R jeas

Research Journal in Engineering and Applied Sciences 1(5) 266-273

Emerging Academy Resources (2012) (ISSN: 2276-8467)
www.emergingresource.org

R jeas

PROCESS SIMULATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF PALM OIL WASTE

COMBUSTION USING ASPEN PLUS
Mohd Halim Shah Ismail, Zahra Haddadian, and Mohammad Amin Shavandi
Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
Corresponding Author: M ohd H alimS hah I smail

___________________________________________________________________________
A BSTRA CT
The difficulty of controlling the required air during the incineration of the fiber and shell; the low heating value
of solid fuel due to the excessive moisture content of fiber and shell and further formation of slagging or clinker
in the reactor as a result of high ash content, are some problems raised when incinerating both fiber and shell. in
this simulation work, the effects of air flow rate; moisture content of shell, moisture content of fiber, and
moisture content of both shell and fiber; the ash content of fiber and shell and temperature were investigated and
optimized on flue gas emissions and the combustion behavior using steady state simulation by ASPEN PLUS
(Version 7.1). From the results obtained, the fiber-shell type solid fuel is preferable and the air flow rate should
be controlled and suggested maintained at 30% excess air to regulate NOX emission. Besides, the moisture
content and ash shows negative effect to the combustion efficiency and the moisture content is suggested in the
range of 6%-19.5% for fiber and 5%-13% for shell. Last but not least, the operating temperature is suggested do
not exceed 972C to regulate the NOX emission.
Emerging Academy Resources
KEYW ORDS: Simulation; Modeling; Combustion; Aspen Plus; Fiber; Shell.
________________________________________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION
palm waste boiler. The solid fuel used was also fiber
World demand for energy sources is increasing, and
and shell from palm oil processing. However, in
thus, renewable energy sources have become an
Mahlia et al. study, moisture content and calorific
alternative to the depleting fossil fuel. One type of
value of fuel, and air-fuel ratio are assumed to be
renewable energy sources comes from combustion of
constant, while temperature of the boiler is assumed
biomass waste, which is also called solid fuel, to
to be proportional to fuel rate. This is not the case
produce heat and energy. This is a promising
apply for the current simulation study because the
technology to reduce waste and moreover provide a
ultimate aim in this simulation work is to study the
clean and renewable energy source by applying
effect of moisture content, ash content, air flow rate
waste-to-wealth concept. Malaysia has become the
and temperature on combustion process and flue gas
largest exporter of oil palm product in the world (Foo
emission. Bignal et al. (Bignal, Langridge, & Zhou,
& Hameed, 2010). While generating huge income
2008) has investigated the effect of moisture content
from oil palm business, there are abundant of oil
of fuel and boiler operating conditions on pollutant
palm biomass waste (generally fiber and shell)
concentrations, and it is suggested that solid fuel
generated at the same time. This biomass waste has
should have low moisture content in order to reduce
been utilized to generate energy and electricity to
air pollutants. In another study, Yang et al. (Yang,
support the mill process. In addition, the fiber and
Sharifi, & Swithenbank, 2004) has carried out
shell are also burnt to generate steam for downstream
mathematical simulations and experiments to study
processes that required steam such as sterilization. As
the effect of primary air flow rate and moisture level
such, a lot of savings can be done because this energy
in the fuel on the combustion process of wood chips
is considered free for the palm milling process. At the
and the incineration of simulated municipal solid
same time, using the fiber and shell as boiler fuel can
wastes. From Yang et al. (Yang, et al., 2004) study, it
help to dispose these bulky materials which can
is found that volatile release and char burning has
contribute to environmental pollution. The energy
been intensified with increasing in the primary air
content varies depending on the moisture, residual oil
flow rate until a critical point is reached, and also
contents and its high specific energy content. in 2003
increase in moisture level in the fuel produces a
a simulation work has been done by Mahlia et al.,
higher flame front temperature at low air flow rates.
(Mahlia, Abdulmuin, Alamsyah, & Mukhlishien,
However, in the current simulation, the effect of
2003) to develop a steady-space dynamic model for a
moisture level in the fuel on calorific value or mass

