Effect of additives on the ash element from combustion of palm fiber and shell

Abstract

Palm fibre and shell (F&S) are commonly used in the combustion process to produce steam and electricity in palm oil mills in Malaysia. Unfortunately, the combustion process releases various types of elements that tends to react with each other contributing to operational and environmental issues. Thus, this motivated, a study to evaluate the concentration of the elements such as C, O, Si, K, and Al in the ash with the presence of two combustion additive which are Kaolin and PreKotTM. The study was performed by simulating the industrial combustion in a laboratory-scale fluidised-bed reactor with addition of the additives at 8% ratio from the 40 g total weight of each sample at 800°C with the supply of 50% excess air at 1.24 L/min air flow. The ash residue were investigated for elemental composition on the ash surface. Interestingly, the study showed that the concentration of the element on the ash surface increased with the addition of additives especially at a 50% ratio of Kaolin and PreKotTM. The higher concentration of the element on the ash surface indicates the reduction of fine particulate. Hence, the study revealed that addition of Kaolin & PrekotTM in combustion process has a promising future not only within palm oil industry but also other industry.