Search

Agricultural and agroindustrial wastes are increasingly being used for the generation of fuel products. Banana residues has a potential to be used as biomass energy sources in tropical country due to its availability, fast growing characteristic of banana plant, carbon neutrality and the fact that each banana plant bears only one stem of fruit. Thermal conversion of biomass to higher energy density fuels is gaining a growing interest as it is sustainable and has a potential to reduce greenhouse gasses. However, many forms of biomass in the waste stream, including banana residues, have very high moisture content, which makes them both inefficient to store, transport, and process using conventional technology. The hydrothermal treatment (HT) is known for converting high moisture content solid wastes into dried, uniform, pulverized, coallike solid fuel. In the present study, banana leaves was characterized and subjected to HT in a batch process to evaluate the suitability of these biomass sources for solid fuel production. Banana leaves was treated via HT at the temperatures of 180 and 200 ° C with the holding time of 30 min. The results showed that HT can increase the carbon and energy content of banana leaves, while the ash content decreased with the increased of temperature. The calculated value for theoretical potential power generation from treated banana leaves is 3.8 GW. These results showed that the production of solid fuel from banana leaves by employing hydrothermal treatment can contribute to the development of renewable energy, especially in Indonesia.

Bio-based fertilizers are currently gaining interest as a method for reducing the use of chemical fertilizers and as a means for safe disposal of biomass waste. Feathers, which are an abundantly available biomass and have a high N content, are a potential source of fertilizer nutrients. In this study, chicken feathers were subjected to hydrothermal treatment (HTT) with lime addition in the temperature range of 140–200°C to obtain a high N containing liquid product that can be used as a liquid fertilizer. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of HTT conditions on the feather solubilization rate and the properties of the liquid products. The results showed that HTT with a reaction temperature of 180°C, a reaction time of 30 min, feather-water ratio of 1:5, and lime addition is sufficient to solubilize as high as 83% of the chicken feather protein. The produced liquid contained nitrogen of up to 3.4% and total amino acid content of 13.6%. These results indicate the potential utilization of soluble hydrolyzed feather obtained from the HTT process for liquid N fertilizer. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 37: 375–382, 2018

In this study, the comparison of the pellets produced from untreated EFB, the hydrothermally treated empty fruit bunch (HTT-EFB) and washed HTT-EFB was performed. The pelletization of the raw EFB, HTT-EFB, and washed HTT-EFB was conducted using a single pellet making device. In experiments performed at room temperature under a densification pressure of 150 MPa, the physical properties, mechanical strength, durability, and hydrophobicity of the produced pellets were then evaluated. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) analysis was also performed to investigate the binding mechanisms within the pellets. The results showed that the washed HTT-EFB pellets had higher mechanical strength and durability than the HTT-EFB or raw EFB pellets. The HTT-EFB pellets also demonstrated hydrophobic behavior against moisture exposure. However, the washed HTT-EFB pellets required higher compaction energy than the other pellets. From this analysis, it was determined that the changes in the composition of EFB biomass owing to HTT and the washing process regulate pelletization behavior and affect the binding mechanism during pelletization. In addition, the combustion performance of treated EFB samples showed significant improvements as it has higher ignition temperatures with more uniform combustion profiles as shown in the data obtained from TGA analyser. This research demonstrated that the combination of HTT, washing, and pelletization cotreatment is a promising method for upgrading EFB into energy-dense, durable, and homogeneous hydrophobic solid fuel.