Renewable Energy 122 (2018) 419e428

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Torrefaction of densified mesocarp fibre and palm kernel shell

Hasan Mohd Faizal a, b, *, Hielfarith Suffri Shamsuddin b, M. Harif M. Heiree b,
Mohd Fuad Muhammad Ariff Hanaffi b, Mohd Rosdzimin Abdul Rahman c,
Md. Mizanur Rahman b, Z.A. Latiff a, b
a
Automotive Development Centre, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
b
Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, UTM Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Pertahanan Nasional Malaysia, Kem Sg. Besi, 57000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Mesocarp fibre and palm kernel shell (PKS) are widely used as fuels for boilers at palm oil mills to
Received 22 August 2017 generate electricity. In the present study, the PKS and mesocarp fibre were densified under a controlled
Received in revised form condition in prior to torrefaction process. Then, the briquettes were torrefied with various temperatures
8 January 2018
of 250e300
C, residence time of 40 min and nitrogen flow rate of 1 l/min. In general, the torrefied
Accepted 29 January 2018
Available online 1 February 2018
mesocarp fibre briquettes were successfully produced regardless of torrefaction temperature, whereas
the production of torrefied PKS briquettes was only feasible for torrefaction temperature of 250
C, but
the outer surface still remained brittle. The results show that an increase in torrefaction temperature
Keywords:
Torrefaction
causes a decrease in relaxed density and compressive strength of the torrefied mesocarp fibre briquettes.
Palm biomass In terms of combustion properties, an increase in torrefaction temperature causes an increase in gross
Briquette calorific value, fixed carbon content and ash content while volatile matter decreases. Besides, energy
Mesocarp fibre density of the torrefied mesocarp fibre briquettes does not change significantly with respect to the
Palm kernel shell torrefaction temperature. Finally, the gross calorific value and moisture content were found to fulfill the
Torrefied briquette requirements for commercialization as stated by international standards.
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction treatments have been applied to improve the properties of palm

The increase in world energy demand, depletion of fossil fuels
and awareness of environmental problem have driven trans-
formation towards the dependence on renewable energy sources
such as solar, wind and biomass [1]. In the countries where palm
trees are widely cultivated such as Indonesia and Malaysia [2], the
utilization of biomass energy sources obtained from residues of this
palm tree is very important in order to solve the dumped areas
adjacent to palm mills and to prevent from becoming one of the
wastes of palm oil industry [2,3].
The commonly used palm biomasses as fuel for boilers to
generate electricity are mesocarp fibre and palm kernel shell. The
amount produced per year for mesocarp fibre is 9e10 million
tonnes while for palm kernel shell is 4e5 million tonnes [2]. Several
* Corresponding author. Automotive Development Centre, Faculty of Mechanical
Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, UTM Johor Bahru, Johor,
Malaysia.
E-mail address: mfaizal@mail.fkm.utm.my (H. Mohd Faizal).
wastes as a solid fuel such as densification [3,4], torrefaction [5,6]
and even combination of these treatments. Densification is
compression of raw materials into solid biofuels with higher den-
sity [7], such as small logs (in the forms of pellet or briquette) or
even into the larger size product that is called bale. Densification is
one of the attractive ways to increase the energy content per unit
volume, thus solving the costly transportation and storage prob-
lems. Meanwhile, torrefaction is a thermal decomposition of
biomass in an inert environment (in the absence of oxygen). Tor-
refaction increases the potential of raw biomass to be converted to
a viable solid fuel by improving the hydrophobic nature, grind-
ability characteristics as well as energy density [8], in which the
hydrophobic characteristic is very important to prevent moisture
absorption during storage. The important parameters that affect
the performance of the solid fuel produced are torrefaction tem-
perature, residence time and type of biomass. Torrefaction on palm
biomass residues has been initially performed by Uemura et al.
(2011) [5], in which the energy yield for mesocarp fibre and shell is
found to be higher than 95% while that for empty fruit bunch (EFB)
is mere 56% even though the change in calorific value (torrefied

