Preparation of Oil Palm Frond (OPF) for biomass Gasification

Due to the abundance source of unutilized OPF in Malaysia, the usage of
OPF as the fuel for biomass gasification seems to be a very attractive solution.
However, because of the natural properties of OPF and the requirement of the
gasifiers, there are certain process that should be apply to prepare OPF before it is
safe to be feed into any gasifiers. The problems like the a very low efficiency system,
corrosion of the flue, high emission of tars and creosote that condense in the flue, and
flue blockages could be avoid or decrease by preparing OPF into a suitable size and
by eliminating its moisture content until below 20% (although some of the gasifiers
only require less than 55% to 60% moisture content). OPF drying process is also
essential for storing purpose as it could reduce the risk oflosing its energy value. The
objectives of this project is to analyz OPF properties and to experiment methods in
preparing OPF for biomass gasification in order to provide fundamental suggestion
in using OPF for biomass gasification for industrial purpose. Starting with data
collection and fundamental studies, OPF, the projects covering experiments,
collection of data and analyzing results in cutting, drying and storage process of OPF
for biomass gasification, whereby in drying, basically there are two methods covered
which are sun drying and furnace drying. It is found out that with the right method in
cutting/preparing of OPF especially if it include the process of crushing and fine
cutting, sun drying method should be enough to dried out the moisture content in
OPF until it reach the level of below I 0%. Sun drying process could take only one
day period for a whole day in sunny weather, or it could take 2 days if it is cloudy or
sometimes 3 days if it is often raining during the day. On the other hand, furnace
drying is not practical to be used widely for industrial basically because it consume
high amount of energy and it is believe to be very costly. Dried OPF feedstock
(moisture content below 10%) could be store and preserve in room condition for a
long period of time without any major change in its value.