• Computers and Concrete
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.577-585
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• 2020

By the increasing amount of waste materials, it eventually dumped into the environment and covering a larger area of the landfill which cause several environmental pollution problems. The utilization of Palm Kernal Shell Ash (PKSA) in concrete might bring a great benefit in addressing both environmental and economic issues. This article investigates the effect of PKSA as a partial cement replacement of High Strength Concrete (HSC). Several concrete mixtures were prepared with different PKSA of 0%, 10%, 20%, and 30% replaced by the cement mass. This procedure was replicated twice for the two different target mean strengths of 40 MPa and 50 MPa. The mixtures were prepared to test different fresh and hardened properties of HSC including slump test, the compressive strength of 3, 7, 14, 28, and 90 days, flexural strength of 28-days, drying shrinkage, density measurement, and sorptivity. It was observed 10% PKSA replacement as optimum percentage which reduced the drying shrinkage, sorptivity, and density and improved the late-age compressive strength of concrete.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.231-243
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• 2014

In this study, the potential of biomass, which is generated from oil palm cultivation and crude palm oil (CPO) production of Indonesia was assessed in the aspect of energy content. The types of oil palm biomass were classified on the basis of the cultivation stage and the CPO production stage. In the cultivation stage, biomass is considered to be produced from its' root, trunk and frond. Other possible biomass resources such as empty fruit bunch (EFB), palm kernel shell (PKS) and fiber were included in the CPO production stage. As results, total biomass from damaged plantation area of Indonesia was estimated to be annually from 3 million to 16 million tons in 2011. From CPO mills, approximately 49 million tons/yr of biomass residues were estimated to be annually occurred. Their total energy content from each biomass source in cultivation stage was analyzed to be from 593,000 to 3,197,000 TOEs in terms of gross calorific value. In the case of CPO mills, around 22.7 million TOEs was estimated to be potential energy producible by biomass based on gross calorific value of dry basis. If moisture content considered, net calorific value was analyzed to be decreased to 16.3 million TOEs. Based on the results, the total energy contents of all oil palm biomass were estimated to be up to 25,919,000 TOE in terms of gross calorific value. CPO : Crude Palm Oil, EFB : Empty Fruit Bunch, FFB: Fresh Fruit Bunch, PKS : Palm Kernel Shell, OPF : Oil Palm Frond, PKOC : Palm Kernel Oil Cake, ISPO : Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil Commission, TOE : Tone of Oil Equivalent.

• Carbon letters
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• v.24
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• pp.62-72
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• 2017

The aim of this work was to evaluate the dielectric properties of impregnated and activated palm kernel shells (PKSs) samples using two activating agents, potassium carbonate ($K_2CO_3$) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH), at three impregnation ratios. The materials were characterized by moisture content, carbon content, ash content, thermal profile and functional groups. The dielectric properties were examined using an open-ended coaxial probe method at various microwave frequencies (1-6 GHz) and temperatures (25, 35, and $45^{\circ}C$). The results show that the dielectric properties varied with frequency, temperature, moisture content, carbon content and mass ratio of the ionic solids. PKSK1.75 (PKS impregnated with $K_2CO_3$ at a mass ratio of 1.75) and PKSN1.5 (PKS impregnated with NaOH at a mass ratio of 1.5) exhibited a high loss tangent ($tan{\delta}$) indicating the effectiveness of these materials to be heated by microwaves. $K_2CO_3$ and NaOH can act as a microwave absorber to enhance the efficiency of microwave heating for low loss PKSs. Materials with a high moisture content exhibit a high loss tangent but low penetration depth. The interplay of multiple operating frequencies is suggested to promote better microwave heating by considering the changes in the materials characteristics.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2013

In this study, oil palm biomass such as empty fruit bunch (EFP) and palm kernel shell (PKS) was used as raw materials for making pellets. EFB and PKS are valuable lignocellulosic biomass that can be used for various purposes. If EFB and PKS are used as alternative raw materials for making pellets instead of wood, wood could be saved for making pulps or other value-added products. In order to explore their combustion characteristics, EFB and PKS were analyzed using thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA) with ultimate and proximate analyses. From the TGA results, thermal decomposition of EFB and PKS occurred in the range of 280 to $400^{\circ}C$ through devolatilization and combustion of fixed carbon. After $400^{\circ}C$, their combustion were stabilized with combustion of residual lignin and char. PKS contained more fixed carbons and less ash contents than EFB, which indicated that PKS could be more active in combustion than EFB.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.42-51
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• 2013

In this study, oil palm biomass such as empty fruit bunch (EFB) and palm kernel shell (PKS) was used as raw materials for making pellets. Hardwood sawdusts were also mixed with EFB and PKS for making pellets. For improving a bad forming behavior in a pelletizer, 1 to 3 per cent of corn starch based on oven-dried weight biomass was added. The starch contributed to the decrease of dust generation in addition to the improvement of forming capability during pellet forming. Heating values of every pellets made of EFB and PKS were higher than 4,300 kcal/kg for the first grade pellet, irrespective of addition of sawdusts. However, the pellets made of EFB and PKS had ash contents over 3 per cent, which made it impossible to be applied for home use. Instead, they could be applied for industrial use. For studying their combustion characteristics, the pellets from the mixtures of EFB, PKS and sawdusts were analyzed using thermal gravimetric analyzer (TGA). From the TGA results, thermal decomposition of EFB and PKS occurred following three including endothermic reaction and dehydration, devolatilization of the major chemical components, and finally combustion of residual lignin and char.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2013.06a
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• pp.69-72
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• 2013

