Optimised biofuel production via catalytic cracking of residual palm oil recovered from Spent Bleaching Earth (SBE) over Ni/HZSM-5 zeolite

The concerns over the depletion of fossil fuel and security of energy supply have directed an increasing awareness about biomass or waste-derived energy. Fresh bleaching earth (BE) is used to remove colour, phospholipids, oxidised products, metals, and residual gums in the palm oil process refinery. Once the adsorption process ends, the spent bleaching earth (SBE) which contains approximately 20-40 wt% of the adsorbed oil, is usually disposed to landfills without any treatment. Thus, SBE as one of the major biomasses or wastes available in Malaysia is a potential source for hydrocarbon fuel production. Therefore, this study reported the employment of heterogeneous catalyst cracking of residual palm oil in SBE into liquid products by 15%Ni/HZSM-5 catalyst and the optimisation of the process. The experiments were designed using central composite design (CCD) approach via response surface methodology (RSM) to study the relationships of catalytic cracking temperature (400- 500°C), heating time (60-180 min), and nitrogen flow rate (60-100 mL/min) on the liquid products yield. The experimental results were thoroughly analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The optimum liquid products yield of catalytic cracking of residual palm oil in SBE was 12.91 wt% achieved at 452°C, 160 min of heating time, and 86 mL/min of nitrogen flow rate. On the basis of the obtained results, the heterogeneous catalyst of 15%Ni/HZSM-5 could be a potential catalyst for the conversion of residual palm oil in SBE into liquid products

Hydrogen Production by Membrane Water Splitting Technologies

Hydrogen production by membrane water splitting technologies is a sustainable method to synthesize hydrogen and provides an alternative to hydrogen production instead of conventional process of synthesizing hydrogen from steam methane reforming. A hybrid polymer electrolyte membrane electrolyzer operational at working temperature of above 80–200°C is advantageous for faster electrochemical kinetics, higher current exchange density, and more resistance to fuel impurities. Phosphoric acid (PA) doping onto polybenzimidazole (PBI) membrane shows significant improvement in proton conductivities, permeability, and thermal stability. PBI-based electrolyzer is relatively new to the hydrogen production technologies as compared to Nafion-based electrolyzer. However, the high cost of purchasing Nafion membrane and inability to execute electrolysis operational above 90°C has sparked new interest on PBI-based membrane, which is known for its good thermal stability

Characterization of the fuel properties of ananas comosus leaf for thermal application

In recent years, the demand of energy in Malaysia increases significantly. It is generally accepted that the source of fossil fuel will be depleted in future since it is classify as non-renewable energy. Consequently, Malaysia is a country rich in biomass energy resource that easily can be converted into biomass fuel for thermal applications such as AnanasComosus leaf for clean energy production. This study is aimed to characterizing AnanasComosus leaf of N36 hybrid, selected from between ‘Gandul' (Spanish) and the ‘Smooth Cayenne'.The physical and chemical properties of the AnanasComosus leaf were analyzed using ultimate analysis, proximate analysis and heating value. The thermal decomposition behavior of the fuel was determined through thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). From the result obtained, the parameter of ignition temperature (Tign) 322°C and maximum temperature (Tmax) 367°C, and final temperature (Tf) 810°C were gathered. The total weight of the fuel remaining at Tfwas 14.01% signifying that the conversion of the fuel will result in 85.99% conversion

Estimation of kinetic parameters for imperata cylindrica flash pyrolysis

Flash pyrolysis of biomass has been identified as a viable Thermochemical process of converting biomass to biooil (Tar). A new biomass (Imperata cylindrica) under consideration as all the characteristic of an energy crop, with the ability to burn even when green. It is abundantly available in South-East Asia, however, as farmers’ nightmare weed. In this paper a model was developed for flash pyrolysis of Imperata cylindrica in a batch transported bed reactor. The model developed was used to further understand the kinetic behavior of Imperata cylindrica pyrolysis as a lignocellulosic biomass. The kinetic analysis is based on a modified Broido-Shafizadeh kinetic mechanism and expressed as a first-order reaction of 6- lump model. The 8-paired kinetic parameters generated from the Arrhenius equation (frequency factor k0 and activation energy (....) were estimated by optimizing the kinetic model using the laboratory measured data and order of magnitude analysis. Using the estimated kinetic parameters the model predicts the biomass consumption and biooil production within the average deviation of ±10% of the experimental data

Process hazard analysis of gasification process by using oil palm empty fruit bunch as feedstock

