A Preliminary Study of Oil Palm Fronds for Gasification Process

Being one of the world’s largest producers of palm oil, Malaysia has an abundant supply of oil-palm fronds due to the large plantation areas in the country. The oil palm fronds have little use and are mainly left on the ground in a huge quantity for the slow process of natural decomposition. Considering their large and consistent supply, oil-palm fronds could be a promising source of biomass energy through gasification. In this work, the feasibility of oil-palm fronds for biomass gasification is studied. The study is conducted experimentally via standard tests to determine the thermochemical characteristics of oil palm fronds. Computer simulation using Aspen Plus is performed to predict composition of the syngas. A preliminary gasification of oil palm fronds is conducted to understand the process and to improve the study in the future. It is concluded from this work that oil palm fronds are feasible for gasification and have a good potential as a renewable energy source.