Karakteristik Pelet Campuran Tandan Kosong Kelapa Sawit :(Elaeis guineensis jacq.) dan Arang

Abstract

Oil palm empty fruit bunches (EFB) is very abundant in Indonesia. It has huge potential to be used as renewable energy. This study tries to assess the use of EFB as biopellet to be used as alternative renewable fuel. Pellets are made from mixing oil palm empty fruit bunch powder and oil palm empty fruit bunch char at a ratio of 0, 10, and 20% respectively. Biopellet is molded using pellet mill machine that produces cylindrical shaped pellets with a diameter of 0.4 cm and a length of + 4 cm. The result of the study indicates that adding char could increase the calorific value of pellets. The calorific value of pellets to which 10 and 20% of char has been added will produce pellets that have a calorific value of 17,21 MJ/kg and 17,38 MJ/kg respectively. Meanwhile the calorific value of dry empty palm oil bunch feedstock and its pellets are 16,21 MJ/kg and 17,38 MJ/kg respectively. In addition to calorific value, adding char to pellets made from oil palm empty fruit bunched will reduce the moisture and ash contents and improve the bulk density of pellets. In general, the quality of biopellets that have been mixed with 20% of char is capable of meeting the French standard as regard to diameter size, length size, moisture content, and calorific value parameters, on the other hand as regard to ash content, and bulk density, all biopellet types still hasn’t been able to fulfill the requirements.