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Process Simulation and Optimization of Palm Oil Waste Combustion Using Aspen Plus

enthalpy is highlighted, but not on the flame front

temperature. While for air flow rate, its effect on flue
gas emission is studied on current simulation work,
which can be compared with study from Yang et al.
(Yang, et al., 2004). The typical values for proximate
and ultimate analysis on the dry basis of shell and
fiber biomass feedstock are shown in Table 1.
Proximate
analysis,
wt%

Ultimate
analysis,
wt%

Fiber
Moisture: 31.84
Fixed carbon: 48.61
Volatile matters: 13.2
Ash: 6.35

Ash: 8.4
Carbon: 47.2
Hydrogen: 6
Nitrogen: 1.4
Chlorine: 0
Sulfur: 0.3
Oxygen: 36.7

Shell
Moisture: 12
Fixed carbon:
68.2
Volatile
matters: 16.3
Ash: 3.5
Ash: 3.2
Carbon: 52.4
Hydrogen: 6.3
Nitrogen: 0.6
Chlorine: 0
Sulfur: 0.2
Oxygen: 37.3

Figure 1. Layout of simulation methods

Reactor Selection
The unit operation selected in ASPEN PLUS to run
the simulation was shown in Figure 2. Reactor B1
was RYield which represented Reactor Yield, and it
was used as non stoichiometric reactor based on
known yield distribution. Reactor B2 was RGibbs
which represented Reactor Gibbs was used for
rigorous reaction and multiphase equilibrium based
on Gibbs free energy minimization. As a result of the
reaction occurred between the fuel and air, flue gas
that composed of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, carbon
monoxide, carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrogen,
sulfur, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen trioxide, and sulfur
dioxide were produced. Unit operation B3 was the
two streams heat exchanger which modeled cocurrent or counter current shell and tube heat
exchanger. Flue gas with temperature at 800C and
20.27bar was exchanged heat with water at 70C to
produce steam with temperature 260.69C. This high
pressure and temperature steam was the final product
to generate electricity or for downstream processes
usage.

Table 1. Properties of the solid fuel used.

THEORY
Heating value is an important indication for solid
fuel, and it can be reported as high heating value
(HHV) or low heating value (LHV). The difference
between HHV and LHV is equal to the heat of
vaporization of water formed by combustion of the
fuel. The potential energy from fiber and shell can be
obtained by Dulong formula based on ultimate
analysis:
H H V (M J / k g ) =

LHV ( MJ / kg ) =

338 .2C + 1442 .8( H

O
)
8

(1)

10 00

HHV 20.16 H 2.24 M

1000

(2)
From the steam generated amount, the amount of
solid fuel consumed in the boiler can be known. With
a known palm oil milling capacity, the amount of
steam needed to generate electricity can be calculated
based on the following equation:
Steam required = Energy required to process 1 ton of
FFB Milling capacity Amount of steam required
to produce 1kWh electric

AIR

FIBER

B2
WATER

B1

B3
STEAM

FLUEGAS
SHELL
FUEL

(
Figure 2. Process flow diagram.

Theoretically, the potential energy conversion from

fiber and shell for palm oil mill can be represented by
the following formula:
E P = M f LHVf + M S LHVS
(3)
where Mf and Ms is the mass composition of fiber
and shell in total solid fuel.

Data Specification and Aspen Simulation

In the simulation work, data and specifications of
input material such as mass flow rate, temperature,
pressure, and component composition were entered.
During the simulation, several conditions were
studied by varying air flow rate, moisture content of
fiber and also moisture content of shell, ash content
of fiber and shell, and also temperature of
combustion reaction. Thus, data specifications and
properties for these conditions were explained
separately. Some assumptions were made in the
simulation which may affect the accuracy of the final
result. One of them was assuming coal properties for
fiber and shell density and enthalpy because both

MATERIAL AND METHOD

An Overview to Simulation
The software used in the simulation was ASPEN
PLUS (Version 7.1). The layout of simulation
method was shown in Figure 1, which was from
reactor selection until gaining the final result of
simulation.

