Applied Energy 92 (2012) 778782

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Steam gasication of oil palm trunk waste for clean syngas production
Nimit Nipattummakul a,b, Islam I. Ahmed a, Somrat Kerdsuwan b, Ashwani K. Gupta a,
a
b

The Combustion Laboratory, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA
The Waste Incineration Research Center, Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, King Mongkuts University of Technology North Bangkok, Thailand

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 11 March 2011
Received in revised form 12 August 2011
Accepted 16 August 2011
Available online 15 September 2011
Keywords:
High temperature steam gasication
Oil palm trunk waste
Biomass to clean syngas
Hydrogen generation
Agricultural wastes
Fuel reforming

a b s t r a c t
Waste and agricultural residues offer signicant potential for harvesting chemical energy with
simultaneous reduction of environmental pollution, providing carbon neutral (or even carbon negative)
sustained energy production, energy security and alleviating social concerns associated with the wastes.
Steam gasication is now recognized as one of the most efcient approaches for waste to clean energy
conversion. Syngas generated during the gasication process can be utilized for electric power generation, heat generation and for other industrial and domestic uses. In this paper results obtained from
the steam assisted gasication of oil palm trunk waste are presented. A batch type gasier has been used
to examine the syngas characteristics from gasication of palm trunk waste using steam as the gasifying
agent. Reactor temperature was xed at 800 C. Results show initial high values of syngas ow rate,
which is attributed to rapid devolatilization of the sample. Approximately over 50% of the total syngas
generated was obtained during the rst ve minutes of the process. An increase in steam ow rate
accelerated the gasication reactions and resulted in reduced gasication time. The effect of steam ow
rate on the apparent thermal efciency has also been investigated. Variation in steam ow rate slightly
affected the apparent thermal efciency and was found to be very high. Properties of the syngas obtained
from the gasication of oil palm trunk waste have been compared to other samples under similar
operating conditions. Oil palm trunk waste yielded more syngas, energy and hydrogen than that from
other types of biomass such as mangrove wood, paper and food waste.
Crown Copyright 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Oil palm (scientic name Elaeis guineensis) is an agro-industrial
commodity that is used to produce edible oil [1]. Some oil palm is
also used as fuel via direct combustion. In 2007, oil palm accounted
for some 25% of edible oil in the world and this represents about
38.5 million tons of oil palm produced [2]. This large amount of
palm oil produced has resulted in large amounts of biomass
residues during the process. The residues consisted of 30.5% of
empty fruit brunches (oil palm trunk), 17.23% of bers, 10.62% of
shells, 37.86% of fronds and trunks, and 3.79% of palm kernels
[2]. A hectare of cultivated oil palm results in approximately
5070 tons of biomass residues [3]. In order to seek benets from
such biomass residues, several researches have examined the
potential of energy generation from these agricultural wastes. High
temperature steam gasication has been considered as one of the
most effective and efcient approaches waste to clean chemical
energy conversion without any environmental degradation. The
fuel thus produced can then be utilized for electric power

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 301 405 5276.

E-mail address: akgupta@umd.edu (A.K. Gupta).

generation, heat generation and in other industrial, transportation

and domestic sectors.
The objective of this paper is to examine the thermo-chemical
transformation of palm trunk waste to chemical energy using
steam as the gasifying agent. Note that air gasication results in
lower heating value of the syngas as compared to steam assisted
gasication. The results are compared with the baseline case of
pyrolysis under the same temperature condition. A batch type
gasier, maintained at a xed temperature of 800 C, was used
for the results presented here. The effect of steam ow rate on
the amounts of syngas produced and its characteristics from oil
palm trunk are presented here. The experimental results are
presented on the effect of steam ow rate on the evolutionary
behavior of the resulting syngas ow rate, chemical composition
of the syngas, hydrogen ow rate in the syngas as well as the
overall syngas yield. Results of oil palm wastes under pyrolysis
conditions are presented for evaluating the role of gasication
on the syngas comparison. The emphasis in this investigation is
on determining H2 content, hydrogen/CO ratio and apparent
thermal efciency at different steam ow rates at a constant
reactor temperature. These characteristics help identify the most
suitable conditions of gasifying agent ow rate for efcient
gasication of such biomass wastes.