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2018.01.118
0960-1481/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
420 H. Mohd Faizal et al. / Renewable Energy 122 (2018) 419e428
against dried) for EFB is highest for all torrefaction temperatures
[5].
The combination of torrefaction and densification for palm
biomass wastes is one of the favorable techniques to cope with
increasing energy demand scenario, whether by the sequence of
densification and torrefaction [8e10] or vice versa [11]. For both
sequences, it can be concluded that the torrefaction temperature
plays a significant role in affecting the performance of produced
solid fuel rather than residence or reaction time [11,12]. This is the
reason why most of the researchers were interested to investigate
the effect of temperature on the performance of their torrefied
products [8,10e12]. Felfli et al. (2005) who were one of the pioneers
using such combination technique to produce torrefied wood bri-
quettes [12] while later Na et al. (2013) have produced pellets made
of torrefied mesocarp fibre [11]. It is interesting to note that the
hydrophobic characteristic of the torrefied wood briquettes pro-
duced by Felfli et al. (2005) [12] was just slightly affected after
immersion in water, in which the moisture content was still less
than 10% even after immersing for 70 min, whereas the untorrefied
briquettes experienced physical disintegration in just less than
10 min [12]. The combination techniques continuously gained in-
terest from many researchers such as Li et al. (2012) [13], Ghiasi
et al. (2014) [14], Nyakuma et al. (2014) [8], and Rudolfsson et al.
(2015) [15] who utilized sawdust, woodchips, EFB, and Norway
spruce, respectively as their raw materials. Nyakuma et al. (2014)
[8] has performed torrefaction on EFB pellets under an inert envi-
ronment by covering the agglomeration of pellets with aluminum
foil, thus eliminating the use of nitrogen tank. In this case, they
have used as received pellets, in which the detailed operating
condition for producing the pellets was not mentioned [8].
Based on the recent review on torrefaction specifically for oil
palm wastes [16], palm kernel shell, EFB and mesocarp fibre are the
commonly used feedstock for torrefaction. However, the funda-
mental investigation on these palm wastes based biofuels produced
by the combination technique of torrefaction and followed by
densification or vice versa still remain lacking, therefore the pre-
sent study aims to produce biofuels made of two major palm
wastes, that are palm kernel shell and mesocarp fibre with
distinctive surface structure. Based on the extent of our knowledge,
no attempt has been made to apply combination of densification
and followed by torrefaction on these two major palm wastes
(mesocarp fibre and palm kernel shell). Na et al. (2013) [11] had
applied combined technique on mesocarp fibre, but the direction
was reverse (torrefaction and followed by densification).
In the present study, both pulverized palm kernel shell and
pulverized mesocarp fibre were densified under a controlled con-
dition in prior to torrefaction process. The densification was per-
formed under a controlled condition because it has been proven
that some parameters such as briquetting temperature significantly
affects the compressive strength of the briquettes produced [20],
even though other group of researcher [21] had concluded that
briquetting pressure has no significant influence on the properties
of the briquettes produced by combination of torrefaction and
densification. Based on this fact, in prior to the torrefaction treat-
ment, all the briquettes were produced under constant operating
condition to ensure that any change or improvement obtained was
mainly due to the torrefaction parameter. After the torrefied bri-
quettes have been produced, the physical characteristics such as
relaxed density, mass yield, volume yield and compressive
strength, and important combustion properties such as calorific
value, energy density, moisture content, volatile matter content,
fixed carbon content and ash content were determined. In this
paper, the comparison is also performed with benchmark inter-
national standards and the properties of common practice solid
fuels that contained mixture of mesocarp fibre and shell (weight
ratio of 60:40), where appropriate.
2. Methodology
2.1. Preparation of raw materials
The raw materials (mesocarp fibre and palm kernel shell) were
collected from a palm oil mill and were dried and relaxed under
ambient condition for more than one month. This is based on the
previous study that found stability could be achieved after relaxa-
tion under ambient condition for more than one week [3]. The raw
materials were initially ground by a milling machine and sieved by
using sieving shaker machine (model EFL 2 mk3 with filter meshing
size of 500 mm) to obtain the particles size of less than 500 mm to
ensure homogeneity of the briquettes produced.
2.2. Briquetting process
Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram for the briquetting process.
The complete assembly of die set consists of piston with diameter
of 50 mm, wall and base made of stainless steel. A small hole for
thermocouple sensor was created at bottom part of die wall in a
way such that the horizontal distance between the sensor and
biomass sample is very close, that is approximately 3 mm. The die
wall was covered by coil heater with jacket for heating purpose and
was insulated by a ceramic fibre blanket to prevent heat loss during
heating process. Both the coil heater and thermocouple sensor
were connected to a digital temperature controller to control and
maintain the heating temperature at the desired value.
Initially, approximately 40 g of pulverized palm biomass was
filled into the die set consists of die wall and base. Then, the piston
of the die set was pushed manually through the hole of the die wall
until the piston touches the sample. Then, the die set filled with the
pulverized sample was placed on the bottom plate of a hydraulic
press machine. The pulverized sample was then compressed by the
press machine (with cylindrical hydraulic piston diameter of
120 mm), as shown by Fig. 1(b) until the indicated operating
pressure of the machine was 7 MPa (corresponds to approximately
79.2 kN of pressing force). Then, the pulverized sample was
continuously compressed under the constant operating pressure of
around 7 MPa for 30 min but without heating. After compression
without heating for 30 min, the temperature controller was turned
on and the heating process was performed at heating rate of
approximately 15
C/min to reach the desired briquetting temper-
ature of 150
C. Once reaching 150
C, the pulverized sample was
continuously compressed and heated for another 30 min, and the
operating compaction pressure and temperature were maintained.
In this case, the temperature of 150
C was found to be already
sufficient to produce a strong briquette [20]. After that, the heater
was turned off and the die set filled with the compressed sample
was cooled to room temperature. Finally, the pressure applied by
the press machine was released and the formed briquette was
removed from the die set by replacing the die base with circular
ring as shown by Fig. 1(c). Here, the piston of the die set was pushed
slowly by the press machine until the formed briquette drops on
the bottom plate of the press machine, as shown by Fig. 1(c). After
removal process, the briquette produced was left for around one
week under ambient condition for stability and rigidity purposes.
The stability and rigidity of the briquettes produced were
confirmed once there was no change in volume anymore. In the
present study, for each material, three briquettes were produced for
each torrefaction temperature. Then, each briquette was torrefied
one by one in a torrefaction reactor to neglect the effect of
agglomeration.
 H. Mohd Faizal et al. / Renewable Energy 122 (2018) 419e428 421

