Effects of Palm Kernel (Elaeis guineensis) Cake on Sub-Bituminous Coal Briquette for Energy Generation

Background and Objective: Palm kernel cake is the waste released after the extraction of palm kernel oil from the seed. It is abundant and disposal of the waste has become a major concern. This work, therefore, seeks to produce an environmentally friendly bio-coal briquette from palm kernel (Elaeis guineensis) cake and measure their properties as an effective fuel. Materials and Methods: Briquettes of 100% of coal dust (C), biomass (PK) and a blend (1:1), for the combination (CPK) were produced. They were dried to a moisture content of 5-10% and ground to a particle size of 1 mm. Desulphurization, homogeneity and binding were done, using calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)₂), water and starch, respectively. Briquetting was done using a manual briquetting machine at 5 Mpa pressure for 2 hrs and sun-dried for 10 days. Proximate analyses, calorific value, combustion, emission profile and thermal degradation properties of the biomass, coal and blend were determined in line with ASTM D-3173. Results: The sample CPK had good combustion features because of their high thermal efficiency (28%), lower boiling time (43 min), burning rate (2.32 g min‾¹) and firepower (782 watts). For the emissions as captured by Laboratory Emission Measuring Systems (LEMS), the blend CPK reduced the concentration of the CO (22 ppm) and CO₂ (66 ppm) evolved during combustion. The particulate matter (PM) of the blend, though found to be higher than the permissible range in the atmosphere as stipulated by WHO-AAQS and NAAQS (150 µg m‾³), was reduced. The TGA/DTA analyses showed that all the samples were thermally stable. Conclusion: The overall result has shown that combining coal with biomass increased the combustion properties, reduced the level of gaseous emissions and improved the thermal degradation properties of the sub-bituminous coal.