The effect of pretreated palm kernel shell and mukah balingian coal co-gasification on product yield and gaseous composition

• Published in: International Journal of Technology
• Main Author: Ahmad R.; Ishak M.A.M.; Ismail K.; Kasim N.N.; Mohamed A.R.; Ani A.Y.; Deris R.R.R.; Radzun K.A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia 2020
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85088503911&doi=10.14716%2fijtech.v11i3.2916&partnerID=40&md5=86f57788b9a645cb903fc05997c24c03

In this study, co-gasification of palm kernel shell (PKS) and low-rank Malaysian coal (MB) was carried out in a fixed bed reactor. For the pretreated samples, PKS was torrefied at 270°C (PKSTo) and MB was preheated at 250°C (MBPr) for 1 h, respectively, prior to co-gasification at 767°C, with a biomass blending ratio of 52% and a steam flow rate of 55 mL/min. The effect of different blending combinations was investigated towards product yields, namely gas, tar, char and gases composition. The co-gasification on both pretreated (PKSTo/MBPr) and catalyst-pretreated (Cat-PKSTo/MBPr) produced a greater gas yield, with lesser tar and char yield than both untreated PKS and MB (PKSUn/MBUn) and pretreated PKS and untreated MB (PKSTo/MBUn). The PKSTo/MBPr was found to enhance the H2 production by 63.9% and 41% than PKSUn/MBUn and PKSTo/MBUn, respectively, at 45 min of reaction time. Thus, the pretreatment on both samples had a significant impact on the distribution and composition of product yields during co-gasification. As a conclusion, the pretreated sample, which has been upgraded on characteristics such as higher carbon and lower oxygen content than the untreated sample was revealed to enhance gas yield and H2 production during co-gasification. © 2020, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia.