Kinetic Modelling of In-situ Catalytic Adsorptive Gasification Unit Utilizing Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) and Palm Kernel Shell (PKS) for Hydrogen Production

The energy crisis and environmental issues caused by fossil fuels usage have brought new light on hydrogen as a potentially significant form of energy in the future. The idea of producing hydrogen from oil palm biomass in Malaysia seems attractive due to the resource abundance. Biomass steam gasification with in-situ carbon dioxide capture in the presence of catalyst has good prospects for the enhanced production of hydrogen rich gas. Despite these potentials, its application at industrial scale is limited due to the energy intensiveness, costs, and hazards of gasification process at high temperature (>823K). Modelling and optimization become an increasingly attractive design approach to investigate the gasification performance within extensive range of operating parameters.
In the current study, a kinetic model for oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) and palm kernel shell (PKS) have been developed to determine the dynamics of hydrogen gas and other gases components with the different value of operating parameters; gasifier temperature, steam/biomass ratio and sorbent/biomass ratio. The results gained from the simulation were validated with the experimental data and other comparable studies.
To determine the dynamic gas components (H2, CO, CO2, and CH4), the kinetic constants were gained using optimization approach and also from other relevant literatures.