Quality Analysis Of Biomass Empty Fruit Bunch (Feb) And Efb Briquetted Charcoal By Using Proximate Analysis And Energy Content Analysis

Malaysia has been one of the world's largest producers of oil palm, as well as the country is seeing rapid growth in emerging plantations and palm oil mills. Regarding this concern, it can been seen that empty fruit bunch (EFB) is the largest contributor of solid waste from fresh fruit bunches processed in palm oil mill. Following this EFB waste has becoming a growing problem because of its enormous impact on the environment. Large amount of FB can be recycled and turn into value added products which is briquette charcoal by using the pyrolysis method. This study is to analyse the characteristic of EFB as raw material and FB briquetted charcoal as end product by using proximate analysis and energy content analysis. The physical characteristic of EFB raw material and EFB briquetted charcoal has been determined by using proximate analysis of moisture content, ash content, volatile matter content, and also fixed carbon content. The energy content also has been determined by using calorific value. The moisture content, ash content, volatile matter and fixed carbon for EFB raw material 10.53%, 6.32%, 81.08% and 2.07% respectively. The moisture content, ash content, volatile matter and fixed carbon for EFB briquetted charcoal 9.20%, 12.06%, 44.24% and 34.52% respectively. The calorific value for FB briquetted charcoal that have been obtained in this study is 5157 keal/kg while for the EFB raw material is only 4347 keal/kg. Since the energy content of EFB briquetted charcoal is 5157 kcal/kg, thus this sample FB briquetted charcoal is considered as a good and appropriate to be used as a fuel and utilize the usage of EFB biomass.