Fig. 1. Experimental setup and procedures during briquetting process.

2.3. Torrefaction process
Fig. 2 illustrates the schematic diagram for torrefaction process.
The internal diameter of the cylinder torrefaction reactor was
around 10 cm. The outer surface of the cylinder reactor was fully
covered by plate type heater for heating purpose. A type-K ther-
mocouple sensor was set very close to the briquette specimen in a
way such that the vertical distance between the sensor and the
specimen was around 3e5 mm. Both the heater and thermocouple
sensor were connected to a digital temperature controller for
controlling and maintain the operating temperature at the desired
value. The chimney was made at the top of the reactor to flow out
the gas released during heating process to a ventilation system.
Initially, the produced briquette was placed inside the reactor
(around the center of the mesh holder) and the purging process
was performed for 30 min by using nitrogen. The purpose of
purging process is to remove air from the tank before torrefaction
experiment was started. Then, the briquette was heated at the
desired temperature for 40 min under an inert environment (with a
continuous nitrogen flow). After the torrefaction process was
complete, the torrefied briquette was allowed to cool to room
temperature before it was taken out from the reactor. The briquette
was again left under ambient condition for around 1 week to obtain
stability and rigidity. As mentioned previously, the stability and
rigidity of the torrefied briquettes were confirmed when there was
no change in mass and volume anymore. Throughout the experi-
ment, the nitrogen flow rate was set constant at 1 l/min. In the
present study, the torrefaction temperature was varied from 250
C
to 300
C with 25
C increment. For each torrefaction temperature,
three briquettes were prepared for each type of palm biomass.
422 H. Mohd Faizal et al. / Renewable Energy 122 (2018) 419e428
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram for torrefaction process.
2.4. Determination of physical properties
The physical properties evaluated in the present study were
relaxed density, compressive strength, mass yield and volume
yield. The relaxed density of the briquettes before and after torre-
faction was determined by using a stereometric method introduced
by Rabier et al. (2006) [17]. The volume of the briquettes was
measured by using a caliper while the mass was measured by using
a precise mechanical balance (model FX-300i). The compressive
strength of the torrefied briquettes was determined by using Ins-
tron Machine 600DX. Each briquette was placed between two
metal plates (upper and bottom plate) horizontally and the
briquette was compressed at constant speed of 0.5 mm/min until
the fracture point was detected by observing the sudden drop of
pressure.
The mass yield of the torrefied briquettes produced (ymass ) can
be determined by Eq. (1) as follows,
!
.
ymass ð%Þ ¼ mafter m  100 (1)
before
where mafter is the mass of briquette after torrefaction and mbefore is
the mass of briquette before torrefaction. The volume yield of the
torrefied briquettes produced (yvolume ) can be obtained by Eq. (2) as
follows,
! ance (A&D, model: HR-250AZ with precision of 0.0001 g) was used
.
yvolume ð%Þ ¼ Vafter V  100 (2)
before
where Vafter is volume of briquette after torrefaction and Vbefore is
volume of briquette before torrefaction. Finally, the energy density
(Edensity ) can be obtained by Eq. (3) as follows,
 