0306-2619/$ - see front matter Crown Copyright 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.08.026

N. Nipattummakul et al. / Applied Energy 92 (2012) 778782

Table 1
Proximate and ultimate analysis of oil palm trunk.
Moisture (% as received)

8.34

Proximate analysis
Ash (% at dry basis)
Volatile matter (% at dry basis)
Fixed carbon (% at dry basis)

6.87
79.82
13.31

Ultimate analysis
Carbon (% at dry basis)
Hydrogen (% at dry basis)
Nitrogen (% at dry basis)
Oxygen (% at dry basis)
Sulfur (% at dry basis)
Higher heating value (MJ/kg)

43.80
6.20
0.44
42.65
0.09
19.257

Fig. 1. Photograph of oil palm sample, ash and char.

779

2. Experimental facility and conditions

2.1. Experimental facility
Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of the laboratory-scale experimental facility used for the gasication and pyrolysis experiments.
Steam was generated from the stoichiometric combustion of
hydrogen and oxygen in a specially designed burner. The steam
generated was then introduced into a gasifying agent conditioner.
The temperature of the gasifying agent conditioner was kept at
same temperature as that desired in the main reactor where
gasication of the sample material occurs. Steam is then
introduced into the main reaction chamber containing the biomass
feedstock hydrocarbon sample (oil palm trunk). The syngas owing
out from the reactor is allowed to ow into two sections; one
passes to the gas sampling line for gas analysis while the remaining
syngas is vented to the environment via the exhaust system. The
bypass line incorporated a no-return valve and a ow meter to
monitor the ow rate and to ensure the desired unidirectional ow
out from the gasication reactor. The syngas sample is then
introduced into a condenser followed by a lter and a moisture
absorber (anhydrous calcium sulfate) so that the sample is
moisture free prior to its introduction into the GC or other gas
analyzers. The ow of syngas is then directed to a three way valve.
This three way valve allows sampling by two means. First is from
collection of the syngas sample in the sampling bottles. The second
means involved introducing the syngas directly into the micro gas
chromatograph (GC). Sampling bottles were used only when short
sampling intervals were required (in the range of 0.511 min) in
between the sampling. This procedure allowed determination of
evolutionary behavior of syngas from the sample. However, direct
sampling and analysis were carried out by the GC when longer
sampling time intervals were desired. A constant ow rate of an
inert gas (nitrogen) was introduced with the oxygen ow to the
reactor. The nitrogen is detected by the GC and is then used to

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the experimental setup.

780

N. Nipattummakul et al. / Applied Energy 92 (2012) 778782

determine the ow rate of different syngas species produced

during gasication and pyrolysis.
2.2. Oil palm trunk feedstock material
The proximate and ultimate analysis of oil palm trunk used as
the feedstock sample material for gasication and pyrolysis is
shown in Table 1. A photograph of the oil palm trunk sample is
shown in Fig. 1. The physical size of the sample was controlled to
be approximately 25 mm. The mass of the oil palm trunk sample
used for the gasication test was xed at 35 g. The sample was well
distributed in a stainless steel mesh before placing it in the main
reactor. Temperature of the steam ow as well as the gasication
reactor was well controlled before each experiment. The reactor
temperature was set at 800 C. The steam ow rate was varied as
3.10, 4.12, and 7.75 g/min, which changed the steam to sample
ratio.
3. Results and discussion
The results obtained from steam gasication of oil palm trunk
using the laboratory scale reactor facility are presented in this
section. Evolutionary behavior of syngas characteristics has been
monitored for both pyrolysis and gasication conditions. Syngas
characteristics were determined in terms of syngas ow rate,
hydrogen ow rate, syngas chemical composition and hydrogen
to carbon monoxide ratio. The effect of steam ow rate on overall
syngas yield, hydrogen yield and apparent thermal efciency is
also presented. The results obtained help quantify the role of each
operational condition on the gasication process.
3.1. Evolution of syngas ow
Results obtained on the evolution of syngas from pyrolysis and
steam gasication of oil palm trunk are shown in Fig. 3. The results
also show the effect of steam ow rate on syngas evolution. Syngas
evolved from pyrolysis is also included in order to provide the
direct role of gasication in pyrolysis. Examination of the process
of steam gasication and pyrolysis reveals that steam gasication
consists of two distinct regimes. The rst is the pyrolysis stage,
which starts from the beginning of the experiment until about
the seventh minute. The role of steam as the gasifying agent occurs
after initial pyrolysis of the sample. The second stage is the char
gasication stage, which starts after approximately the seventh
minute into gasication (i.e., after initial pyrolysis of the sample).
In the rst stage, a high yield of volatile matter is observed due
to rapid decomposition of the sample. This is because the oil palm
trunk contains 79.81% of volatile matter. This is signicantly higher
than that from other types of biomass, such as paper, cardboard
and wood chips [49]. At a high reactor temperature of 800 C
much of the volatile matter rapidly evolves from the sample. Under