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Process Simulation and Optimization of Palm Oil Waste Combustion Using Aspen Plus

were nonconventional material that the composition

of the material was unknown. Coal would be the
nearest similar material to both fiber and shell in the
property method and models available in ASPEN
PLUS as they were all from plant origin and with
wood characteristic. In addition, throughout the
simulation, the mill capacity was assumed to be 30
ton/hour. Moreover, as fiber and shell were
nonconventional material, there were defined by the
percentage value of ultimate and proximate analysis
from literature in ASPEN PLUS. However, the sulfur
analysis for both fiber and shell were assumed to
have zero value due to its uncommonness and
unavailability of data.

the ultimate analysis of both fiber and shell to change

the composition of the raw material input while other
parameters held constant. Ash content effect on
heating value was studied separately for fiber and
shell, but not in combination of both fiber and shell
condition. Input data was tabulated as shown in Table
3.
Table 3. Input parameters for simulation that varied
ash content

Air Flow Rate as Variable

When analyzing the effect of air flow rate on the flue
gas composition produced, sensitivity function in the
model analysis tool was activated by varying air flow
rate with pre-set range of limit. Thus, a set of result
within the pre-set limit range of air flow rate were
generated and could be analyzed by plotting graph.
Table 2 showed the input data for the condition when
air flow rate was set as the variable.

Sensitivity
property for air
flow rate:

Initial boundary: 20000kg/hr

Final boundary: 40000kg/hr
Points between boundary: 30 points
Initial flowrate: 57000kg/hr

Fiber

Shell

Air
25

Water
70

1
57,000

20
18,800

Varying
ash
content in fiber

Moisture content
in fiber, wt%
Moisture content
in shell, wt%
Air flow rate,
kg/hr
Ash content, wt%

31.84

Varying ash content in

shell

12
57000

57000

2, 5 and 8

2, 4 and 6

Temperature of Combustion Process as Variable

Temperature of the combustion process was altered
in reactor B2 shown in Figure 5.2 to study its effect
on the gas emission. A range of temperature from
600C to 1200C was chosen as conventional
combustion process produced flue gas at temperature
800C. Thus, simulation result of flue gas component
flow rate with varying temperature at 600C, 800C,
1000C, and 1200C was obtained. A graph about
mass flow rate of flue gas emission against the
temperature of the combustion process was plotted,
and the trend was analyzed in result and discussion
section. During the simulation of studying
temperature effect, other parameters were held
constant. Input data for simulation run with different
temperature value was tabulated in Table 4. It is
noted that other input data entered in the proximate
and ultimate analysis for fiber and shell, as well as
the properties of water were assumed to be constant
as listed in Table 1.

Table 2. Input data when vary air flow rate.

Temperature,
C
Pressure, bar
Mass
flow
rate, kg/hr
Composition,
%

Parameters

Nitrogen:
79
Oxygen: 21

Moisture Content of Fiber/shell as Variable

Simulation was done to study the effect of varying
moisture content of only shell, only fiber and both on
the mass enthalpy produced in the process. When
only moisture content of shell was considered, the
stream for fiber was removed and vice versa for fiber
case. Air flow rate in this case was held constant at
57,000 kg/hr. Sensitivity function was applied to flue
gas stream in order to obtain the optimum moisture
content value for both fiber and shell. Moisture
content of fiber and shell was varied by changing the
value in the proximate analysis. Suggested moisture
content for simulation for fiber was 6 wt%, 19.5 wt%,
and 33 wt% while for shell was 5 wt%, 9 wt% and 13
wt%. The result obtained from simulation was
analyzed by plotting graph of mass enthalpy against
moisture content to observe the trend.

Table 4. Input data for simulation that varied

combustion process temperature
Parameters

Fiber

Shell

Moisture content, wt%

31.84

12

Air flow rate, kg/hr

57000

Ash content, wt%

8.4

Temperature of combustion process

600C, 800C, 1000C, and

1200C

3.2

.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Summary of Simulation Results
For a palm oil mill with the capacity of 30 tons,
FFB/hr, the minimum steam required for palm oil
process, and electricity was 18 ton/hr. In this report;
three types of solid fuel feed are used in the
simulation, which is a mixture of 70% fiber and 30%
shell, 100% fiber, and 100% shell. Besides, the air
flow rate is first assumed to be 57000 kg/hr and the
amount of air flow rate will be verified in the section
4.2. From the calculation, the input of solid fuel for
each set of simulation is shown as Table 5.

