Evaluation for the combination of oil palm biomass as co-firing fuel: investigation into ash-related problems

Recognizing the imperative to mitigate carbon emissions in power plants, the availability of palm oil biomass in tropical countries holds significant promise. Nevertheless, the utilization for energy generation is currently limited to some parts of the palm oil biomass, such as empty fruit bunches and oil palm kernels. The primary objective of this investigation is to systematically evaluate the appropriate selection of two different parts of a mixture of oil palm biomass by focusing on slagging and fouling aspects. The evaluation method is initially conducted using empirical calculations and subsequently validated through experimental tests. This study produced three combinations of the two most promising oil palm biomasses: 75% oil palm mesocarp fiber and 25% oil palm leaves, 25% oil palm leaves and 75% palm kernel shell, and 50% oil palm leaves and 50% palm kernel shell. These have calorific value above 4144 kcal/kg, 3824 kcal/kg, and 3761 kcal/kg, respectively. They also result clean probe observations due to high estimated ash fusion temperature up to 1200 °C, lower K-element between 2.71 and 5.14 wt% and dominance presence of Si-based minerals in ash up to 80 wt%.