Bio-oil from pyrolysis of pre-treated empty palm fruit bunch (EPFB)

Abstract

The pyrolysis of four EPFB samples, one without pretreatment and three pre-treated with enzymes (LiP, MnP and LiP+MnP) were performed to investigate the differences in product compositions among the feeds. Heavy and lighter fractions in the bottom and upper layers were produced for all samples. The chemical compounds were classified into four categories, namely hydrocarbon compounds, oxygenated, nitrogenated and others. All the three treated EPFB (LiPtreated, MnP-treated and LiP+MnP-treated) produced high yield of hydrocarbons as compared to the original untreated substrate. The highest hydrocarbon yield was obtained when the two enzymes LiP and MnP were combined. The yield being 49.5% was 2.7 times higher than the ' untreated EPFB. Both LiP and MnP-treated samples gave yields of 43.1% and 34.9%, respectively, which is 2.3 and 1.9 times higher than the untreated samples. The untreated sample however produced higher yield of oxygenated and nitrogenated compounds. The yields were approximately 60% and 20%, respectively. GC-MS analysis demonstrated that the pyrolysis of enzyme-treated EPFB has increased the production of hydrocarbons significantly with the major compounds to be aromatics. The highest aromatics yield at 39.5% was observed with the LiP + MnP treated sample. The pre-treatment method offers a promising means of biofuel production for industrial application due to the simplicity of the pretreatment process and the enhanced hydrocarbons production.