Thermogravimetric analysis of empty fruit bunch

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, INTI International University, Persiaran Perdana BBN, 71800 Nilai, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar 32610 Tronoh, Perak, Malaysia

^* Corresponding author: girma_tade@yahoo.com
^† Corresponding author: limyingpio@gmail.com

Abstract

This paper presents the characteristics of empty fruit bunch (EFB) using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and shows its potential as a renewable energy sources. A set of data were collected from the thermal reaction and plotted in mass or percentage of the initial mass against either temperature or time, respectively. In the thermogravimetric analysis, mass, temperature and time were considered as base measurements and important data for derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) curve were analysed while many additional measures could be derived from these three base measurements. It was observed that heating rate of 8.5°C/min and air flow rate of 85mL/min provided a maximum weight loss rate of 0.209%/°C at the temperature of 313.5°C and the derivative weight peak of -0.1895mg/°C at 292°C. The time taken to reach the maximum temperature of 899.9°C was 46.74 minutes, and ΔT endo-up reflected minimum point of -0.2°C at 15.82 minutes and maximum ΔT endo-up of 888°C at 42 minutes. Heat flow endo-up also showed that the minimum heat flow was 15.39mW at 15.85 minutes and reaching the peak heat flow endo-up of 47.73mW at 43.27 minutes.