THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS OF PALM OIL WASTES DECOMPOSITION

Abstract

Thermal decomposition of palm oil wastes i.e. palm kernel
shell (PKS) and palm oil fronds (POF) was studied using
thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) under non-isothermal
conditions. Thermogravimetric (TG) and its first derivative
profiles were depicted to show different breakdown regions
for PKS and POF. The decomposition region of
hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin was identified. Kinetic
parameters i.e. activation energy, pre-exponential factor and
order of reaction were then evaluated from the weight loss
profiles for the temperature range of 50-900 °C at a heating
rate of 20 °C/min. Nearly 60 wt% of palm oil wastes
decomposed at the temperature less than 400 °C. The
thermal decomposition of palm oil wastes fitted well as first
order kinetics with correlation coefficient of R2 > 0.99. The
activation energy of PKS and POF was 35 kJ/mol and 41
kJ/mol, respectively. This fundamental study provides the
basic information on palm oil wastes decomposition which
can benefit our current development work on palm oil wastes
steam gasification unit.