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Title: Steam explosion of oil palm residues for the production of durable pellets

Journal Article · · Applied Energy
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [2];  [4];  [5];  [4]
  1. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada). Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering
  2. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada). Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering
  3. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada). Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering; Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Environmental Science Division
  4. Queen's Univ., Kingston, ON (Canada). Queen's Inst. for Energy and Environmental Policy; TorchLight Bioresources Inc., Toronto, ON (Canada)
  5. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada). Dept. of Wood Science; TorchLight Bioresources Inc., Toronto, ON (Canada)
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Here we investigated the effect of steam explosion pretreatment on the physical and mechanical properties of the pellets made from empty fruit bunch (EFB) and palm kernel shell (PKS) and we compared to that of softwood Douglas fir (DF). We found that the high heating value of the empty fruit bunch was increased by 21% after steam explosion pretreatment. The pellet density of EFB and Douglas fir pellets did not change while the pellet density of PKS increased from 1.13 to 1.21 g/cm3 after steam explosion. That may be attributed to the rapid volatilization of high mass fraction extractives during high pressure steaming and lead to the shrinkage of micropores of the PKS fibers. The maximum brealdng strength of steam exploded EFB and PKS were increased by 63% and 45%, respectively. The required compaction energy for the steam exploded EFB pellet is 44.50 J/g while that of the untreated EFB pellet is 30.15 J/g. Similar to Douglas fir, the required extrusion energy for the steam exploded EFB pellet was about 6 times than that of the untreated EFB pellet. The increased extrusion energy is mainly contributed by the increase in mono-saccharides by auto-hydrolysis during steam explosion pretreatment.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC); TorchLight Bioresources Inc.; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1328297
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1247593
Journal Information:
Applied Energy, Vol. 141, Issue C; ISSN 0306-2619
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 36 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (22)

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Bio-oil from the pyrolysis of palm and Jatropha wastes in a fluidized bed journal April 2013
Potential for flammability of gases emitted from stored wood pellets journal October 2013
Colorimetry Applied to Steam-Treated Biomass and Pellets Made from Western Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii L.) journal January 2012
Empty fruit bunches from oil palm as a potential raw material for fuel ethanol production journal March 2011
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Cited By (6)

Torrefaction of densified empty fruit bunches with addition of plastics waste journal April 2018
Research Progress of Energy Utilization of Agricultural Waste in China: Bibliometric Analysis by Citespace journal January 2020
Densification of Agricultural Wastes and Forest Residues: A Review on Influential Parameters and Treatments book January 2018
Steam Explosion of Beech Wood: Effect of the Particle Size on the Xylans Recovery journal November 2018
Bio-Pellet Fuel from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB): Using European Standards for Quality Testing journal November 2018
Pelletization of Sunflower Seed Husks: Evaluating and Optimizing Energy Consumption and Physical Properties by Response Surface Methodology (RSM) journal September 2019

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Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
09 BIOMASS FUELS
Empty fruit bunch
Palm kernel shell
Pellet
Density
Compression energy
Steam explosion