MJ
Edensity ¼ rmass  GCV (3)
m3
where rmass and GCV are mass density and gross calorific value of
the torrefied briquette, respectively.
2.5. Determination of gross calorific value
Gross calorific value of both materials (mesocarp fibre and palm
kernel shell) and the produced torrefied briquettes were measured
by using IKA calorimeter system (model C2000) according to ASTM
D240 standard. In the present study, the measurement of gross
calorific value was replicated twice for each raw material. Mean-
while, for each torrefied briquette, the measurement was per-
formed twice. This means that for each type of material, six data of
gross calorific value were obtained for each torrefaction
temperature.
2.6. Ultimate and proximate analysis
Proximate analysis was performed to determine moisture con-
tent, volatile matter and ash contents based on American Society
for Testing Materials (ASTM) standards D3173, D3175 and D3174,
respectively. Here, high temperature furnace (Nabertherm, model
LT 5/12/B180) was used for heating while precision analytical bal-
for weight measurement. In addition, a glass desiccator filled with
silica gels was used to prevent moisture absorption by the samples
during cooling after heating process. Initially, a crucible without
cover that filled with approximately 1 g of sample was placed in the
preheated furnace with temperature of 107 ± 3
C. The sample was
heated at temperature of 107 ± 3
C for 1 h and then was cooled in a
 H. Mohd Faizal et al. / Renewable Energy 122 (2018) 419e428
desiccator over silica gels. Then, the sample was reweighed as the
crucible has reached room temperature and the change between
initial and final weight was determined. The ratio of the change in
weight to initial weight gives percentage of moisture content. Then,
the covered crucible filled with dried solid sample was heated at
950 ± 20
C for 7 min to determine percentage of volatile matter.
After volatile matter determination, the previously used sample
was heated at 750 ± 15
C for 4 h to determine the percentage of
ash content. Here, ash content was obtained by determining the
ratio of final weight of sample left to the initial weight. Finally, fixed
carbon content was determined by subtracting the summation of
moisture content, volatile matter content and ash content from
total of 100%. In the present study, the proximate analysis was
replicated twice for each raw material. Meanwhile, for each torre-
fied briquette produced, proximate analysis was performed twice
so that for each type of material, six sets of proximate analysis data
were obtained for each torrefaction temperature.
For characterization of raw materials, both pulverized mesocarp
fibre and palm kernel shell were sent to a laboratory for ultimate
analysis by using CHNS analyzer (model: vario MICRO CUBE), in
accordance with standards BS EN ISO 16948:2015 (for determina-
tion of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen content) and DIN 51724-3
(for sulfur content determination). Here, helium and oxygen were
used as a carrier gas and for combustion, respectively. Similar like
proximate analysis, for both materials, the ultimate analysis was
performed three times.
2.7. Statistical analysis (calculation of standard deviation)
The standard deviation for the samples can be calculated by
using Eq. (4) as follows:
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Pn 2
i¼1 ðxi  xÞ
Sx ¼
n1
where n is the number of data, x is the mean of the data and xi is the
value of each data. In the present study, the standard deviation is
calculated for all results for raw materials characterization and
results for torrefied briquettes.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Characterization of raw materials
Tables 1 and 2 show the results of proximate and ultimate
analysis, respectively. Based on Table 1, the moisture content of
palm kernel shell is found to fulfill the requirement for commercial
purpose, as stated by DIN51731 and EN 14774e3 (<10%) while the
moisture content of mesocarp fibre is slightly higher than the
permissible limit, thus implies that drying pretreatment is not
necessary before the torrefaction. In addition, it is expected that
torrefaction process can improve the hydrophobic characteristics of
these palm biomasses especially mesocarp fibre. Meanwhile, ash
content of both materials was found to be higher than the limit
Table 1
Results of proximate analysis for raw materials.
Mesocarp Fibre (MF)
Percentage (%)
Moisture Content 10.1
Volatile Matter 74.9
Fixed Carbon 9.4
Ash Content 5.6
423
stated by DIN51731 (0.7%) [4]. However, the value is still competi-
tive if compared to the common practice solid fuel that contained
mesocarp fibre and shell in the weight ratio of 60:40 (5.8%) [3] and
also ISO 18122 standard (5%). Meanwhile, the results of ultimate
analysis for raw materials as shown by Table 2 elucidates that the
composition of carbon element is the highest (43e45%), and fol-
lowed by hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur. Table 3 shows the com-
parison of proximate and ultimate analysis between the results
obtained in the present study and by other researches. Based on
Table 3, it can be said that the results of both proximate and ulti-
mate analysis are comparable with the results obtained by other
researchers. Here, moisture and ash contents of the dry basis can be
calculated by dividing moisture and ash contents of wet basis to the
value of “100-%moisture”. .
In addition, the results of gross calorific value for both raw
materials are shown in Table 4. It was found that the gross calorific
values for both mesocarp fibre and palm kernel shell are
17.15 ± 0.23 MJ/kg and 19.45 ± 0.14 MJ/kg, respectively. If compared
to the requirement stated by DIN51731 (>17.5 MJ/kg), the value for
palm kernel shell exceeds such requirement while that for meso-
carp is slightly lower. By performing torrefaction, it is expected that
these values can be further improved. In addition, Table 4 also
demonstrates the variation of gross calorific values when compar-
ison is performed with the values obtained in the previous studies.
The variation is mainly caused by the difference in composition of
the palm biomass especially moisture content, in which the gross
calorific value decreases with an increase in moisture content [24].
3.2. Physical characteristics
Fig. 3 shows the images of briquettes made of mesocarp fibre
and palm kernel shell (before and after torrefaction). Based on the
figure, it can be said that torrefied briquettes made of mesocarp
(4)
fibre were successfully produced, regardless of torrefaction tem-
perature. In this case, a smooth outer surface could be observed for
each torrefied mesocarp fibre briquette. Meanwhile, the briquettes
made of palm kernel shell (PKS) only could withstand with tem-
perature of 250
C, but the outer surface was still brittle. For tor-
refaction under temperatures of 275
C and 300
C, the briquettes
contained PKS were very fragile and easily broken once being taken
out from the reactor. The formation problem of torrefied briquette
made of PKS is mainly due to the non-existence of fibrous structure
that can help in the binding process [18]. This causes the PKS
briquette becomes very brittle, even though before torrefaction. In
addition, the surface colour of both types of briquette turns into
dark once being torrefied due to the increase in fixed carbon con-
tent, as will be demonstrated later.
Relaxed density of briquettes made of mesocarp fibre and PKS is
shown by Fig. 4. Based on Fig. 4, it can be observed that density data
for torrefied briquettes made of PKS is not available for torrefaction
temperature of 275 and 300
C due to significant physical
destruction as illustrated by Fig. 3. In general, briquettes made of
mesocarp fibre experienced a significant decrease in relaxed den-
sity after being torrefied due to relatively very low mass yield was
Palm Kernel Shell (PKS)
Standard Deviation (%) Percentage (%) Standard Deviation (%)
0.7 4.9 0.2
0.6 79.2 0.4
1.0 13.7 0.7
0.3 2.2 0.2
424 H. Mohd Faizal et al. / Renewable Energy 122 (2018) 419e428

