i

PHYSICAL AND COMBUSTION PROPERTIES OF TORREFIED EMPTY FRUIT

BUNCH AFTER DENSIFICATION

MOHAMAD AMAR SHAHMIN BIN ZULKIFLEE

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the

requirement for the award of the degree of

Master of Science (Mechanical Engineering)

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

JANUARY 2017

brought to you by COREView metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk

provided by Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Institutional Repository

iii

Specially dedicated to my parents Zulkiflee Bin Daud and Zaleha Binti Ismail, my dear siblings, my supportive supervisor, Dr. Mohd Faizal Bin Hasan and my lovely friends.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

All the praise to ALLAH the All Mighty for His blessings and endowment that this

thesis has been successfully completed. I also wish to acknowledge and express my greatest

gratitude to the best responsible and supportive supervisor, Dr. Mohd Faizal Bin Hasan, who

had continuous, gave the encouragement, non-stop guidance and brilliant advice throughout

this whole project.

His invaluable knowledge and suggestion had developed and grown up my experience

and my skills in this engineering field. Apart from that, I like to appreciate and wish many

thanks to my family especially my parents who gave the fully moral and financial support to

fulfil and accomplish this project.

Special thanks also wished to all technicians of Thermodynamics and Solid Technology

Laboratory for their guidance in conducting experiment. Finally, special thanks to my course

mates, housemates, and friends for always understand and their great help during the process

to complete this project. May ALLAH bless us all.

v

ABSTRACT

Increasing demand of energy, depletion of the fossil fuel reserves and increasing in air

pollution have increased interest in biomass especially on palm biomass as a renewable energy

sources. However, untreated palm biomass which is empty fruit bunches, EFB has a couple

shortcomings such as high moisture content, low calorific value and energy density that cause

difficulty and high cost in storage and transportation. Therefore, it is important to perform

torrefaction and densification on EFB before it is used as renewable energy sources. In this

project, EFB biomass was torrefied at fixed conditions and then they were densified under

various heating temperature. The physical and combustion characteristics of the torrefied EFB

briquettes have been discussed. It is found that the briquetting temperature does not affect

density, calorific value and fixed carbon content significantly. These all characteristics most

influence to the torrefaction temperature. However, during briquetting temperature the

compressive strength of the torrefied briquettes increases. The performance of torrefied EFB

briquettes fulfils requirement as stated by standard DIN 51731 in terms of calorific value and

moisture content.

vi

ABSTRAK

Peningkatan permintaan kepada sumber tenaga, pengurangan simpanan bahan api fosil

dan peningkatan dalam pencemaran alam sekitar telah meningkatkan minat dalam pengunaan

tenaga biomas terutamanya tenaga biomas kelapa sawit sebagai sumber tenaga boleh

diperbaharui. Walau bagaimanapun, biomas kelapa sawit yang tidak dirawat seperti tandan

buah kosong, TKS mempunyai beberapa kelemahan seperti kandungan kelembapan yang

tinggi, nilai kalori yang rendah dan ketumpatan tenaga yang menyebabkan kesukaran dan kos

yang tinggi dalam penyimpanan dan pengangkutan. Oleh itu, adalah penting untuk

melaksanakan ‘torrefaction’ dan pemadatan pada TKS sebelum ia digunakan sebagai sumber

tenaga boleh diperbaharui. Dalam projek ini, TKS biomass telah di ‘torrefied’ pada situasi

malar dan kemudian di ‘densified’ di bawah pelbagai suhu pemanasan. Ciri-ciri fizikal dan

pembakaran ‘torrefied’ briket TKS telah dibincangkan. Ia didapati bahawa suhu ‘briquett ing’

tidak menjejaskan ketumpatan, nilai kalori dan kandungan karbon tetap dengan ketara. Semua

ciri-ciri ini lebih terpengaruh kepada suhu ‘torrefaction’. Walau bagaimanapun, semasa suhu

briquetting kekuatan mampatan ‘torrefied’ briket bertambah. Prestasi ‘torrefied’ briket EFB

memenuhi syarat seperti yang dinyatakan oleh piawai DIN 51731 dari segi nilai kalori dan

