Gasification of Biochar from Empty Fruit Bunch in a Fluidized Bed Reactor

M. A. Mohd Salleh, Nsamba Hussein Kisiki, H. M. Yusuf and W. A. Wan Ab Karim Ghani
Additional contact information
M. A. Mohd Salleh: Department of Chemical and Enviromental Engineering Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Malaysia
Nsamba Hussein Kisiki: Department of Chemical and Enviromental Engineering Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Malaysia
H. M. Yusuf: Department of Chemical and Enviromental Engineering Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Malaysia
W. A. Wan Ab Karim Ghani: Department of Chemical and Enviromental Engineering Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Malaysia

Energies, 2010, vol. 3, issue 7, 1-9

Abstract: A biochar produced from empty fruit bunches (EFB) was gasified in a fluidized bed using air to determine gas yield, overall carbon conversion, gas quality, and composition as a function of temperature. The experiment was conducted in the temperature range of 500–850 °C. It was observed that biochar has the potential to replace coal as a gasification agent in power plants. Hydrogen gas from biochar was also optimized during the experiment. High temperatures favor H 2 and CO formation. There was an increase of H 2 over the temperature range from 500–850 °C from 5.53% to 27.97% (v/v), with a heating value of 30 kJ/g. The C conversion in the same temperature range increased from 76% to 84%. Therefore, there are great prospects for the use of biochar from EFB as an alternative fuel in power plants, as a renewable energy providing an alternative path to biofuels. Results from this work enable us to better understand syn gas production under high treatment temperatures.

Keywords: biochar; fluidized bed; empty fruit bunch; gasification; hydrogen gas (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/3/7/1344/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/3/7/1344/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:3:y:2010:i:7:p:1344-1352:d:8851

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().