Ash Content of Fiber and Shell as Variable

The ash content of fiber and shell were varied to
study its effect on gross calorific value or heating
value of the fuel. The ash content value was varied in
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Process Simulation and Optimization of Palm Oil Waste Combustion Using Aspen Plus

Table 5. Summary of each simulation

Solid
Composition

fuel

Mass of fiber, kg/hr

Mass of shell, kg/hr
Total Solid fuel,
kg/hr
Steam
generated,
kg/hr
Moisture content in
fiber, %
Moisture content in
shell, %
Calorific
Value,
kJ/kg
Potential energy ,
kJ/hr
Mass flow rate of
CO2 , kg/hr
Mass flow rate of
SO2, kg/hr
Mass flow rate of
NO, kg/hr
Mass flow rate of
NO2 , kg/hr
Mass flow rate of
NO3 , kg/hr

Set 1
70% fiber
and
30%
shell
2360
1011
3370

Set 2
100% fiber

Set 3
100% shell

3490
3490

3120
3120

18000

18000

18000

31.84

31.84

12

12

27,573

27,167

28,415

92,949,270

94,842,979

88,623,277

6460

6591

6159

20.2

23.01

12.46

3.2

3.17

3.22

0.5

0.49

0.51

Trace
(3.21x10-7)

Trace
(3.13x10-7)

Trace
(3.27x10-7 )

most suitable solid fuel for combustion. However, the

amount of shell produced for a typical palm oil mill is
60kg/hr for every 1ton FFB/hr. This amount is not
enough to generate steam for whole plant. Thus, it is
suggested that solid fuel with the fiber-shell mixture
is the better solution. The composition of flue gas is
analyzed in this report with the aid of computer
simulation. Figure 4 shows the major gas constituent
in the flue gas for different type of solid fuel. From
the results obtained, the CO2 is the major component
in the flue gas and followed by SO2, NOX.
Meanwhile, the simulation results show that there is
no CO gas emission. This is due to the complete
combustion of solid fuel in the excess air, and all the
carbon are converted to CO2. Besides, the results
show that the amount of NO3 is extremely small and
can be negligible and the NO is the majority of NOX.
According to the research, the NOX are
predominantly NO and NO2, in which NO is the 95%
of total NOX (Ganapathy, 2003).

From the calculation, it shows that solid fuel

consumed in simulation set 2 is higher than set 1 and
set 3. This is because the fiber has lower heating
value/calorific value compared to the shell, and this
can be proven from the simulation results.

Figure 4. Mass flow rate of major gases in flue gas

When compare the gas emission among the solid
fuel, solid fuel with fiber solely has the highest CO2
and SO2 emission. On the other hand, the solid fuel
with shell solely has the highest NOX emission.
Meanwhile, the solid fuel consists of fiber-shell
mixture has moderate emission for all gases. This
obviously showed that shell which has the highest
calorific value is not suitable to become the only
solid fuel in the combustion. In order to reduce the
emission, the solid fuel should comprise of both fiber
and shell. A table that summarized the results of gas
emission for all types of solid fuel showed as below.

Figure 3. Calorific value for different fuel.

Figure 3 shows the calorific value of the solid fuel
determined by computer simulation. From the results
obtained, it is obviously shown that shell has the
highest calorific value, and the fiber has lowest
heating value. Meanwhile, the simulation set 1, which
comprised of solid fuel mixture, has moderate heating
value. The high calorific value of shell can be due to
the low moisture content. Besides, there are many
similar researches, which were proven that moisture
content in the shell is usually much lower than fiber
and eventually has higher calorific value (Li, Yin,
Zhang, Liu, & Yan, 2009; Olufayo, 1989; Werther,
Saenger, Hartge, Ogada, & Siagi, 2000).
Experimentally, the calorific value for palm waste is
in the range of 18MJ/hr to 20MJ/hr (Yusoff, 2004).
The results obtained from the simulation are
obviously higher than the experimental value. This
may due to the limitation of software Aspen Plus
used in this report. In the nutshell, it is suggested that
the shell which has the highest calorific value is the

Table 6. Summary of emission in excess air.

