Pyrolysis of solid palm waste biomass with microwave absorber under microwave irradiation

Abstract

Malaysian agro-industrial sector produces considerable quantity of solid palm waste biomass and potential exploitation of this waste residue is necessary for economic and environmental aspects. In this paper, Oil Palm Shell (OPS) waste biomass was subjected to multimode microwave pyrolysis at 2.54GHz with coconut activated carbon layers. The microwave power and N2 flow rate were varied to investigate its effects on heating profile, product distribution and bio-oil composition using fixed coconut activated carbon loading. The OPS surface and bed temperature, heating rate, pyrolysis product distribution and bio-oil composition was found to be dependent on microwave power and N2 flow rate. The highest bio-oil yield of 31 wt% was obtained both at 300W and 600W using 4LPM. The phenol content varied from 34.02-44.42% of GC-MS area with highest value at 300W and 8LPM. Bio-oil from this study also contained 1,1-dimethyl hydrazine of 7.04-13.01% of GC-MS area.