IMPROVEMENT OF WET BASE BIOMASS CHARACTERISTICS VIA THE HYDROTHERMAL CARBONISATION PROCESS

摘要

Wet base biomass can be converted through a hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) process to acquirebetter characteristics and a more profitable product. Two type of biomass will be use in this research; wood chips(WC) and palm oil empty fruit bunch (EFB). A purpose built pressure vessel was used in the presence of excess waterthroughout the process. The process was carried out at low temperature (180 – 220℃) and saturated water pressure.The chemical and physical characteristics of the products were verified using elemental analysis, calorific value,scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and visual characteristics. The carbon value recorded an improvement as theO/C ratio of raw EFB = 0.85 to a HTC processed EFB of 0.62. Also, the increment on the calorific value by 7.5%was recorded from bomb calorimetry. The surface morphology obtained from scanning electron microscopy (SEM)showed minimal topographic modification of the materials although, more pores were seen on the surface of the HTCproduct suggesting a processing route to complicated carbon based structures.