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The need for food packaging increases along with population and economic growth in Indonesia. Styrofoam is one of the food packaging that humans need because it is practical, lightweight, inexpensive, water-resistant, and has good heat and cold resistance. However, styrofoam negatively impacts health and the environment because styrofoam contains harmful chemicals such as styrene. Styrofoam destruction through burning can cause air pollution because the combustion results in dioxin gas which can interfere with human respiration. One of the solutions to reduce the negative impact of Styrofoam is the utilization of biomass as a raw ingredient used in the production of biodegradable foam. In 2019, palm oil production in Indonesia reached 48.42 million tons/year, 26% of which were empty palm oil fruit bunches (EFB). The cellulose content in EFB is high enough to be used for various applications. One of the applications of EFB is the raw material in producing biodegradable foam, an alternative to eco-friendly packaging to replace Styrofoam. Oil palm empty fruit bunches contain 84% -cellulose. This shows that the cellulose of EFB has excellent potential as one of the raw materials for producing biodegradable foam. In addition to EFB, the raw materials include starch, chitosan, magnesium stearate, polyvinyl alcohol, and distilled water. Production of biodegradable foam with a size of 19 cm x 13 cm x 0.3 cm requires 1.5-6 grams of cellulose or 11-44 grams of fresh EFB. Currently, biodegradable foam still has bad characteristics, so it is necessary to add additives to enhance the properties of biodegradable foam. This study examines the effects of chitosan on tensile strength, water absorption, biodegradability, density, and melting point of biodegradable foam. The production of biodegradable foam in this study used the thermopressing method at operating conditions of 120°C for 2.5 minutes. The most optimum results in this study obtained a tensile strength value of 3.79 MPa, water absorption capacity of 9.81%, decomposition capacity of 48.52% for 21 days, and a melting point of 82.94°C, namely the starch composition of 50 % w/w, chitosan 15% w/w, cellulose 5% w/w, PVA 20% w/w and magnesium stearate 10% w/w. This study revealed that adding chitosan increased the density, tensile strength, and melting point but decreased the absorption and decomposition of biodegradable foam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cow manure can be used as biogas and produces digested cow manure by-products. Digested cow manure still has a calorific value, low water content, and low sulfur content, so it can be used as environmentally friendly energy. Due to the low energy density of ingested cow manure, pelletization is required. The advantage of pelletizing digested cows is that they do not use a binder, only the water content is adjusted. The dough is formed using a die and roller type pelletizer. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of production capacity, and test bio-pellets as fuel in biomass stoves and boilers. Digested cow manure bio-pellet can be used as fuel for biomass stoves with an average consumption of 0.3 kg/liter of water. However, bio-pellet from digested cow manure cannot be used directly in the boiler industry, it still needs to be mixed with other fuels to increase the calorific value. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, biomass gasification technology for supplying heat has attracted several energy-intensive industries, such as ceramics and hot mixed asphalt production, as the fossil fuel pricing escalates, and environmental issues dominate the news. It offers higher energy efficiency, raw material flexibility, a wider range of capacities, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Palm kernel shell is a potential biomass source in Indonesia as feedstock of the gasification process because of its high calorific value, abundance, and being considered as carbon-neutral and sustainable. The gasification process performance should be measured based on carbon conversion efficiency (CCE) and cold gas efficiency (CGE) to guarantee the operation's reliability. This study aims to develop the performance evaluation method of an industrial updraft woody and woody-like biomass gasification system using air as a gasifying agent for supplying heat through a thermodynamic approach. The model developed was created using licensed Aspen Plus v.11 software. The constructed model was validated with several laboratory experiments of previous researchers using various types of biomass considering carbon monoxide and hydrogen contents in the producer gas. The thermodynamic model showed a good agreement with the experimental data assessed based on root mean square error (RMSE) value for H2 and CO being 3.02 and 2.10, respectively. The developed model was implemented to evaluate performance of an asphalt mixing plant with palm kernel shell updraft gasifier as a heating source of aggregate. It was observed that at the operation condition of equivalent ratio (ER) of 0.082, the CCE and CGE were 46% and 38%, respectively. The model dictates that this installation unit should be operated at an ER value of 0.28, which is equivalent to a feedstock flowrate of 990 kg/h and an air gasifying agent flowrate of 1250 Nm3/h to achieve near to 95.20% of CCE and 76.34% of CGE. At the same time, about 50% savings on feedstock was also identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]