Table 2
Results of ultimate analysis for raw materials.

Mesocarp Fibre (MF) Palm Kernel Shell (PKS)

Percentage (%) Standard Deviation (%) Percentage (%) Standard deviation (%)

Nitrogen 0.90 0.03 0.33 0.01

Carbon 43.17 0.87 45.19 0.78
Hydrogen 6.09 0.12 5.95 0.36
Sulfur 0.09 0.02 0.04 0.01

Table 3
Comparison of proximate and ultimate analysis results.

Proximate Analysis (%) Ultimate Analysis (%)

Moisture Ash (wb) Ash (db) N C H S

Mesocarp -Present study 10.1 11.2 6.2 0.90 43.17 6.09 0.09
Mesocarp -Husain et al. [3] e e 8.4 1.4 47.2 6 0.30
Mesocarp -Uemura et al. [5] 37.2 3.3 1.12 46.9 5.9 0.09
Palm Kernel Shell -Present study 4.9 2.2 2.3 0.33 45.19 5.95 0.04
Palm Kernel Shell eHusain et al. [3] e e 3.2 0.60 52.4 6.30 0.20
Palm Kernel Shell eAsadullah et al. [23] e e 3.0 0.56 45.10 5.10 0.04

Note: “wb” represents “wet basis”, “db” represents “dry basis”.

Table 4
Comparison of gross caloric value for raw materials.

