Co-Gasification Characteristics of Biomass Palm Oil By-Products and Coal

In the palm oil manufacturing process, palm empty fruit bunches (EFB), which account for more than 20 wt. % of palm fresh fruit bunches (FFB), is generated as a byproduct. Although large amounts of EFB are generated every year in Indonesia and Malaysia, EFB is treated as waste because appropriate technologies for the thermo-chemical conversion of EFB into renewable energy are still in development. In this study co-gasification experiments were performed with EFB and coal. From the results of EFB gasification, the co-gasification operating conditions were optimized for the production of syngas and the optimum mixed ratio of coal with around 20 wt. % was determined for better yield of syngas from co-gasification process. Finally, an assessment was performed to evaluate the applicability of the co-gasification of EFB and coal. As a result, the syngas yield was similar that of EFB gasification, approximately 70 vol. %. The heating value was higher with the value of around 3,000 kcal/m3 than that of EFB gasification with below 1,000 kcal/m3. However, the dry gas yield and cold gas efficiency were lower than EFB gasification; thus, further research focusing on coal is needed because this experiment focused only on EFB.