kandungan kelembapan.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

DECLARATION ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEGMENTS iv

ABSTRACT v

ABSTRAK vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

LIST OF TABLES x

LIST OF FIGURES xi

LIST OF APPENDICES xii

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Problem statement 2

1.3 Objective of project 3

1.4 Scope of project 3

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction 4

2.2 Biomass 5

2.3 Torrefaction 7

viii

2.4 Densification 15

2.5 Combination of torrefaction

and densification 20

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction 23

3.2 Raw material 24

3.3 Sample preparation 25

3.4 Torrefaction 26

3.5 Briquetting 28

3.6 Density 29

3.7 Compressive strength test 30

3.8 Calorific value 31

3.9 Proximate analysis 32

3.9.1 Moisture content 33

3.9.2 Volatile matter 33

3.9.3 Ash content 34

3.9.4 Fixed carbon 34

4 RESULTS AND DICUSSION

4.1 Calorific value and proximate analysis

for raw material 35

4.2 Physical characteristics 37

4.2.1 Density 37

4.2.2 Compressive strength 38

4.3 Combustion characteristics 39

4.3.1 Calorific values 39

4.3.2 Proximate analysis 40

ix

5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

5.1 Conclusion 41

5.2 Future works 42

LIST OF REFERENCES 43

Appendices A-D 47-52

x

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO. TITLE PAGE

2.1 Two major groups of biomass and their 5

subclassification

2.2 Growth rate of some aquatic biomass

expressed in dry tons per hectare per year 6

2.3 The thermochemical changes in biomass

during torrefaction process 8

2.4 Torrefaction temperature range as suggested

by different researches 9

2.5 Heating value of Torrefied oil palm EFB

Briquettes 12

2.6 Results of calorimetry for torrefied EFB, 12

mesocarp fiber and kernel shell

2.7 Proximate analysis of torrefied solid

olive mill residue 14

2.8 Proximate analysis of torrefied solid

olive mill residue biomass. 14

2.9 Relationship between shear strength

and die pressure 20

xi

2.10 Properties of wood torrefied,

wood pellets and TOP pellets 22

3.1 Standard used for proximate analysis 32

4.1 Gross calorific value for EFB raw material 34

xii

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO. TITLE PAGE

1.1 World primary energy demand in the

New Policies Scenario 2

2.1 Photos of raw materials and torrefied

samples 11

2.2 Change in calorific value versus

torrefaction temperature for three

different types of torrefied biomass 13

2.3 EFB (empty fruit bunch) biomass briquettes 15

2.4 The process flow for briquetting using

mechanical piston-type press 17

2.5 Dependence of briquette strength on

pressing temperature 18

2.6 Gross calorific value versus

compaction pressure 19

2.7 Bulk density of wood chip, wood particle

and wood pellet of eucalyptus at

different torrefaction temperature 21

2.8 Volumetric energy density of wood chip,

particle and pellet of eucalyptus

at different torrefaction temperature 21

xiii

2.9 Pathway for making torrefied pellet 23

3.1 Experiment framework 24

3.2 Sieved EFB 25

3.3 Experiment set up for torrefaction 26

3.4 Aluminium beaker with diameter

of 7.5cm 27

3.5 INSTRON 600 DX Universal

Testing Machine 29

3.6 Instron 600dx 30

3.7 Bomb Calorimeter

3.8 Furnace 1200 for proximate analysis 31

4.1 Proximate analysis of EFB raw material 35

4.2 Side view of torrefied briquettes 36

4.3 Relaxed density of torrefied briquettes 37

4.4 Compressive strength of torrefied briquettes 38

4.5 Calorific value of raw material,

torrefied and torrefied briquettes of EFB 39

4.6 Proximate analysis for raw material

and torrefied briquettes of EFB 40

xiv

LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX TITTLE PAGE

A Density 47

B Compressive strength test 48

C Calorific value 49

D Proximate analysis 52

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Energy is an essential part in life, survival, and improvement of humanity. Despite the

fact that is has been superseded by other more intense fossil energy sources amid the most

recent 200 years, biomass has assumed a noteworthy part in supplying energy.

Malaysian palm oil industry produces high amount of biomass especially from oil

milling sector. Malaysian oil palm industry continues to expand to fulfill the demand of rapid

market growth. In general for 1 ton of fresh fruit bunch processed, the following residues are

generated which 0.23 ton of Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB), 0.13 ton of mesocarp fibre, 0.06 ton

of palm shell and 0.65 ton of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) (Prabir Basu, 2008).

The upgrading techniques of biomass have been generally studied to upgrade its

undesirable properties. The torrefaction of raw biomass is an updating technique that is a

thermochemical treatment with working temperature within the range of 200 to 300℃.

Torrefaction is one of the pretreatment for biomass. It involves heat treatment at a certain

temperature of range for a specific period of time. This process would result in a lower

moisture content, increased calorific value and ease to grind. Densification is additionally

another pre-treatment technique intended to improve the physical characteristic of biomass

such as density. Densification process is a process to compress the raw material to form

densified biomass by rolling it through a die (Prabir Basu, 2008).

2

1.2 Problem Statement

To cope the increasing demand of energy because of economic activities, increment in

level of population and development of advanced energy technologies, it has become very

important to seek alternative energy sources. It can be said from medium variant projection,

world population is anticipated to grow by 0.9% per year on average because of increase in

fertility rates. Definitely this will increase interest for goods and service.