gasication conditions, the presence of high temperature steam

promotes steam reforming reactions to provide excess evolution
of syngas at the initial stages of gasication. The role of steam in
the process can be understood by considering the following
reactions (reactions (1)(6))

C + H2 O ! CO + H2

CO + H2 O ! CO2 + H2

C + 2H2 O ! CO2 + 2H2

CH4 + H2 O ! CO + 3H2

Cn Hm + 2nH2 O ! nCO2 + [2n + (m/2)]H2

Cn Hm + nH2 O ! nCO + [n + (m/2)]H2

From the above reactions one can observe that there are two
reasons why steam causes an increase in syngas ow rate as
compared to syngas generated from pyrolysis. The added syngas
ow is due to the reaction between steam and char or xed carbon
(via reactions (1) and (3)) that remains after the pyrolysis process.
The additional syngas ow is attributed to steam cracking of tar
and condensable hydrocarbons via reactions (5) and (6). Some
low molecular weight hydrocarbons (e.g., methane) are also
reformed to produce CO and hydrogen via reaction (4).
The second stage of syngas production, primarily from char
gasication, is distinctly different from the pyrolysis process. In
this stage, the reaction time depends on the amounts of steam ow
rate or the ratio of sample/steam ow rate in the reactor. At an
increased steam ow rate, a reduction in char gasication time
occurs. The presence of steam clearly reveals increased cracking
of the residual char and heavy carbonaceous materials that remain
or are produced during the initial pyrolysis process. Note that the
characteristic amounts of char and tar formed during pyrolysis
can be as much as 30% so that more energy is available in the
residual char and tar after the pyrolysis process. Therefore,
gasication plays a pivotal role in additional chemical energy
recovery from the feedstock material.
3.2. Evolution of hydrogen ow
Fig. 4 shows the evolution of hydrogen ow rate which can be
distinguished into two stages similar to that observed for the syngas ow. In the rst range, hydrogen is produced by pyrolysis of
volatile matter in the sample. In the gasication stage, steamchar
reforming reactions ((1) and (3)) and tar reforming reactions ((2),
(4)(6)) play important role in the production of hydrogen. During

Mass Flow Rate (g/min)

Mass Flow Rate (g/min)

0.30
14
12
10
8
6
4
2

0.25
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.00

0
0

10

15

20

25

30

35

7.75 g/min

4.12 g/min

10

15

20

25

30

35

Time (min)

Time (min)
3.10 g/min

Fig. 3. Syngas generation rate with time.

Pyrolysis

7.75 g/min

4.12 g/min

3.10 g/min

Fig. 4. Hydrogen generation rate with time.

Pyrolysis

781

N. Nipattummakul et al. / Applied Energy 92 (2012) 778782

gasication, some of the condensable hydrocarbons/tar produced

during the pyrolysis process are also transformed into hydrogen.
Consequently, H2 yield from gasication is signicantly higher
than that from pyrolysis, even during the initial/pyrolysis stage.
In addition, an increase in steam ow rate provided a reduction
in the gasication time as evidenced from the hydrogen ow rate
evolution data shown in Fig. 4.
3.3. Syngas composition
Figs. 57 show the syngas composition at different steam ow
rates of 7.75, 4.12, and 3.10 g/min, respectively. Although a
70

Gas Composition (%)

60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0

10

15

20

25

Time (min)
H2

CH4

CO

CO2

CxHy

Fig. 5. Variation of syngas composition with time at steam ow rates of 7.75 g/min.

