title: Pretreatment of empty palm fruit bunch for production of chemicals via catalytic pyrolysis.
abstract: The effect of chemical pretreatments using NaOH, H(2)O(2), and Ca(OH)(2) on Empty Palm Fruit Bunches (EPFB) to degrade EPFB lignin before pyrolysis was investigated. Spectrophotometer analysis proved consecutive addition of NaOH and H(2)O(2) decomposed almost 100% of EPFB lignin compared to 44% for the Ca(OH)(2), H(2)O(2) system while NaOH and Ca(OH)(2) used exclusively could not alter lignin much. Next, the pretreated EPFB was catalytically pyrolyzed. Experimental results indicated the phenolic yields over Al-MCM-41 and HZSM-5 catalysts were 90 wt% and 80 wt%, respectively compared to 67 wt% yield for the untreated sample under the same set of conditions. Meanwhile, the experiments with HY zeolite yielded 70 wt% phenols.
authors.affiliation: Chemical Reaction Engineering Group, Faculty of Chemical and Natural Resources Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Mailin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Misson
authors.forename: Roslindawati
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Haron
authors.forename: Mohd Fadhzir Ahmad
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Kamaroddin
authors.forename: Nor Aishah Saidina
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Amin
mesh_terms: D028023:Arecaceae / Q000737:chemistry*; D002384:Catalysis; D005638:Fruit / Q000737:chemistry*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008031:Lignin / Q000737:chemistry*; D000073878:Palm Oil; D010936:Plant Extracts / Q000737:chemistry*; D010938:Plant Oils / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D010936:Plant Extracts; D010938:Plant Oils; D000073878:Palm Oil; D008031:Lignin