Production of hydrogen rich gas from the gasification of biomass to replace fossil fuels has become a common interest worldwide. One of the potential biomass in Malaysia to produce hydrogen rich gas is empty fruit bunch (EFB) from oil palm (Elaeis guineensis). Numerous researchers have carried out studies on hydrogen production using biomass but there are limited researches on the hazards analysis incorporated in the gasification process of EFB. This paper presents the hazards identification and risk reduction of the gasification process by using EFB as a feedstock. The research aims to incorporate safety needs to the gasification process of EFB for safe operation in the future. The process hazards analysis has been carried out on process unit namely fire burner, feeding hopper, fluidised bed reactor and cyclone. The potential hazard, possible causes, risk and consequences of the process unit were analysed. Based on the analysis, the major hazards identified in the process are overpressure and over temperature followed by the release of hydrogen gases. Safe by design is the most effective risk reduction strategy since it can eliminate the hazards from the source by having inherently safer design of the hydrogen process plant

Hydrogen gas production from gasification of oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) in a fluidized bed reactor

Malaysia is one of the largest producers of palm oil and this industry plays an important role in Malaysia economic growth. As this industry grows larger, a significant amount of oil palm waste is generated, creating the problem of overloading biomass waste. Since the oil palm waste has many significant uses such as empty fruit bunches (EFB), the interest in production of hydrogen gas as the renewable energy from EFB also increases. The most common and favorable thermochemical processes to produce the hydrogen gas is gasification process in fluidized bed reactor. Regardless of tremendous experimental studies done on effectiveness of using EFB for production of hydrogen, the process implementation in industry is still discouraging. This is due to lack of proven technology and high capital cost of investment. In this study, a computational modeling was developed for EFB gasification in fluidized bed gasifier using the ASPEN PLUS simulator (v. 8.8) to optimize the gasification temperature, pressure and to study the different of chemical behavior. The results indicated that increase in temperature will increases the production of hydrogen and enhances carbon conversion efficiency. The optimum temperature and pressure was 850 °C and 1.035 bar respectively. The result shows that the char was removed significantly after several gas cleaning process. The final product for purified hydrogen gas is 14.5 kg/hr which is around 21% of hydrogen yield. Based on the result, it indicates that EFB has a potential to be used as a source of energy in a future

Assessment Model for Construct Occupational Accident Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis

The objective of this paper is to assess the occupational accident model construct using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The data for the study were obtained from the questionnaire survey using Likert scale rated 1 to 10 on 450 workers at the oil and gas terminal in Terengganu. CFA was used to verify the fitness of measurement model construct of occupational accident. A total of 53 significant items for the overall variables of occupational accident input were studied. In conclusion, all the variables of occupational accident construct such as engineering, human, and technical factors comply with the requirements of dimensions, validity, and reliability of the CFA requirement

Process development of oil palm empty fruit bunch gasification by using fluidised bed reactor for hydrogen gas production

Hydrogen can store and deliver usable energy, but it does not typically exist by itself in nature and must be produced from compounds that contain it such as biomass. Hydrogen can be used as fuel which produce from gasification process that used renewable sources as feedstock. Large amount of empty fruit bunch (EFB) has been produced in Malaysia and yet has no specific used in large quantity and it is being incinerated or used as landfill material dumped in the plantation. These situations have led to increased CO2 and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere. During preliminary study, it shows that there are very limited studies being done in the process design development of the hydrogen production by using EFB from oil palm. Despite of tremendous experimental studies done on the effectiveness of using EFB for production of hydrogen, the process implementation in industry is still discouraging. This is due to lack of proven technology and high capital cost of investment. In this study, the drying, gasification and purification unit operations were modelled in Aspen Plus simulator for production of pure hydrogen gas and char was removed significantly after several gas cleaning processes. The final product for purified hydrogen gas is 12.3 t/h which is 16.3 % of hydrogen gas produced from the total EFB feedstock. Based on the result, the optimum temperature and pressure for gasification process is 850 °C and 1 atm respectively. Since, there is not much research have been carried out on process design of hydrogen production process by using EFB as feedstock, the understanding towards this topic can be prolonged

Multi-state analysis functional models using Bayesian networks

Multilevel Flow Modeling (MFM) model maps functionality of components in a system through logical interconnections and is effective in predicting success rates of tasks undertaken. However, the output of this model is binary, which is taken at its extrema, i.e., success and failure, while in reality, the operational status of plant components often spans between these end. In this paper, a multi-state model is proposed by adding probabilistic information to the modelling framework. Using a heat exchanger pilot plant as a case study, the MFM model is transformed into its fault tree [1] equivalent to incorporate failure probability information. To facilitate computations, the FT model is transformed into Bayesian Network model, and applied for fault detection and diagnosis problems. The results obtained illustrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method