Gaseous
CO2
SO2
NO
NO2
NO3

Fiber-shell
mixture
Moderate
Moderate
Moderate
Moderate
Moderate

Fiber

Shell

High
High
Low
Low
Low

Low
Low
High
High
High

Effect of Air Flow Rate to the Composition of Flue

Gas
In order to avoid emission of CO, the solid fuel must
be combusted in the condition of excess air. In this
report, the air flow rate is varying in the range from
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Process Simulation and Optimization of Palm Oil Waste Combustion Using Aspen Plus

20000 kg/hr to 40000 kg/hr to determine the

minimum air required and investigate the effect of air
flow rate to the emission. Theoretically, the minimum
air required for complete combustion can be
determined by observing the emission of CO and
CO2. Figure 5 shows the amount of CO and CO2
released when burning of fiber-shell mixture at
different air flow rate. From the results obtained, the
amount of CO released is decreasing with the
increase of air flow rate while the amount of CO2 is
directly proportional to the air flow rate. The present
of CO at the front part of the graph shows the
insufficiency of oxygen in reaction. However, both
graphs are become flat when the air flow rate
increases to 24827 kg/hr. This is because complete
combustion has occurred at the air flow rate of 24827
kg/hr. At this point, all carbons in the solid fuel are
converted into CO2 and further increment in air flow
rate will not increase the amount of CO2 released.
Hence, the air flow rate required for fiber-shell solid
fuel with the mill capacity 30 tons FFB/hr is
24827kg/hr. The effect of combustion in the excess
air will be analyzed by observing the emission of SO2
and NOX.

Figure 6. Effect of air flow rate to the emission of

SO2 and NO2

Figure 7. Effect of air flow rate to the emission of

NOX
The trend of NOX emission can be explained through
the theory of NOX formation in literature. According
to Ganapathy, (Ganapathy, 2003) NOX are produced
during the combustion of solid fuel through the
oxidation of atmospheric nitrogen and fuel-bound
nitrogen. These sources produce three kinds of NOX,
which is fuel NOX, prompt NO X, and thermal NOX.
The fuel NOX is generated when nitrogen in fuel
combines with oxygen in combustion. This type of
NOX is insensitive to flame temperature but is
influenced by oxygen. Thus, when there is sufficient
oxygen present, the nitrogen bound in solid fuel will
turn into NOX and the amount of fuel NOX eventually
becomes constant at certain air flow rate. On the
other hand, the thermal NOX produced will not
become constant when the air flow rate increasing.
This is because the thermal NOX is produced when
atmospheric nitrogen combines with oxygen under
intensive heat. When there is a rise in air flow rate,
the amount of NOX generated will be increased
exponentially. Hence, the mass flow rate of NO, NO2,
and NO3 in the figure 7 increase exponentially when
the air flow rate is increasing.

Figure 5. Effect of Air flow rate to the emission of

CO and CO2
From the results showed in Figure 6, the emission of
SO2 has the similar trend with CO2. The amount of
SO2 is increasing sharply until the point of minimum
air flow rate, and it becomes constant under the
condition of complete combustion. For the emission
of NOX, the trend was slightly different with the
gases previously and the amount of NOX released is
relatively small, especially the emission of NO3.
According to the results, the NOX starts to release
when there is sufficient for oxygen present, and its
amount is increasing in the condition of excess air.

According to the industry practice, the 30% excess

air is applied to the solid fuel combustion. Thus,
when 30% excess air is applied to the simulation, the
composition of each gas is shown as table 7.

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Process Simulation and Optimization of Palm Oil Waste Combustion Using Aspen Plus

Table 7. Composition of gases in 30% excess air.

CO2
SO2
NO
NO2
NO3
Air flow rate,
kg/hr

Fiber-shell
6460
20.2
1.186
0.12
4.932x10-8
32,275

Fiber
6591
23.01
1.231
0.125
5.211x10-8
33,172

From results in Figure 8, the mass enthalpy is directly

proportional to the moisture content. As mention
previously, the present of moisture content in solid
fuel eventually decreases the heating value. The
computer simulation failed to perform the effect of
moisture content to heating value can be due to the
limitation of Aspen Plus. The computer simulation is
suggested alter other properties on solid fuel in order
to get the constant heating value for the solid fuel.
However, the effect of moisture content to low
combustion efficient can be observed from the Figure
9 which shows the relationship between the moisture
content and heat duty of reactor.

