Tag Archives: 2013). Estimated world production of palm shells is 10 million tons per year.

183-188 M. Kaválek,, B. Havrland, J. Pecen, T. Ivanova and P. Hutla
Oil palm shell use as alternative biofuel
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Oil palm shell use as alternative biofuel

M. Kaválek¹,*, B. Havrland¹, J. Pecen¹, T. Ivanova¹ and P. Hutla²

¹Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Kamycka 129, 16521 Praha 6, Czech Republic; *Correspondence: kavalek@its.czu.cz 2Research Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Drnovská 507, 16101 Praha 6, Czech Republic Abstract. This study describes analysis of utilisation of shells from the palm oil nuts as a pellet substitute. The analysis of shells from palm nuts processing comprised of the following aspects: analysis of possible utilisation of palm shells as a substitution for standard pellets, assessing physical and chemical properties and emissions released during combustion of palm shells. The performed palm shells´ physical and chemical examination offers opportunity to make conclusion that pellet substitutes based on palm shells are, in comparison to standard woody pellets, of similar or better physical and chemical properties and reach requirements of European standard EN 14961 for solid biofuels. Because it is a waste material from one of the most important oil plants, it is produced in high amounts in tropical zones of many developing countries. It could be successfully used by the commercial companies as a source for small, medium and large scale energy installations. Key words: oil palm, oil palm shell, solid biofuel, waste, pellet, biomass.INTRODUCTION

Abstract:

With increasing consumption of biofuels the demands on researchers to developnew sorts of biofuels are growing in parallel. Utilisation of waste from one of the major oil crops – oil palm is an interesting alternative to existing biofuels.There are two species belonging to the Arecaceae or Palmae (also known asPalmaceae) that are called palm tree. They are used in commercial agriculture for production of palm oil. The African Oil Palm Elaeis guineensis (guineensis refers to its country of origin) is native in West Africa, occurring between Angola and Gambia, while the American Oil Palm Elaeis olifera (from English oliferous, meaning ‘oil-producing’) is native to tropical Central and South America (Lotschert & Beese, 1983). The production of palm oil is directed especially at the food industry and (recently) for production of biodiesel (Mekhilef et al., 2011). The oil contains high amount of beta-carotene. It is used as cooking oil and for production of margarine. Palm oil is also used for biodiesel production, as either a simply processed palm oil mixed with diesel, or processed through transesterification to create a palm oil methyl ester blend which meets the international EN 14214 specification, with glycerin as a by-product (Queiroz et al, 2012).Waste material from palm oil production such as palm shells is produced in hugeamounts with little utilisation. In general, the fresh fruit bunch contains (by weight)183

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