Alteration of The Properties of Spent Eucalyptus Biomass from Steam Distillation

Abstract

Steam distillation is a common method to extract the eucalyptus oil from eucalyptus biomass. The spent biomass of the steam distillation process could be used as biofuel feedstock. This study aims to investigate the effect of eucalyptus biomass steam distillation time on the alteration of the spent biomass. The size of the raw spent biomass used in the study was 1 cm x 1 cm. The properties studied include carbon retention, fuel properties namely proximate and ultimate analyses as well as grindability. Those properties were investigated from 5 to 180 minutes of the distillation time. The results show that the spent biomass has a better grindability than the raw biomass. Whereas, fuels chemistry of spent biomass were little affected by the steam distillation process. Thus it is quite promising to use the spent biomass of steam distillation as a feedstock for bioenergy production as the spent biomass does not undergo a significant change during steam distillation.