Water gas shift reaction :

70

Gas Composition (%)

comparison of the three gures shows similar trends, a close

examination reveals that an increase in the steam to sample ratio
affects the syngas composition. An increase in hydrogen content is
observed and is attributed to steam reforming reactions (5) and (6).
The results show a decrease in CO, CO2, CH4, and CxHy
concentrations during the rst three minutes. In contrast the mole
fraction hydrogen is observed to increase rapidly during the rst
three minutes. This is then followed by a mild increase in the
hydrogen concentration after about the third minute. A monotonic
increase in CO2 yield can be observed after the third minute as
well. The initial decrease in CO2 is possibly due to its consumption
during the gasication process (CO2 produced in the process acts as
a gasifying agent) [9]. Results show that over 60% increase in H2
yield can be obtained from gasication as compared to that from
pyrolysis.
In the rst interval, the sample is heated from the ambient
temperature (25 C) to the gasication temperature of 800 C in
the process [4]. Therefore, the steam involved reactions are
possibly hampered during the initial stage. Almost all of the syngas
evolved in the form of non-condensable gases is produced from
pyrolysis with major gas phase components being CO, H2 and
CO2. The sample temperature is then progressively increased to
high values, in excess of 600 C. At this temperature the steam
reforming reactions show a gradual acceleration, resulting in a
gradual increase in the hydrogen content during the rst three
minutes. These results are in agreement with those reported in
the literature for waste paper and cardboard samples [4,5]. After
the third minute, the CO2 mole fraction increased while the CO
mole fraction decreased as a result of the water gas shift reaction
given below:

60

CO H2 O () CO2 H2 O

3.4. H2/CO ratio

50
40
30
20
10
0
0

10

15

20

25

Time (min)
H2

CH4

CO

CO2

CxHy

The variation of the H2/CO ratio with time is shown in Fig. 8. The
results show that H2/CO ratio starts at a relatively low value and
then increases with an increase in the gasication time. At the start
of steam gasication, the dominant process is pyrolysis. During
pyrolysis a signicant amount of CO and a smaller amount of H2
are generated in the syngas. The percentage of H2 increases while
the percentage of CO gradually decreases as shown in Figs. 57.
The steam reforming reactions signicantly increase hydrogen
production during the rst two minutes to result in an increase
of the H2/CO ratio. Such high values of H2/CO are favorable for its
conversion to liquid fuels, using for example, the FisherTropsch
(FT) process.

Fig. 6. Variation of syngas composition with time at steam ow rates of 4.12 g/min.

3.5. Apparent thermal efciency

Apparent thermal efciency (ATE) provides a measure of
efcient energy conversion. This was determined in order to

60
50
40

30

H2/CO Ratio

Gas Composition (%)

70

20
10
0

6
4
2
0
0

Time (min)
H2

CH4

CO

10

Time (min)
CO2

CxHy

Fig. 7. Variation of syngas composition with time at steam ow rates of 3.10 g/min.

7.75 g/min

4.12 g/min

Fig. 8. Variation of H2/CO ratio with time.

3.10 g/min

12

782

N. Nipattummakul et al. / Applied Energy 92 (2012) 778782

Table 2
Chemical composition and properties of syngas from different samples.

Efficiency (%)

120
100
80
60

Oil palm
Mangrove
Paper
Food waste
Polystyrene

40
20
0
2

Syngas
yield (g)

Hydrogen
yield (g)

Energy
yield (kJ)

Apparent thermal
efciency ()

52.4
47.6
38
29.3
36.8

2.86
2.48
1.64
1.56
3.03

685
668
411
477
677

1.11
0.91
0.85
0.9
0.47

Steam Flow Rate (g/min)

Fig. 9. Variation of apparent thermal efciency value with steam ow rate.

14

Flow rate (g/min)

12
10

4. Conclusions

8
6
4
2
0
0

12

15

18

21

24

27

30

33

36

Time (min)
Oil palm

Mongrove

Paper

Food waste

Fig. 10. Syngas ow rate at 900 C from steam gasication of oil palm, mangrove,
paper and food waste.

evaluate the potential of energy conversion from the solid fuel to

gaseous fuel. The ATE is dened as:

Apparent thermal efficiency ATE

Table 2 shows the properties of syngas yield from the gasication

of oil palm waste and other samples.
Oil palm waste yielded the highest energy and apparent
thermal efciency and yielded a comparable amount of hydrogen
as that from polystyrene.

