Effect of mass loading and microwave absorber application method on the product from microwave assisted pyrolysis of palm oil mill effluent

• Main Authors: Akhawan, H.A (Author), Idris, S.S (Author), Januri, Z. (Author), Manaf, S.F.A (Author), Matali, S. (Author), Rahman, N.A (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Malaysian Society of Analytical Sciences 2017
• Subjects: Mass loading; Microwave absorber; Microwave-assisted pyrolysis; Palm oil mill effluent
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher; View in Scopus

 Approximately, about 50 million tons of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) is produced every year, however, discharge of POME to open water source will cause negative impact to environment. High production of POME makes it impossible to dispose at the disposal company, therefore, in-situ treatment has been developed. Current disposal method implemented by palm oil industries is through biodegradable pond. This method is applied due to high water content in POME about 90% of water. Microwave assisted pyrolysis would be an alternative method to deal with the POME since not only can disposed but also can convert to valuable material such as solid char and pyrolytic oil. In this paper, effect of mass loading of POME at a range of 100 to 500 grams with additional activated carbon (AC) was studied. Microwave power level, radiation time and mixing ratio of AC were set constant at 1000 W, 30 minutes and 5%, respectively. Product yields of solid and liquid were analyzed for the best process performance. Solid char obtained has a potential to be utilized as solid fuel since its energy content was >20 MJ/kg and has high carbon content at >80%. Meanwhile, about 20% of chemical content in the pyrolytic oil has the carbon number in the range of C1 to C10. © 2017, Malaysian Society of Analytical Sciences. All rights reserved.