Shell
6159
12.46
1.133
0.112
4.575x10-8
31,379

Comparing the reading in Table 7 and 8, the amount

of CO2 and SO2 released are same. However, the
amount of NOX released in 30% excess air is
significantly reduced. In short, the solid fuel which
consists of solid only has the best performance in
30% excess air and the solid fuel which comprises
fiber-shell mixture has moderate gases emission.
Hence, it is suggested that the solid fuel in palm oil
mill should be comprised of fiber-shell mixture or
shell only.
Table 8. Summary of emission in 30% excess air
Gaseous
CO2
SO2
NO
NO2
NO3

Fiber-shell mixture
Moderate
Moderate
Moderate
Moderate
Moderate

Fiber
High
High
High
High
High

Shell
Low
Low
Low
Low
Low

Figure 9. Effect of moisture content to heat duty

Effect of Moisture Content to the Heating Value

and Heat Duty of Boiler
The proximate analysis of fiber and shell is
significantly different. The fiber has the typical
moisture content in the range of 6% to 33% while it
is 5% to 13% for the shell (Li, et al., 2009). As a
result, the effect of moisture content to the heat of
combustion is investigated in this report. Table 9
shows the summarized of each trial in the simulation.

From the graph plotted, the heat duty of reactor is

directly proportional to the moisture content. When
the moisture content is high, the reactor has to work
more to provide sufficient energy for combustion.
Again, the results show that solid fuel with fiber only
is not environmental and economically friendly. The
solid fuel used in the boiler should be shell or fibershell mixture. Figure 10 shows the heat duty of
reactor by using fiber-shell mixture as solid fuel.

Table 9. Summary of each trial in the simulation

Trial
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Moisture
Content of
Fiber, %
6
6
6
19.3
19.3
19.3
33
33
33

Moisture
Content of
Shell, %
5
9
13
5
9
13
5
9
13

Calorific
Value
of
Fuel, kJ/kg
27573.2
27573.2
27573.2
27573.2
27573.2
27573.2
27573.2
27573.2
27573.2

Heat duty
of Boiler,
kJ/hr
111507488
111950207
112392926
115014102
115456821
115899540
118520716
118963435
119406154

Figure 10. Effect of different moisture content

combination to heat duty
From the graph plotted in Figure 10, it shows that the
effect of fiber moisture is more significant compared
to the shell. This may be due to the high moisture
content of fiber which required extra energy to
vaporized water in the solid fuel. In short, the fibershell mixtures are better than fiber only. Therefore,
the fiber-shell solid fuel, which has the moisture
content similar with trial 4 to 6 is suggested. The

Figure 8. Effect of moisture content to the calorific

value
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Process Simulation and Optimization of Palm Oil Waste Combustion Using Aspen Plus

results may slightly deviate from the experimental

value due to the assumption Aspen Plus.

Thus, more incombustible ash contained in a specific

amount of solid fuel is eventually decreasing the heat
of combustion and yield low combustion efficiency.
In terms of heat duty, the heat duty for the furnace
will be lower at high ash content (Figure 12). This is
because less work is done by the furnace to combust
the solid fuel which has the high volume of
incombustible material.

Effect of Ash Content to the Heating Value

Ash content is referring to the mass fraction of
incombustible material in solid fuel. It was found
that the ash is the heat sink in the same way as
moisture, lowering combustion efficiency (Ciolkosz,
2010). Besides, the similar literature showed that
systems that are designed to combust wood can be
overwhelmed by the volume of ash if other biofuels
are used, which can reduce the combustion efficiency
or clog the ash handling mechanisms (Pritchard,
2002). Thus, the relationship between heating value
of solid fuel and ash content is the study to predict
the effect to combustion efficiency. Table 10 shows
the summarized of each trial in the simulation.
Table 10. Summary of each trial in the simulation ash
sensitivity
Trial

Ash
Content
of
Shell,
%
2

Heating
Value of
Fiber,
kJ/kg

Heating
Value of
Shell,
kJ/kg

Heat duty
of Boiler,
kJ/hr

Ash
content
of
Fiber,
%
2

-8833.66

120213475

-8833.66

-8833.66

-8614.24

-8614.24

-8614.24

-8394.81

-8394.81

-8394.81

6346.94
6158.07
5969.21
6346.94
6158074
5969208
6346939
6158074
5969208

Figure 12. Effect of ash content to heat duty

120022532

Effect of Temperature to Gas Emission

As discussed in section 4.2, the NOX emission will
not be constant with the increasing of air flow rate
due to the thermal NO X. However, Ganapathy
(Ganapathy, 2003) proposed that the formation of
thermal NOX increase
exponentially with the
increase in operating temperature because it is a
function of flame temperature. For the natural gas in
15% excess air, it was found that each 37.78C
increase in combustion temperature will increase the
flame temperature by 18.33C. So, the operating
temperature is the study in this section to investigate
the effect of temperature to NOX and determine the
optimal operating temperature. The temperature in
the furnace is varying from 600C to 1200C and the
NOX released is shown in Figure 13 and 14.

