Extraction of Biofuels from Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB) Biomass

Abstract

Empty fruit bunches (EFB) is one of oil palm biomass residues which can cause pollution to the environment through its waste treatment process. Thus, in this study, the second generation of biofuels produced by the catalytic conversion of EFB was carried out utilizing zeolite A as a heterogeneous catalyst. The characterization of zeolite A was done using fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM). An amount of 50 g dried EFB with the aid of zeolite A was catalytically pyrolyzed at different temperatures (320, 350, 370, 400, 420 °C) and catalyst loading (0.3 g, 0.5 g, 1.0 g) to optimize the reaction conditions. Lastly, the liquid biofuels collected from the reaction was characterized using (FTIR) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The diffractogram for zeolite A exhibited narrow and high intense peaks indicating the crystallized properties of zeolite A. Moreover, the FESEM image of zeolite A showed a cubic form with an average size of 100 nm. Experimental results indicated that an optimum biofuels conversion yield of 58.92 % was achieved with optimal conditions temperature of 400 °C, 2 hours and catalyst loading, 0.5 g without solvent. From FTIR spectrum and GC-MS results, there are many types of desired and undesired organic compounds generated from the catalytic pyrolysis reactions. Desired compounds included hydrocarbon, phenol and alcohols while esters, ethers, aldehydes and ketones were catogorized as undesired compounds. The process has successfully converted EFB waste to biofuels with higher efficiency.