Kinetic analysis of oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) pellets as feedstock for pyrolysis

The thermal behaviour and decomposition kinetics of pelletized oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) was investigated in this study using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The OPEFB pellets were heated from room temperature to 1000 ºC at different heating rates; 5, 10 and 20 °C min-1 under inert atmosphere. Thermal degradation occurred in three steps; drying, devolatization and char decomposition. Subsequently, the Popescu method was applied to the TG/DTG data to determine the kinetic parameters of the OPEFB pellets. The activation energy, E, for different degrees of conversion, α = 0.05 to 0.7 are 36.60 kJ/mol to 233.90 kJ/mol with high correlation R2 values. In addition, the drying and decomposition of lignin reactions displayed lower E values compared to the devolatization characterized by high E value of 233 kJ/mol at α = 0.2. This indicates that the devolatization process is slower and requires higher energy requirement to reach completion than the other stages of thermal decomposition of the fuel under inert atmosphere. Keywords: decomposition, kinetics, oil palm, empty fruit bunch, pyrolysis.