Search

No Abstract.

The outer hard shell that encloses the coconut fruit is known as the coconut shell. It is available in plentiful quantities and utilizes as an energy source throughout the tropical countries worldwide. The current world production of coconut fruits and the availability of its biomass wastes have the potential to generate power for low emissions in different applications. Coconut shells are among the untapped energy source from agricultural residues. Rural small-scale farmers in Nigeria are not familiar with the technological process of utilizing the coconut shells for sustainable biofuel production. Usually, they use the shells for open burning charcoal production and as organic fertilizer. Future sustainable and eco-friendly thermochemical technology like pyrolysis produces the entire three biofuels products (solid, liquid, and gas) based on the biomass type and its availability. The products are in the form of charcoal/biochar, bio-oil, and biogas fuels used as a substitute for fossil fuels. This chapter highlights the potentials of utilizing the coconut shells by the thermochemical conversion method, specifically the pyrolysis method. The major contribution it will generate to the economic and industrial development of the country. Industries have the potentials in contributing to this sector when biomass wastes are utilized as raw materials in industrial applications. The use of biofuel obtained from biomass thermochemical conversion has more advantages over the use of raw biomass, in terms of clean energy and environmental sustainability concerns.

Charcoal, a black carbon residue, is mostly produced from the major conventional method where the biomass is allowed to be heated for several days in a kiln without studying the process condition. Most of the studies on the pyrolysis process focus on the liquid and gaseous by-products neglecting the solid to be used as a combustion fuel. For this study, charcoal was produced from coconut shells by the thermochemical conversion method of pyrolysis in a controlled nitrogen environment at temperatures of 300 °C, 400 °C, and 500 °C, and residence times of 15 min, 30 min, and 60 min. This was conducted to evaluate the process conditions’ effects concerning the charcoal calorific value and yield. From the results obtained, a high process condition increases the calorific value, which results in a decrease in the charcoal yield. The lowest temperature gives a yield of 70.18 wt% and calorific value of 25.30 MJ/kg while the highest temperature produces a yield for as low as 26.57 wt% and a high calorific value of 30.15 MJ/kg. Furthermore, the charcoal yield tends to decrease from 51.99 to 33.10 wt% and the calorific value increases as the residence time increases from 15 to 45 min. Consequently, the thermal conversion undergone by the biomass may cause the changes of the quality parameters. Thus, charcoal can replace the use of fossil fuels because it presents energy content higher than that of lignite and similar to that of coal.

Coconut shells are produced in a vast amount around tropical countries that needs to be utilized properly. Thermochemical methods are the main route for converting biomass to charcoal. Percentage of some relative factors in the biomass such as low-density, low caloric value, high ash, SOX, NOX, moisture content, microstructure, and complex elements are its major drawbacks. Nevertheless, no scientific studies were conducted on the carbonization of converting coconut shells to charcoal from local to global scales. Therefore, comprehensive and precise data on its production is limited. To overcome these problems; biomass materials need to be evaluated to assure the suitability of the biomass for the thermochemical process to curtail the yearning of energy demand. For the overall efficiency of the biomass conversion processes into the preference biomass-derived fuel, it is important to understand the physicochemical characteristics of the biomass. The paper aims at understanding the specialties of coconut shell biomass, which is directly used for thermochemical conversion mainly for charcoal production via; chemical structure, energy potential, and morphological analysis. The biomass exhibits a high: density of 412 kg/m3, a calorific value of 19.4 MJ/kg, fixed carbon of 21.8, a volatile matter of 70.8, carbon of 40.1, and low amount moisture of 5.6, and ash of 1.8. EDX and XRF analysis revealed a low amount of complex heavy metals, trace amounts of sulfur, and nitrogen, thus pre-treatment is not required before its utilization, ideal for thermochemical conversion. The coconut shell possesses amorphous and crystalline carbonaceous materials based on the XRD spectrum. The morphology on FESEM images and surface area analysis shows that the coconut shell contains heterogeneous shapes and scales of macro-pores with high surface area and porosity in nature. These essential qualities are suitable for charcoal production, activated carbon, insect repellent, filler, incense sticks, and other applications. Coconut shell possesses remarkable properties such as carbon-rich and environmentally friendly solid fuel to other biomass and coal materials; hence, it is possible to produce alternative energy from coconut shell biomass due to its several characteristics. © 2021 THE AUTHORS

The rate of oil palm production in Malaysia increases annually and as a result, the oil palm wastes, especially oil palm trunk (OPT) and oil palm fronds (OPF) remain abundant. A suitable way of converting this abundant waste to renewable energy is through thermochemical conversion. Thus, this study investigates the characteristics of OPT and OPF biomass, for use as feedstock in thermochemical processes like gasification, pyrolysis, and combustion. The analysis carried out includes; ultimate (CHNSO) and proximate (thermogravimetric) analysis, calorific value, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and x-ray fluorescence (XRF). Both feedstocks exhibited potential for use as fuel in biomass thermochemical conversion. The CHNSO analysis showed the presence of sufficient carbon, hydrogen and oxygen elements in both feedstocks, with carbon being the highest 45.42% in OPT and 43.35% in OPF. The percentages of nitrogen and sulphur which are required to be less for a good fuel were also obtained in low quantities for both fuel; 0.47% and 0.13% in OPT and 0.76% and 0.45% in OPF, respectively. The thermogravimetric analysis revealed both feedstocks to be having high volatile matter 62.28% in OPT and 66.10% in OPF. Meanwhile, sufficient fixed carbon content of 26.18% in OPT and 25.68% in OPF with low ash content of 9.82% in OPT and 6.32% in OPF were obtained in the analysis. FESEM and XRF were used to investigate the surface morphology, elemental and mineralogical nature of the samples. The findings were compared with those of other biomass and non-biomass materials. The EDX graph showed the presence of carbon and oxygen in a higher amount while in the XRF analysis CaO and K2O were the major oxides present in both OPT and OPF, with a low amount of SiO making the feedstocks less prone to agglomeration during thermochemical conversion.