Gross Calorific Value (MJ/kg)

Mesocarp Fibre Palm Kernel Shell

Gross Calorific Value (MJ/kg) Moisture Content (%) Gross Calorific Value (%) Moisture Content (%)

Present Study 17.15 10.1 19.45 4.9

Na et al. [11] 19.15 7.8 e
Uemura et al. [5] 13.33 37.2 16.14 21.4
Sing and Aris [25] e 19.38 Not available

obtained after torrefation if compared to volume yield, as demon-
strated by Fig. 5. Based on Fig. 5, when the torrefaction temperature
is increased from 250
C to 300
C, the mass yield for mesocarp
fibre briquettes decreases from 67 to 50%, and the volume yield
decreases from around 95 to 80%. Similarly, briquettes made of
palm kernel shell had experienced a very low mass yield after being
torrefied at 250
C, that is 66.2% if compared to volume yield, that is
93.8%. The very low mass yield after being torrefied is mainly due to
the removal of volatile matter during torrefaction process within
the present operating temperatures. It is interesting to note that for
torrefaction temperature of 250
C, only a slight difference in mass
yield could be observed between the case of mesocarp fibre (67%)
and palm kernel shell (66.2%) even though the chemical composi-
tion of these raw materials in terms of hemicellulose, cellulose and
lignin are significantly different [22]. This phenomena was also
observed by Aziz et al. [26], in which during low level of torre-
faction (<250
C) [26], the mesocarp fibre that has relatively higher
hemicellulose composition (around 32%) [22] in comparison to PKS
(around 23%) [22], was more significantly decomposed. However,
Aziz et al. [26] found that when the torrefaction was performed at

Fig. 3. Images of briquette (before and after torrefaction).