This study investigates the characteristics of biochar by slow pyrolysis at $500^{\circ}C$ for various biomass residues. Six biomass materials were tested: Tree bark, Tree stem, bagasse, cocopeat, paddy straw and palm kernel shell. In the biochar yield, the effect of ash in the raw biomass was significant for paddy straw. Excluding the ash content, the timber bark, bagasse and paddy straw had a similar biochar yield of 26-29 wt.%. Tree stem and bagasse had well developed pores in a wide size range and large surface area over $200m^2/g$. Cocopeat and PKS has significantly higher biochar yield due to the increased content of lignin, but the development of intra-particle pores and microscopic surface area was very poor. The elemental composition, pH and other properties of the biochar samples were also compared.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2013.06a
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• pp.19-20
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• 2013

The cofiring of renewable fuel in coal fired boilers is an attractive option to mitigate $CO_2$ emissions, since it is relatively low cost option for efficiently converting renewable fuel to electricity by adding biomass as partial substitute of coal. However, it would lead to reduce plant efficiency and flexibility in operation, and increase operation cost and capital cost associated with renewable fuels handling and firing equipment. The aim of this study is to investigate reduction of carbon dioxide at varying percentage of biomass in fuel blend to the boiler biomass, and estimate operation and capital cost. Wood pellet, PKS (palm kernel shell), EFB (empty fruit bunch) and sludge are considered as a renewable fuels for a cofiring with coal. Several approaches by the cofiring ratio are chosen from past plant demonstrations and commercial cofiring operation, and they are evaluated and discussed for CO2 reduction and cost estimation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.8-17
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• 2014

The aims of this research were to evaluate effects of biomass co-firing to pulverized coal power plants and the variation of co-firing ratios on the plant efficiency related to power consumption of auxiliary system and flue gas characteristics such as production and component by process simulation based on the existing pulverized coal power plant. In this study, four kinds of biomass are selected as renewable fuel candidates for co-firing: wood pellet(WP), palm kernel shell(PKS), empty fruit bunch(EFB) and walnut shell(WS). Process simulation for various biomass fuels and co-firing ratios was performed using a commercial software. Gas side including combustion system and flue gas treatment system was considering with combination of water and steam side which contains turbines, condenser, feed water heaters and pumps. As a result, walnut shell might be the most suitable as co-firing fuel among four biomass since when 10% of walnut shell was co-fired with 90% of coal on thermal basis, flue gas production and power consumption of auxiliary systems were the smallest than those of other biomass co-firing while net plant efficiency was relatively higher than those of other biomass co-firing. However, with increasing walnut shell co-firing ratios, boiler efficiency and net plant efficiency were expected to decrease rather than coal combustion without biomass co-firing.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.18-28
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• 2014

Renewable Portfolio Standards(RPS) is a regulation that requires a renewable energy generated from eco-friendly energy sources such as biomass, wind, solar, and geothermal. The RPS mechanism generally is an obligatory policy that places on electricity supply companies to produce a designated fraction of their electricity from renewable energies. The domestic companies to supply electricity largely rely on wood pellets in order to implement the RPS in spite of undesirable situation of lack of wood resources in Korea. This means that the electricity supply companies in Korea must explore new biomass as an alternative to wood. Palm kernel shell (PKS) and empty fruit bunch (EFB) as oil palm wastes can be used as raw materials used for making pellets after their thermochemical treatment like torrefaction. Torrefaction is a pretreatment process which serves to improve the properties including heating value and energy densification of these oil palm wastes through a mild pyrolysis at temperature typically ranging between 200 and $300^{\circ}C$ in the absence of oxygen under atmospheric pressure. Torrefaction of oil palms wastes at above $200^{\circ}C$ contributed to the increase of fixed carbon with the decrease of volatile matters, leading to the improvement of their calorific values over 20.9 MJ/kg (=5,000 kcal/kg) up to 25.1 MJ/kg (=6,000 kcal/kg). In particular, EFB sensitively responded to torrefaction because of its physical properties like fiber bundles, compared to PKS and hardwood chips. In conclusion, torrefaction treatment of PKS and EFB can greatly contribute to the implement of RPS of the electricity supply companies in Korea through the increased co-firing biomass with coal.

• Journal of Korea Technical Association of The Pulp and Paper Industry
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.24-34
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• 2015

Domestic companies supplying electricity must increase obligatory duty to use renewable energy annually. If not met with obligatory allotment, the electricity-supply companies must pay RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standards) penalty. Although the power plants using a pulverizing coal firing boiler could co-fire up to around 3 per cent with wood pellets mixed in with coal feedstock without any major equipment revamps, they recorded only about 60 per cent fulfillment of RPS. Consequently, USD 46 million of RPS penalty was imposed on the six power supplying subsidiaries of GENCOs in 2014. One of the solutions to reduce the RPS penalty is that the power supply companies adopt the co-firing of torrefied lignocellulosic biomass in coal plants, which may contribute to the use of over 30 per cent of torrefied biomass mixed with bituminous coals. Extra binder was required to form pellets using torrefied biomass such as wood chips, PKS (Palm Kernel Shell) and EFB (Empty Fruit Bunch). Instead of corn starch, 30, 50 and 70 per cent of Larix saw dusts were respectively added to the torrefied feedstocks such as Pinus densiflora chips, PKS and EFB. The addition of saw dusts led to the decrease of the calorific values of the pellets but the forming ability of the pelletizer was exceedingly improved. Another advantage from the addition of saw dusts stemmed from the reduction of ash contents of the pellets. Finally, it was confirmed that torrefied oil palm biomass such as PKS and EFB could be valuable feedstocks in making pellets through improved binding ability.