Syngas energy yield

 100 %
Solid fuel energy yield

It is to be noted that the ATE determined here does not consider

the energy consumed to heat-up the reactor, steam, and
sample. The chemical energy present in the syngas was calculated
from the heating value of chemical species detected (H2, CO, CO2,
CH4, C2H4, C2H6, C3H6, and C3H8). Calculated values of apparent
thermal efciency (ATE) are shown in Fig. 9. Results suggest that
variation in steam ow rate has a slight effect on the ATE. The
average value of ATE was found to be approximately 110%.
3.6. Comparison of oil palm waste with other samples
Fig. 10 shows the evolution of syngas ow rate from the
gasication of oil palm waste and its direct comparison with
several other biomass samples, such as paper, food waste and
mangrove wood. Note that mangrove wood grows in shallow sea
waters and is used for the production of high quality charcoal.
The charcoal produced from mangrove biomass is much superior
to other types of wood. In general, syngas evolution from all
samples followed a similar trend. Oil palm waste resulted in a high
ow rate of syngas than that by paper and food waste in the initial
stage. However, mangrove wood provided a lower syngas ow rate
as compared to oil palm waste during gasication at the examined
temperature of 800 C. This is attributed to the high volatile
content in both oil palm waste and mangrove wood. Note that
the volatile matter in mangrove sample is somewhat lower than
in oil palm waste. Gasication of oil palm lasted for a shorter time
as compared to that of mangrove and food waste. The shorter time
duration of oil palm gasication indicates a higher reactivity of oil
palm char than those indicated by the food waste and mangrove.
Gasication duration of paper was similar to that of oil palm waste.

Gasication of oil palm trunk has been examined in a batch

reactor using steam as the gasifying agent at a reactor temperature
of 800 C. The results are also obtained under pyrolysis conditions.
The effect of steam ow rate on syngas composition for a xed
amount of material has been examined in detailed. The results
showed that the high initial syngas ow rate is mainly attributed
to the pyrolysis of volatile matter from the oil palm sample. Almost
50% of the syngas is produced during the rst ve minutes. The
results showed that there is over 60% increase in hydrogen
production with steam gasication as compared to that with
pyrolysis. The increase in steam ow rate reduced the time
duration of gasication, and promoted steam reforming reactions
to result in increased hydrogen yield. Increase in steam ow rate
provided negligible effect on the apparent thermal efciency. In
comparison to other biomass samples, oil palm waste yielded more
syngas, energy and hydrogen than paper, food waste and mangrove
samples under identical gasication conditions.
Acknowledgments
The research was partly supported by the ONR and is gratefully
acknowledged. The authors (N.N. and S.K.) would like to express
their gratitude to the Combustion Laboratory, Department of
Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland for providing all
the test and diagnostics facilities used here. The nancial support
from the Thailand Research Fund through the Royal Golden Jubilee
Ph.D. Program (Grant No. PHD/0146/2549) to Assoc. Prof. Somrat
Kerdsuwan and Mr. Nimit Nipattummakul is gratefully
acknowledged.
References
[1] Kelly-Yong TL, Lee KT, Mohamed AR, Bhatia S. Potential of hydrogen from oil
palm biomass as a source of renewable energy worldwide. Energy Policy
2007;35:5692701.
[2] Shuit SH, Tan KT, Le KT, Kamaruddin AH. Oil palm biomass as a sustainable
source: a Malaysian case study. Energy 2009;34:122535.
[3] Salathong J. The sustainable use of oil palm biomass in Malaysia with Thailands
comparative perspective; 2007. See also: <http://www.wiaps.waseda.ac.jp/
initiative/2006/intend/group_02/PDF/Jassada%20Salatong.pdf>.
[4] Ahmed I, Gupta AK. Evaluation of syngas from cardboard gasication. J Appl
Energy 2009;86:173240.
[5] Ahmed I, Gupta AK. Syngas yield during pyrolysis and steam gasication of
paper. J Appl Energy 2009;86:181321.
[6] Ahmed I, Gupta AK. Characteristics of cardboard and paper gasication with
CO2. J Appl Energy 2009;86:262634.
[7] Ahmed I, Gupta AK. Hydrogen production from polystyrene pyrolysis and
gasication: characteristics and kinetics. J Hydrogen Energy 2009;34:625364.
[8] Ahmed I, Gupta AK. Pyrolysis and gasication of food waste: syngas
characteristics and char gasication kinetics. J Appl Energy 2010;87:1018.
[9] Ahmed I, Gupta AK. Characteristics of cardboard and paper gasication with
CO2. Appl Energy 2009;86:262634.