 H. Mohd Faizal et al. / Renewable Energy 122 (2018) 419e428
Fig. 4. Relaxed density of briquettes (before and after torrefaction).
severe level (250
C or above), the decomposition of PKS that has
higher lignin content (around 51%) [22] in comparison to that of the
mesocarp fibre (around 26%) [22] becomes more reactive, due to
the decomposition of lignin that starts from 250
C [26,27] in
addition to the decomposition of hemicellulose. As a result, the
mass yield obtained at temperature of 250
C in the present study
for both materials are almost same. In addition, it can be observed
that when the torrefaction temperature is increased, the relaxed
density of mesocarp fibre briquettes decreases, that is supposed
due to the stronger effect of decrease in mass yield than the effect of
decrease in volume yield as illustrated by Fig. 5. If compared to the
work done by the previous researchers, the trend of change in mass
yield of the mesocarp fibre with respect to torrefaction temperature
is found to be similar with the trend obtained by Aziz et al. [26], but
the values obtained in the present study are lower. In their study
[26], when the torrefaction temperature is increased from 250
C to
300
C, the mass yield decreases from around 50%e34%, whereas in
the present study, mass yield decreases from 67% to 50%. The not
equivalent result is supposed due to the difference in residence
time during torrefaction, in which Aziz et al. [26] used 120 min
during their study while in the present study, 40 min duration was
used during torrefaction at the desired temperature.
Fig. 6 shows the compressive strength of the torrefied briquettes
for various torrefaction temperatures. The figure shows that
compressive strength of mesocarp fibre briquettes is higher than
PKS briquettes, that is supposed due to the existence of fibrous
structure tend to hold the mesocarp fibre briquettes more firmly
[25,28]. In addition, the compressive strength of torrefied bri-
quettes made of mesocarp fibre drops as the torrefaction temper-
ature is increased. Within the temperature range of the present
study, lignin that functioned as natural binder experiences thermal
Fig. 5. Mass yield and volume yield of torrefied briquettes made of mesocarp fibre.
425
Fig. 6. Compressive strength of torrefied briquettes.
degradation, as stated by Chen and Kuo [19]. In this case, the
destruction of binding mechanism due to the thermal degradation
becomes worse when the torrefaction temperature is increased,
thus the strength decreases as the temperature is increased. If
compared to the compressive strength of the untorrefied briquette
that contains commonly used mixture of mesocarp fibre and palm
kernel shell (weight ratio of 60:40) [3], only mesocarp fibre bri-
quettes that were torrefied at 250
C gives the close value, that is
around to 2.6 MPa. In addition, the compressive strength of torre-
fied PKS briquettes could not be evaluated for temperature of
275
C and 300
C due to the significant physical destruction as
explained previously. It is important to note that even though the
compressive strength of the torrefied briquettes made of PKS for
the case of 250
C is relatively high (around 1.3 MPa), the outer
surface is still brittle. It is interesting to note that the compressive
strength of the torrefied mesocarp fibre briquettes is almost double
of the strength of the torrefied PKS briquette, in which similar
behavior was also observed by Sing and Aris [28] for their untor-
refied briquettes with same materials.
3.3. Combustion properties
In terms of combustion properties, calorific value is the most
important characteristic for torrefied product [23]. Fig. 7 shows the
gross calorific values for both types of briquette after torrefaction
process. It is interesting to note that all values except raw mesocarp
fibre exceed the minimum requirement for commercial purpose as
Fig. 7. Calorific values of torrefied briquettes.
426 H. Mohd Faizal et al. / Renewable Energy 122 (2018) 419e428
Table 5
Tabulated data of gross calorific values (GCV) for various torrefaction temperatures obtained from various studies.
GCV for Mesocarp (MJ.kg)
220
C 250
C
Present Study e 20.86
Asadullah et al. [23] e e
Uemura [5] 19.03 19.24
Na et al. [11] 20.11 20.57
a
Torrefied at temperature of 280
C.
stated by DIN51731 (>17.5 MJ/kg). Generally, it can be said that
gross calorific value can be enhanced by torrefaction. In addition,
the gross calorific value increases when the torrefaction tempera-
ture is increased. This trend is consistent with previous works
[5,11,23] and is mainly caused by the increase in fixed carbon
content as will be demonstrated later. However, it is important to
note that even though gross calorific values for palm kernel shell
(PKS) briquettes torrefied at 275
C and 300
C are sufficiently high,
the formation of PKS briquette under these torrefaction tempera-
tures is not feasible. Table 5 shows the tabulated data of gross
calorific values for various torrefaction temperatures obtained from
various studies. Here, the residence time applied by the present
study, Asadullah et al. [23], Uemura et al. [5] and Na et al. [11] were
40, 15, 30 and 50 min, respectively. Based on Table 5, it can be said
that regardless of variation in residence time, torrefaction tem-
perature plays a most significant role in affecting the gross calorific
values. In addition, the table also elucidates that the severe torre-
faction occurs within temperature range of 250
Ce300
C, in
which the enhancement of gross calorific value could be clearly
observed.
Fig. 8 demonstrates energy density of torrefied briquettes for
various torrefaction temperatures. Here, energy density is an
important property to indicate the amount of energy contained in
each cubic meter of densified product (briquette), that can be
calculated by using Eq. (3). It is interesting to note that for the case
of 250
C (based on Fig. 7), even though the gross calorific value of
torrefied PKS briquette is higher than that of torrefied mesocarp
fibre briquette, the energy density is lower due to much lower mass
density. In addition, the energy density of the torrefied briquettes
made of mesocarp fibre does not change significantly when torre-
faction temperature is increased. In this case, the decrease in mass
yield when torrefaction temperature is increased (as shown by
Fig. 5) is compensated by an increase in gross calorific value (as
shown by Fig. 7), thus causes only a slight change in energy density
of the torrefied briquettes made of mesocarp fibre.
Fig. 8. Energy density of torrefied briquettes.
GCV for PKS (MJ/kg)
275
C 300
C 220
C 250
C 275
C 300
C
22.79 23.38 e 21.68 24.12 24.91
e e e 21.40 23.70 24.50
