Synergic Effect and Kinetic Mechanisms for Co-Pyrolysis of Empty Fruit Bunch and Palm Oil Sludge

Abstract

The thermochemical behaviour of Co-Pyrolysis between Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB) and Palm Oil Mill Efluent (POME)  sludge were studied using Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA). EFB, POME sludge, and their blends (EFB : POME sludge of 100:0, 90:10, 75:25, 50:50, 25:75, and 0:100) were studied at different heating rates (5, 10, 20, 30, and 40ºC/min) with nitrogen (N2) purge of 20 ml/min to simulate pyrolysis conditions. All the samples experienced three pyrolysis stages and for each stage, the mechanisms responsible were determined. During co-pyrolysis, a positive synergistic effect was observed in the  experiments, which is a favourable inding. With the increase in POME sludge percentage in the blends, the activation energy for the main decomposition stage (Stage 2) decreased from 89.33 kJ/mol to 63.47 kJ/mol, when the kinetic model was irst order reaction (F1).