Numerical Studies of Palm Kernel Shell Fast Pyrolysis in a Fluidized Bed Reactor
Thoharudin (a,b), Yi-Shun Chen (a), Shu-San Hsiau (a)
a) Graduate Institute of Energy Engineering, National Central University, Zhongli City, Taoyuan County, 32001, Taiwan ROC
b) Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, D.I. Yogyakarta, 55183, Indonesia
Abstract
Numerical studies of thermal decomposition of Palm Kernel Shell (PKS) have been conducted in a fluidized bed reactor under atmospheric pressure of nitrogen as fluidization gas. To investigate the effect of temperature, the pyrolysis temperature was varied in a range from 400 oC to 650 oC. Furthermore, the effect of PKS feeding rate was also studied in a range 300 g/h to 1500 g/h combined with variations of nitrogen superficial velocities. It was found that the increasing of temperature results in the greatening of conversion efficiency and non-condensable gas product yield. The maximum liquid/tar product yield was obtained in 500 oC, namely 60.5%. The increasing of PKS feeding rate led to the reduction of conversion efficiency due to the thermal energy shortage for the decomposition process. However, the increasing of PKS feeding rate could reduce the non-condensable gas product with the unsignificant change in liquid product yield. The increasing of superficial velocity of nitrogen favored the shorter of residence time resulting in the increasing of tar product yield.
Keywords: Palm Kernel Shell; Fast Pyrolysis; Fluidized Bed; CFD
Topic: International Symposium of Engineering, Technology, and Health Sciences