Characterisation of Oil Palm Frond for Bio-Oil Production

Abstract

Oil palm frond is known to be the largest contributor to the oil palm residues, providing up to 50.3% of the total residues. Since it had a very limited utility, an initiative was taken by this study to investigate its suitability for bio-oil production. Hence, slow pyrolysis was conducted in an experimental setup equipped with a fixed bed reactor and a liquid collection system. From the experiments, the effect of reaction temperature on the bio-oil yield was examined. The characteristics of the obtained bio-oil were also investigated to study its potential as a substitute of phenol. It was found that at reaction temperature of 375 °C, highest yield of bio-oil was obtained at 38.4 wt%. Meanwhile, the characteristics of oil palm frond and its bio-oil were found to be approximately similar to the characteristics of typical softwoods and their bio-oil. Most softwood biomass has been successfully used as a phenol substitute. Therefore, the potential of this bio-oil to be used as a phenol substitute was enhanced.