That is why demand for the energy is needed, to produce and operate equipment used to

provide those services. Figure 1 shows that renewable energy demand grows faster than other

sources of energy from 14% to 19% in the future demand. In addition to depletion of fossil

fuels and increase in air pollution have increased the interest in renewable energy sources

such as wind, sunlight based, geothermal, wave, sea thermal and biomass. Among that,

biomass is the without a doubt as one of the energy sources.

(Figure 1): World primary energy demand in the New Policies Scenario

(World energy outlook 2015)

To utilize biomass as an energy source, there are many various transformation

strategies such as torrefaction, pyrolysis, direct combustion and gasification. In any case, an

untreated biomass has a couple of shortcomings that must be overcome before it can be

29%

31%

21%

5%14%

201513 361 Mtoe

CoalOilGasNuclearRenewables

24%

26%24%

7%

19%

204018 290 Mtoe

3

converted into useful energy source. These include its high moisture content and low energy

density that can impact the burning properties such as calorific value (Ahmad et al., 2011).

These incorporate its low vitality thickness, high dampness substance and trouble to

pound into little particles. The low vitality thickness and high dampness substance of biomass

can impact the burning properties, for example, calorific quality (Ahmad et al., 2011).

These disadvantages likewise make the cost of transporting the biomass becomes

high. In order to increase the efficiency and to reduce the costs of storage and transportation,

biomass can be treated via heating in an inert temperature, a process that is known as

torrefaction. To increase the energy density, torrefied biomass can be compress into pellet or

briquettes and this is known as densification process.

1.3 Objective of Project

The main objective of this experiment is to understand the physical and combustion

properties of torrefied palm biomass after densification.

1.4 Scope of Project

The scopes that have been determined for the study are:

1. Empty fruit bunch (EFB) will be used as raw material.

2. Physical (Density compressive strength) and combustion (calorific value, proximate

analysis) characteristics will be investigated.

3. The parameter varied is briquetting temperature.

43

REFERENCES

Ahmad, M.M., M.F. Aziz, A. Inayat and S. Yusup, (2011). Heat integration study on biomass

gasification plant for hydrogen production. 2011, Centre of Biofuel and Biochemical

Research, University Technology PETRONAS, November.

Akash Kewalram Ramani, (2009). Biomass a profitable energy resources. 2009, IEEEP

Karachi Centre, Pakistan, March.

Arias, B., Pevida, C., Fermoso, J. Plaza, M. Rubiera, F. Pis, (2008). Influence of torrefaction

on the grindability and reactivity of woody biomass. 2008, Institute Nacional Del

Carbon, Oviedo, Spain, February.

Amin A. Jaafar, and Murni M. Ahmad, (2011). Torrefaction of Malaysian palm kernel shell

into value-added solid fuels. 2011, Chemical Engineering Department, University

Technology PETRONAS, Malaysia, May.

A.B. Nasrin, Y.M. Choo, W.S. Lim, L. Joseph, S.M, M.H. Rohaya, A.A Astimar, and

S.K.Loh, (2011). Briquetting of empty fruit bunch fibre and palm shell as a renewable

energy fuel. 2011, Engineering and Processing Research Division, Bangi, Malaysia,

June.

Bahman Ghiasi, Linoj Kumar, Takaaki Furubayashi, C. Jim Lim, Xiaotao Bi, Chang Soo

Kim, Shahab Sokhansanj, (2014). Densified biocoal from woodchips: It is better to do

torrefaction before or after densification. 2014, Department of Management Science

& Technology, Graduate School of Engineering, Japan, August.

43

Bridgeman, T.G., Jones, J.M., Williams, A., Waldron, D.J., (2008). Torrefaction of reed

canary grass, wheat straw and willow to enhance solid fuel qualities and combustion

properties. 2008, Energy & Resources Research Institute, School of Process,

Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Leeds, UK, June.

Bergman, P.C.A., Prins, M.J., Boersma, A.R., Ptasinski, K.J., Kiel, J.H.A., Janssen, F.J.J.G.,

(2005). Combined torrefaction and palletization. 2005, Energy Research Centre of the

Netherlands, March.

Bemgba Bevan Nyakuma, Anwar Johari, Arshad Ahmad, Tuan Amran Tuan Abdullah,

(2014). Comparative analysis of the calorific fuel properties of empty fruit bunch

fiber and briquette. 2014, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, University Technology

Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia, August.

Deng, J., G.Wang, J. Kuang, Y. Zhang and Y.Luo, (2009). Pretreatment of agricultural

residues for co-gasification via torrefaction. 2009, Institute of Thermal Energy

Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, November.

Demirbas, A., A. Sahin-Demirba, and A. Hilal Demirba, (2004). Briquetting properties of

biomass waste materials. 2004, Department of Chemical Engineering, Selcuk

University, Konya, Turkey, May.

