抄録
Malaysia's National Biomass Strategy 2020 has projected higher utilization of biomass, especially in palm oil plantation residues, to fulfil the national renewable energy target for converting biomass to energy. The bio-coke, a new solid fuel technology developed by Ida et al., is made from biomass, which has undergone constant heating and constant pressurizing to solidify the biomass. It is as an alternative fuel for coal coke, thus offers Malaysia a way to meet its renewable energy target and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. However, bio-coke has lower carbon content compared to coal coke. Based on previous studies, the mixture of biomass with bio-char in the bio-coke materials improved the compressive strength under high temperature environment and improved the energy density of bio-coke. Bio-char is added in before the molding process of bio-coke and the end product is called bio-char-coke. In this study, the physical and mechanical characteristics of bio-char-coke from the mixture of oil palm EFB and coffee char is investigated. The results showed that the bio-char-coke produced tend to collapse when the coffee char content ratio was above 40wt% for lwt% initial moisture content and above 50wt% for 3wt%, 5wt%, 7wt% and 10wt% initial moisture content. This because of two reasons: 1) Lack in lignocellulosic components due to decrease in palm fiber content ratio; 2) Heat transfer between each particle became lower because more spaces were developed between each particle whenever coffee char content ratio is increased. Decrease in the lignocellulosic components also lowers the apparent density of bio-char-coke. Furthermore, the maximum compressive strength of bio-char-coke under room temperature environment is decreased when the coffee char content ratio is increased.
