Co - Pyrolysis of Empty Palm Fruit Bunch (EPFB) and Low Quality Coal under CO₂ Atmosphere

The objective of this research was to study blending ratio effect on co-pyrolysis of Empty Palm Fruit Bunch (EPFB) and low quality coal using CO₂ gas purge on the characteristics of gas, solid and liquid products. Characteristics of gas products consisting of H₂ and CO₂ gas concentration. Solid product characteristics consist of pore diameter, surface area, total pore volume, solid structure. Meanwhile, the characteristics of liquid products consist of liquid composition. EPFB and low quality coal were reduced to a maximum particle size of about 16 meshes at pre treatment process. The blending ratio of low quality coal and EPFB were 100/0, 80/20, 60/40, 40/60, 20/80 and 0/100, temperature at 500 °C. The result obtained that H₂ gas increased between 0 % - 0.423 % due to the higher blending ratio. The concentration of CO₂ gas was fluctuated. Meanwhile, pore diameter and total pore volume decreased due to the higher blending ratio. The pores diameter were 61.7316 nm and 18.8361 nm obtained at 0 % and 80 % EPFB, respectively. Total pore volumes were 0.0111 cm³/and 0.0063 cm³/g obtained at 0 % and 80 % EPFB, respectively. Surfaces area were increased, they were 0.72 m²/g and 1.3480 m²/g at 0 % and 80 % EPFB, respectively. Physical analysis was obtained that the higher of blending ratio (EPFB 100%), the more concentrated of reddish brown color. Liquid products identified contain 41 compounds with the dominant compound of the alkene group. The largest compound were hexadecane (23.69%) and heptacosane (22.61%).