Assessment of Oil Palm Trunk Liquefaction in Glycerol and Ethylene Glycol by 2^4-1 Fractional Factorial Design

Abstract

Liquefaction of oil palm trunk (OPT) in ethylene glycol and glycerol, with H₂SO₄ as a catalyst, at a temperature of 150 °C was conducted based on Design of Experiment (DoE) aided by software Stat-Ease Inc., Design-Expert^® Version 7. A 2^4-1 fractional factorial design was used. The results showed that factors such as types of solvents, percentage of H2SO4 catalyst and liquefaction time influenced the final liquefaction yield. Liquefaction of OPT in glycerol gave higher amount of liquefied yield. Besides, higher percentage of H₂SO₄ catalyst and longer liquefaction time also gave higher liquefaction yields.