Co-gasification of pretreated palm kernel shell and Mukah Balingian coal / Razi Ahmad

Abundant of biomass in Malaysia such as palm waste has a great potential as renewable energy resource. Utilization of low rank coal offers a good prospective to replace high rank coal in gasification. However, there are restriction in individual gasification and limitation of biomass and low rank co...

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Main Author: Ahmad, Razi
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2019
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Online Access:https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/83257/1/83257.pdf
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spelling my-uitm-ir.832572023-12-08T00:07:58Z Co-gasification of pretreated palm kernel shell and Mukah Balingian coal / Razi Ahmad 2019 Ahmad, Razi Biomass Abundant of biomass in Malaysia such as palm waste has a great potential as renewable energy resource. Utilization of low rank coal offers a good prospective to replace high rank coal in gasification. However, there are restriction in individual gasification and limitation of biomass and low rank coal due to poor characteristics. Therefore, samples pretreatment prior to co-gasification are desirable to overcome the problems. In this research, co-gasification of palm kernel shell (PKS) and Mukah Balingian (MB) low rank coal was carried out in a fixed bed reactor with steam as co-gasification agent. In the first objective, PKS and MB were subjected to two different pretreatments i.e. torrefaction and microwave irradiation. The results showed that the properties of both pretreated PKS and MB were improved, where the mass and energy yield, volatile matter, moisture and oxygen content reduced, while the energy density, calorific value, fixed carbon and carbon content increased with increasing pretreatment temperature and microwave power. Torrefied PKS (PKSTo) at 270 °C, preheated MB (MBPr) at 250 °C and microwave irradiated PKS (PKSMi) and MB (MBMi) at 450 W demonstrated a good quality feedstock to be used in co-gasification. Moreover, at preferred parameters, the kinetic analysis displays low activation energy of 96.11 and 119.6 kJ/mol for PKSTo and MBPr, respectively. In the second objective, the co-gasification parameters were optimized to maximize the gas production using response surface methodology (RSM). The results verified that the effect of the independent variables, i.e. gasification temperature, biomass blending ratio and steam flow rate on response variables i.e. gas, tar and char yield were significant due to p-value of less than 0.05. The optimum conditions for gasification temperature, biomass blending ratio and steam flow rate were at 767 °C, 52 % and 54 ml/min, correspondingly. These optimum conditions produced maximum gas yield of 67.3 % with minimum char and tar yield of 20.8 % and 11.9 %, respectively. In the third objective, the comparison between co-gasification of both untreated (PKSUn/MBUn), PKSTo and untreated MB (PKSTo/MBUn) and pretreated (PKSTo/MBPr) blending were evaluated on product yields and gases composition via optimize conditions. The outcomes revealed that, co-gasification of both pretreated samples produced high gas yield due to characteristic enhancement of pretreated samples. The PKSTo/MBPr sample improved the H2 production by 63.9 % than PKSUn/MBUn at 45 min reaction time. High H2 production is in accordance with the high quantity of carbon content in PKSTo/MBPr compared to the PKSUn/MBUn. In the fourth objective, the optimization parameters of catalytic co-gasification was explored. The gasification temperature of 735 °C, catalyst ratio of 12 % and steam flow rate of 51 ml/min produced maximum gas yield of 67.5 %. The catalytic co-gasification shows minor enhancement of 4 % on H2 composition. As a conclusion, the pretreatment approaches on PKS and MB prior to co-gasification is a promising method in enhancing product distribution, specifically on the hydrogen production. Accordingly, the pretreatment on both biomass and low rank coal prior to co-gasification without the catalyst addition that contributed to positive synergy on gas yield and hydrogen production was a novelty and new contribution in this study. 2019 Thesis https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/83257/ https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/83257/1/83257.pdf text en public phd doctoral Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Faculty of Applied Science Ismail, Khuzir
institution Universiti Teknologi MARA
collection UiTM Institutional Repository