e 22.17 18.85 19.07 e 21.68
22.85a(280
C) e e e e e
Fig. 9 shows the results of proximate analysis for both torrefied
briquettes. Here, for the case of PKS briquettes torrefied at 275
C
and 300
C, the results of proximate analysis are not enclosed due
to the significant physical destruction during torrefaction. By
referring both Fig. 9 and Table 1, it can be said that hydrophobic
characteristic of mesocarp fibre is significantly improved due to
torrefaction, that is moisture content is decreased from 10% to
around 5% (improvement of 50%). This trend is consistent with
previous study [11] that used reverse direction (torrefaction and
followed by densification) to produce pellet made of torrefied
mesocarp fibre. Na et al. [11] found that the hydrophobic charac-
teristic of the mesocarp fibre is improved by approximately 67% due
to torrefaction. Meanwhile, raw PKS that has relatively low mois-
ture content (around 5%) does experience only a slight change in
moisture content after torrefaction process. In addition, the mois-
ture content of all torrefied briquettes is found to fulfil the
requirement as stated by EN 14774-3 and DIN51731 (<10%). Based
on the figure, it can be said that volatile matter decreases while
fixed carbon increases with an increase in torrefaction tempera-
ture. This is mainly due to the increase in devolatization rate when
torrefaction temperature is increased, in which decomposition of
hemicellulose and lignin becomes more significant when the
temperature is increased [27]. In addition, starting from 275
C,
cellulose decomposition also starts to contribute to the reduction of
volatile matter in the samples [27]. Meanwhile, it was found that
the ash content of both raw mesocarp fibre and palm kernel shell
increase after torrefaction and for torrefied mesocarp fibre bri-
quettes, ash content increases with an increase in torrefaction
temperature. When the torrefaction is increased from 250
C to
300
C, the ash content increases from 8 to 12% (increment of 50%).
The consistent trend also was observed by other researchers [29,30]
when torrefaction was performed within this range of temperature.
This is because when torrefaction temperature is increased, the
reduction in volatile matter becomes more significant, thus causes
the portion of ash per mass of sample to increase. Besides, it has
been reported [5,31] that the alkali salts (especially alkali halides)
in ash vaporizes significantly at temperature of 650
C, which is
higher than the torrefaction temperature applied in the present
study. Therefore, the significant vaporization is not likely to occur
[5] during torrefaction within the temperature applied in the pre-
sent study, thus also contributes to the increase in ash content
when torrefaction temperature is increased. If compared to the
requirement stated by standard DIN51731 (<0.7%), the ash content
of all torrefied briquettes are relatively higher. However, if
compared to the requirement stated by standard ISO 18122 (5%)
and ash content of the common practice solid fuel that contained
mixture of mesocarp fibre and shell (weight ratio of 60:40) [3], the
values obtained in the present study still can be considered
competitive especially for the case of 250
C. Here, the ash content
of the aforementioned common practice solid fuel is around 6% [3].
Table 6 shows the comparison of results obtained in the present
study with international standards and coal. Based on the table, it
can be said that the performance of the torrefied mesocarp fibre
briquettes produced in the present study are very competitive if
 H. Mohd Faizal et al. / Renewable Energy 122 (2018) 419e428
Fig. 9. Proximate analysis results for both torrefied briquettes.
Table 6
Comparison of results obtained in the present study with international standards and coal.
Mesocarp fibre - Present
250
C 275
C 300
C
Gross Calorific Value (MJ/kg) 20.86 22.79 23.38
Moisture content (wet basis) 5.79 5.51 5.28
Ash (wet basis) 8.24 10.96 11.83
compared with the international standards and coal, except in
terms of ash content. For the case of palm kernel shell, only tor-
refaction at temperature of 250
C is feasible due to significant
physical destruction when the palm kernel shell briquettes were
torrefied at higher temperature.
4. Conclusions
In the present study, densification (briquetting) and followed by
torrefaction have been performed on pulverized mesocarp fibre
and palm kernel shell for various torrefaction temperatures of
250e300
C. The performance of the torrefied briquettes were
evaluated by comparing with several standards as benchmark.
In general, severe torrefaction in the present study plays a sig-
nificant role in modifying the physical structure and changing both
the physical and combustion properties of the briquettes. When the
torrefaction temperature is increased, the decomposition of
hemicellulose, lignin as well as cellulose becomes more significant,
thus causes the significant weight loss of the palm biomass sam-
ples. Due to the significant physical destruction, the torrefaction of
palm kernel shell briquettes are not feasible at temperatures of
275
C and 300
C. Torrefaction temperature significantly affects
mass yield, density, compressive strength, calorific value as well as
results of proximate analysis. Meanwhile, energy density of the
torrefied briquettes is insensitive with the change in temperature.
Even though palm kernel shell demonstrates better performance
after being torrefied in terms of gross calorific value and ash con-
tent, the overall quality is still not favorable if compared to meso-
carp fibre, after consideration of briquette formation aspect.
Regardless of torrefaction temperature, it was found that the
properties of the torrefied mesocarp fibre briquettes fulfil the re-
quirements for commercialization, as stated by DIN, EN and ISO
standards in terms of gross calorific value and moisture content. For
palm kernel shell briquettes torrefied at 250
C, it was found that
427
Shell - Present DIN standard ISO/EN standard Coal [32]
250
C
21.68 >17.50 e 26.16
5.55 <10% <10% (EN 14774e3) 13.49
3.53 <0.7% <5% (ISO 18122) 0.95
the gross calorific value, moisture content as well as ash content
fulfil the requirement as stated by the standards.
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the Ministry of Education Malaysia
and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia for giving cooperation and full
support in this research activity. The authors wish to thank
Research Management Center (RMC) for Tier 1 Grant
(Q.J130000.2524.14H04) from Ministry of Education Malaysia and
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
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