possibly trigger unfavourable effects to the environment. As oil palm residues are a readily available waste biomass, it has a high potential to be converted into valuable energy-derived products. Hydrothermal carbonization (HTC), which is a thermochemical process, is a method used to treat biomass to produce hydrochar under hot-compressed water. Oil palm residues (palm leaves, palm fronds, and palm shell) were used as the feedstock for producing carbonaceous hydrochar. The key objective of this study is to examine the effect of the reaction temperature, residence time, and acid catalysts on the HTC process. HTC of oil palm residues was optimized at different operating temperatures from 140 to 300 °C and different reaction times between 30 and 240 minutes with a biomass-to-water ratio of 1:10 wt%. Acid catalysts such as citric acid and ascorbic acid were used for the HTC process. The hydrochar produced is further characterized using heating value and elemental and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. The yield of hydrochar reduces with the rise of temperature and time but it increases in the presence of acid catalysts. The carbon content of hydrochar is observed to be between 44.36 and 49.50%. The FTIR analysis showed that a high intensity at 1423 cm−1 indicates a high content of lignin and cellulose in the hydrochar. A considerable decrease in the H/C and O/C atomic ratio shows that the dehydration and decarboxylation take place during the HTC process.

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Funding

The present research received funding from Yayasan Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Perak, Malaysia (YUTP 015LC0-147 and YUTP-015LC0-091).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. HiCoE, Centre of Biofuel and Biochemical Research (CBBR), Institute of Self-Sustainable Building (ISB), Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Seri Iskandar, 32610, Perak, Malaysia

    Mariam Ameen

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Bandar Universiti Seri Iskandar, 32610, Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia

    Mariam Ameen, Nohanisah Mohammad Zamri & So Tsuk May

  3. Faculty of Chemical Engineering Technology, University Malaysia Perlis, Kompleks Pusat Pengajian Jejawi 3, 02600, Arau, Perlis, Malaysia

    Mohammad Tazli Azizan

  4. Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Industrial Technology, Institut Teknologi Bandung, Kota Bandung, Jawa Barat, 40132, Indonesia

    Aqsha Aqsha

  5. Department of Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia

    Nizamuddin Sabzoi

  6. School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Automotive Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Environmental and Computing, Coventry University, Coventry, CV1 5FB, UK

    Farooq Sher

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  1. Mariam Ameen
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  2. Nohanisah Mohammad Zamri
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  4. Mohammad Tazli Azizan
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Correspondence to Mohammad Tazli Azizan.

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Highlights

• Malaysian oil palm residue was converted into hydrochar via HTC.

• Palm shell generated a higher hydrochar yield than other residues.

• Weak acid catalyst increases the yield and carbon contents of hydrochar.

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Ameen, M., Zamri, N.M., May, S.T. et al. Effect of acid catalysts on hydrothermal carbonization of Malaysian oil palm residues (leaves, fronds, and shells) for hydrochar production. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 12, 103–114 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-020-01201-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-020-01201-2

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