language English
advisor Ismail, Khuzir
topic Biomass
spellingShingle Biomass
Ahmad, Razi
Co-gasification of pretreated palm kernel shell and Mukah Balingian coal / Razi Ahmad
description Abundant of biomass in Malaysia such as palm waste has a great potential as renewable energy resource. Utilization of low rank coal offers a good prospective to replace high rank coal in gasification. However, there are restriction in individual gasification and limitation of biomass and low rank coal due to poor characteristics. Therefore, samples pretreatment prior to co-gasification are desirable to overcome the problems. In this research, co-gasification of palm kernel shell (PKS) and Mukah Balingian (MB) low rank coal was carried out in a fixed bed reactor with steam as co-gasification agent. In the first objective, PKS and MB were subjected to two different pretreatments i.e. torrefaction and microwave irradiation. The results showed that the properties of both pretreated PKS and MB were improved, where the mass and energy yield, volatile matter, moisture and oxygen content reduced, while the energy density, calorific value, fixed carbon and carbon content increased with increasing pretreatment temperature and microwave power. Torrefied PKS (PKSTo) at 270 °C, preheated MB (MBPr) at 250 °C and microwave irradiated PKS (PKSMi) and MB (MBMi) at 450 W demonstrated a good quality feedstock to be used in co-gasification. Moreover, at preferred parameters, the kinetic analysis displays low activation energy of 96.11 and 119.6 kJ/mol for PKSTo and MBPr, respectively. In the second objective, the co-gasification parameters were optimized to maximize the gas production using response surface methodology (RSM). The results verified that the effect of the independent variables, i.e. gasification temperature, biomass blending ratio and steam flow rate on response variables i.e. gas, tar and char yield were significant due to p-value of less than 0.05. The optimum conditions for gasification temperature, biomass blending ratio and steam flow rate were at 767 °C, 52 % and 54 ml/min, correspondingly. These optimum conditions produced maximum gas yield of 67.3 % with minimum char and tar yield of 20.8 % and 11.9 %, respectively. In the third objective, the comparison between co-gasification of both untreated (PKSUn/MBUn), PKSTo and untreated MB (PKSTo/MBUn) and pretreated (PKSTo/MBPr) blending were evaluated on product yields and gases composition via optimize conditions. The outcomes revealed that, co-gasification of both pretreated samples produced high gas yield due to characteristic enhancement of pretreated samples. The PKSTo/MBPr sample improved the H2 production by 63.9 % than PKSUn/MBUn at 45 min reaction time. High H2 production is in accordance with the high quantity of carbon content in PKSTo/MBPr compared to the PKSUn/MBUn. In the fourth objective, the optimization parameters of catalytic co-gasification was explored. The gasification temperature of 735 °C, catalyst ratio of 12 % and steam flow rate of 51 ml/min produced maximum gas yield of 67.5 %. The catalytic co-gasification shows minor enhancement of 4 % on H2 composition. As a conclusion, the pretreatment approaches on PKS and MB prior to co-gasification is a promising method in enhancing product distribution, specifically on the hydrogen production. Accordingly, the pretreatment on both biomass and low rank coal prior to co-gasification without the catalyst addition that contributed to positive synergy on gas yield and hydrogen production was a novelty and new contribution in this study.
format Thesis
qualification_name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD.)
qualification_level Doctorate
author Ahmad, Razi
author_facet Ahmad, Razi
author_sort Ahmad, Razi
title Co-gasification of pretreated palm kernel shell and Mukah Balingian coal / Razi Ahmad
title_short Co-gasification of pretreated palm kernel shell and Mukah Balingian coal / Razi Ahmad
title_full Co-gasification of pretreated palm kernel shell and Mukah Balingian coal / Razi Ahmad
title_fullStr Co-gasification of pretreated palm kernel shell and Mukah Balingian coal / Razi Ahmad
title_full_unstemmed Co-gasification of pretreated palm kernel shell and Mukah Balingian coal / Razi Ahmad
title_sort co-gasification of pretreated palm kernel shell and mukah balingian coal / razi ahmad
granting_institution Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
granting_department Faculty of Applied Science
publishDate 2019
url https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/83257/1/83257.pdf
_version_ 1794191969925201920