Effect of TIO2 and Red-Mud Impregnation on Pyrolysis of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch Biomass-OPEFB

Abstract

The production of pyrolysis product is known with inherent problem of oil generation. In this research work, oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) were impregnated with TiO2 and red-mud to improve the quality of the oil produced. The impregnation was enhanced by drying and calcinations at 1050C and 5500C. The study of the effect of TiO2 was carried out in a carbonate vapor depositor furnace reactor (CVD). The result shows that the pyrolysis of OPEFB impregnated TiO2 and red-mud increased the bio-oil yield from 28 wt. % for activated TiO2 to 31 wt. % for activated red-mud at the expense of char and gas yield at 5 wt. % impregnation ratio and 5000C pyrolysis Temperature. This was linked to the ability of TiO2 and red-mud to interact with the biomass and retain condensable compounds at temperature between (300-350)0C. Addition of TiO2 and red- mud above 10 wet % was found to reduce the overall liquid yield and promote gasification. The optimum impregnation ratio was found to be 5 wt. %. The oil produced from both OPEFB impregnated with TiO2 and red-mud were characterized using Fourier transform and infra-red (FT-IR), gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and elemental analysis (E.A). The FT-IR results showed that the oil produced from impregnated OPEFB contains less amine functional group which has detrimental effect on the quality of the bio-oil produced. For impregnation of OPEFB, besides enhancing its bio-oil yield, the impregnated TiO2 selectively produced sugars and O-ring compounds.