Palm Oil Engineering Bulletin No.127 (Apr - Jun 2018) p11-15
Determination of Levoglucosan Compounds in Pyrolysis Oil of Empty Fruit Bunches and its Potential Application
Mohamad Azri Sukiran*, Soh Kheang Loh* and Nasrin Abu Bakar*

Generally, pyrolysis is one of the most promising technologies for biomass utilisation. It is essential in the first stage thermochemical conversion of biomass into bio-oil, bio-char and gases dependent on process conditions in complete absence of oxygen. Usually, pyrolysis occurs at moderate temperature (400°C to 700°C) with rapid heating (Abnisa et al., 2013). It is mainly used for optimising liquid products at high heating and heattransfer rates using finely ground biomass. Nitrogen (N2) – an inert gas – is commonly used to accelerate vapours sweeping from the hot zone (pyrolysis zone) through the cool zone (condenser). Condensation is an important step for liquid production during pyrolysis. Without this, only the biochar and gas products can be obtained from the process. Once the pyrolysis vapours are condensed, a dark brown liquid is formed, namely bio-oil or pyrolysis oil. The bio-oil yield can be up to 80% of the initial dry mass (Bridgwater and Peacocke, 2000).





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