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Indonesia targets net zero emissions by 2060. Therefore, pyrolysis from biomass is a promising first step in the transportation fuels-making process. This study aims to investigate the pyrolysis oil and the charcoal produced from the pyrolysis process of oil palm fronds in a 40 L rotary drum reactor. These pyrolysis products can be used as raw materials for bio-fuel and bio-carbon black. The research methodology is to conduct experiments on the conversion of palm fronds into pyrolysis oil and charcoal with variations in heating rates and pyrolysis temperatures, and also with and without the use of heat carrier media (steel shots S330). Based on the experiment results, optimal heating is carried out at a temperature of 500˚C for 1 hour, where it produces the most pyrolysis oil at 37.0%, followed by 30.4% charcoal and 32.6% gas. This pyrolysis oil has a heating value of 16 MJ/kg, 38.3% water content and 38.2% Carbon, 8.8% Hydrogen, 52.0% Oxygen, and 0.1% Sulphur content. Meanwhile, the bio-char has a calorific value of 31 MJ/kg, with a fixed carbon content of 77.0%, volatile matter of 12.9% and ash content of 10.1%. Experiments with steel shots produced fine charcoal and coarse charcoal. The ash content of fine charcoal is 20.8%, greater than coarse charcoal by 6.9%, but coarse charcoal has a Carbon content of 80.7%, which is higher than fine charcoal by 68.2%. This causes the Higher Heating Value (HHV) of coarse charcoal of 30.8 MJ/kg to be greater than the HHV of fine charcoal of 25.7 MJ/kg. Those results are crucial, as those are the data needed to upgrade the pyrolysis oil into high-quality fuel and when processing the bio-char into carbon black, which is a high value-added material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pyrolysis of plastic waste is considered a fairly effective method to solve the problem of plastic waste and help create renewable fuels. Unfortunately, several studies have been conducted, resulting in a low yield of pyrolysis oil due to the formation of by-products in the form of wax. So that the pyrolysis of plastic waste becomes economically unfeasible. This research focuses on reducing the problem of wax formation and low yields. Pyrolysis experiments used polyethylene (PE) as raw material, at various low heating rates (2, 3, and 4°C/min) and final pyrolysis temperatures (300, 400, and 500 °C). The quality of the pyrolysis oil produced from the thermal pyrolysis of polyethylene (PE) at various low heating rates and final temperatures was studied. The best results were at a heating rate of 2 °C/min and a final pyrolysis temperature of 300 °C, with 91 weight percent of the pyrolysis oil product, and interestingly, without wax formation. The main oil produced is a diesel-like fraction (79.08%), kerosene-like (14.74%), and contains very little gasoline-like fraction (6.17%). This paper shows that pyrolysis with a low heating rate and low final temperature can be a more economical process than the existing processes, due to its energy requirements, higher yield, and better oil quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic feasibility of the process of converting biomass into carbon black through a catalytic pyrolysis process will be improved if it produces a high-quality biochar byproduct. Low ash content is an indicator of its high-quality biochar. Oil palm fronds are biomass from oil palm plantations, which are massive in number but have not been utilized properly. This study investigates the pre-treatment method of oil palm fronds so that when used as a raw material for the catalytic pyrolysis process, it can produce biochar with a low ash content that meets the requirements as a raw material for making carbon black. In this study, the fronds were washed with water, acetic acid, citric acid and nitric acid with acid concentrations of 3%, 5% and 10%. The result shows that the one-step acetic acid leaching method is a promising method for reducing ash content. The optimum acetic acid leaching method is using acetic acid 3% as the leaching agent, which can reduce ash content to 0.6 wt.%. And, due to its added value that can be recycled from liquid catalytic pyrolysis products, acetic acid is more recommended to be used as an acid solution for the leaching method than citric acid and nitric acid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, oil palm empty fruit bunch biomass from oil palm plants in Puspiptek area, South Tangerang, Indonesia was pyrolyzed with a temperature of 700 °C for about 4 hours flowing by inert gas (N2) for about 30 minutes. This process yields biochar which consists of two parts, i.e. carbon content and ash content. This study aimed to determine the mineral composition of ash content. An X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) characterization was performed in order to determine the mineral composition of ash content. Two samples were used for being characterized by XRF, i.e. pre-pyrolysis ash and pyrolyzed ash. The result of XRF characterization showed some of predicted minerals such as K2SiO3, SiO2, CaSiO3, Fe2SiO5, FeAlSiO5, CaSO4 and P2SiO7 on pre-pyrolysis ash and CaCO3, Fe2SiO5, K2SiO3, CaSiO3, CaSO4, MgSiO3, P2SiO7, Al2SiO5 and MnSiO3 on pyrolyzed ash. Based on these predicted mineral compositions, pre-pyrolysis ash has a potency to be used as a mixing material for anti-weathering coating for wood and ceramics applications. On the other hand, pyrolyzed ash has a potency for being used as fertilizer and or fertilizer mixture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]