Bio-oil derived from empty fruit bunches

The fast pyrolysis of washed and unwashed empty fruit bunches (EFB), a waste of the palm oil industry, is investigated in this study. Firstly, the composition and particle size distribution of the washed and unwashed feedstock were determined and the thermal degradation behaviour was analysed by TGA. Then a 150 g/h fluidised bed bench scale fast pyrolysis unit was used to study the impact of key variables: reactor temperature in the range 425–550 °C and feedstock ash content in the range 1.03–5.43 mf wt%. The properties of the liquid product were analysed and compared with wood derived bio-oil and petroleum fuels. It was found that the maximum ash content of washed feedstock that still yields homogenous liquids is less than about 3 mf wt%. The experiments also indicated that the fast pyrolysis of washed EFB with a low ash content gave similar yields as commonly obtained for wood.