Gilbert, P., Ryu, C. Sharifi, V. Swithenbank, J., (2009). Effect of process parameters on

palletization of herbaceous crops. 2009, Department of Chemical and Process

Engineering, Sheffield University, Sheffield, August.

Grover, P. D. and S. K. Mishra, (1996). Biomass briquetting: Technology and Practices.

1996, Energy Development Programmed in Asia, Food and Agricultural

Organization of the United Nations, Bangkok , March.

Hill, B. and D. A. Pulkinen, (1988). A study of factors affecting pellet durability and

pelleting efficiency in the production of dehydrated alfalfa pellets. 1988,

Saskatchewan Dehydrators Association, Tisdale, SK, Canada, August.

44

H. M. Faizal , Z. A. L., Mazlan A. Wahid, Darus A. N., (2009). Physical and combustion

characteristics of biomass residues from palm oil mills. 2009, Department of

Mechanical Engineering, University Technology Malaysia, Malaysia, June.

IFP (2007). Potential biomass mobilization for biofuel production worldwide. 2007,

Innovation Energy Environment, Europe. <www.ifp.fr/>.

Jaya Shankar Tumuluru, Shahab Sokhansanj, C.T. Wright, J.R. Hess, R.D. Boardman,

(2011). A review on biomass torrefaction process and product properties. 2011, Idaho

National Laboratory, Idaho, USA, August.

Klass, D.L., (1998). Biomass for Renewable Energy, Fuels, and Chemicals. 1998, Entech

International, Inc. Barrington, Illinois, United States, October.

Kaliyan and Morey, (2009). Factors affecting strength and durability of densified biomass

products. 2009, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University

of Minnesota, USA, March.

Kers, J. K., P., Letko, M. Soos, L. Kask, U. & Gregor, A, (2010). Mechanical recycling of

compounded polymeric waste and evaluation of briquetting parameters. 2010,

Industrial Engineering, Estonia, Europe, April.

KMEC Engineering (2013). Making Biomass Briquettes. 2013, KMEC Engineering, China.

<www.chinakmec.com/>.

Loppinet-Serani, A., Aymonier, C., Cansel, F., (2008). Current and foreseeable applications

of supercritical water for energy and the environment. 2008, Chemical Institution,

University Bordeaux, France, January.

M. Shafiq Nazri, (2015). Densification of palm biomass with plastics waste addition. 2015,

Department of Mechanical Engineering, University Technology Malaysia, Malaysia,

June.

45

Nemika Cellatoglu and Mustafa Illkan, (2015). Torrefaction of solid olive mill residue. 2015,

Department of Physics, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta, Turkey,

October.

Nimlos, N.M., Emily, B., Micheal and Robert, (2003). Biomass torrefaction studies with a

molecular beam mass spectrophotometer. 2003, National Bioenergy Center, National

Renewable Energy Laboratory Golden, Colorado, August.

Prabir Basu, Biomass Gasification, Pyrolysis and Torrefaction Reference Book Second

Edition, Elsevier Inc. Education, 2013.

Prins, M., Krzysztof, P. & Frans, (2006). Torrefaction of woods, Part 2: Analysis of products.

2006, Eindhoven University of Technology, Environmental Technology Group,

Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Netherlands, August.

Samy Sadaka and Sunita Negi, (2009). Improvement of biomass physical and

thermochemical characteristics via torrefaction process. 2009, University of Arkansas

Division of Agriculture, United States, August.

Stelt, M.J.C., Gerhauser, H., Kiel, J.H.A., Ptasinski, K.J., (2011). Biomass upgrading by

torrefaction for the production of biofuels. 2011, Eindhoven University of Technology,

Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Netherlands, June.

S.A. Sulaiman and M.I Anas, (2012). Torrefaction of oil palm fronds for enhancement of fuel

quality. 2012, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University Technology

PETRONAS, Malaysia, July.

Tabil, L. G., S. Sokhansanj, and R. T. Tyler, (1997). Performance of different binders during

alfalfa pelleting. 1997, Canadian Agricultural Engineering, Canada, January.

46

World Energy Outlook, 2015. Energy demand in the new policies scenario, International

Energy Agency, France, p. 57.

Weerapong Wattananoi, O. Khumsak, N. Worasuwannarak, (2011). Upgrading of biomass by

torrefaction and densification process. 2011, University of Technology Thonburi,

Bangkok, Thailand, May.

Yoshimitsu Uemera, Wissam N. Omar, Toshio Tsutsui, Suzana Yusup, (2011). Torrefaction

of oil palm wastes. 2011, Department of Chemical Engineering, University

Technology PETRONAS, Malaysia and Kagoshima University, Japan, March.

‘

Z. Husain, Z. Z., Z. Abdullah (2002). Briquetting of palm fiber and shell from the processing

of palm nuts to palm oil. 2002, School of Mechanical Engineering, University Science

Malaysia, Malaysia, June.