119831589
119695626
119504683
119313740
119177778
118986835
118795892

Figure 11. Effect of ash to the mass enthalpy of solid

fuel
From the results present in Figure 11, the heating
value of solid fuel is inversely proportional to the ash
content. When there is high ash in the solid fuel, the
heat released from the combustion will decrease. This
is because the heat of combustion for a given fuel is
mostly a function of the fuels chemical composition.

Figure 13. Effect of operating temperature to NOx

emission.
272

Research Journal in Engineering and Applied Sciences (ISSN: 2276-8467) 1(5):266-273

Process Simulation and Optimization of Palm Oil Waste Combustion Using Aspen Plus

Ciolkosz, D. (2010). Characteristic of Biomass as

Heating Fuel. In P. s. College of Agriculture Science
(Ed.), Renewable and Alternative Energy Fact Sheet
(pp. 4). Pennsylvania: Agricultural Research and
Cooperative Extension.
Foo, K. Y., & Hameed, B. H. (2010). Insight into the
applications of palm oil mill effluent: A renewable
utilization of the industrial agricultural waste.
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 14(5),
1445-1452.
Figure 14: Effect of operating temperature to NO3
formation.

Ganapathy, V. (2003). Industrial boilers and heat

recovery steam generators: design, applications, and
calculations: Marcel Dekker.

From the results in Figure 13 and 14, the amount of

NOX released is exponentially increased to the
increase of operating temperature. The emission is
increasing sharply at higher temperature (1000C).
According to the information provided by Ciolkosz
(Ciolkosz, 2010), the operating temperature of
furnace should not over 972C in order to regulate to
NOX emission. Therefore, the assumption of 800C
operating temperature in this report is acceptable.

Li, J., Yin, Y., Zhang, X., Liu, J., & Yan, R. (2009).
Hydrogen-rich gas production by steam gasification
of palm oil wastes over supported tri-metallic
catalyst. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy,
34(22), 9108-9115.
Mahlia, T. M. I., Abdulmuin, M. Z., Alamsyah, T. M.
I., & Mukhlishien, D. (2003). Dynamic modeling and
simulation of a palm wastes boiler. Renewable
Energy, 28(8), 1235-1256.

CONCLUSION
From the results obtained from computer simulation,
the mixture of fiber-shell solid fuel is better
compared to the solid fuel with fiber only. The shell
which has the highest heating value and lower
emission cannot be used as the only fuel in
combustion because the typical amount of shell
produced is unable to sustain whole mill. Moreover,
the air flow rate should be controlled and the
emission at 30% excess air is acceptable.
Furthermore, the moisture content is determined
lower the combustion efficiency, and the suggested
moisture content of fiber and shell is 6%-19.5% and
5%-13%, respectively. Last but not least, the
operating temperature should not exceed 972C as it
will promote the NOX emission.

Olufayo, A. A. (1989). Combustion-related

characteristics of some by-products of agricultural
processing industries. Biomass, 18(1), 69-72.
Pritchard, D. (2002). Biomass Combustion Gas
Turbine CHP: Talboltts Heating Ltd.
Vassilev, S. V., Baxter, D., Andersen, L. K., &
Vassileva, C. G. (2010). An overview of the chemical
composition of biomass. Fuel, 89(5), 913-933.
Werther, J., Saenger, M., Hartge, E. U., Ogada, T., &
Siagi, Z. (2000). Combustion of agricultural residues.
Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, 26(1),
1-27.

Due to the limitation of Aspen Plus, the effect of

moisture content on heating value and the tolerable
ash content is unable to identify. However, it is
suggested that heating value is inversely proportional
to moisture content and the ash content. In order to
improve the findings in the future, other simulation
software, which is purposely designed for
combustion or design of boiler, can replace the Aspen
Plus in order to get an accurate result. For future
research purpose, ASPEN PLUS is suggested to be
replaced by other computer simulation software
which is design for boiler.

Yang, Y. B., Sharifi, V. N., & Swithenbank, J.

(2004). Effect of air flow rate and fuel moisture on
the burning behaviours of biomass and simulated
municipal solid wastes in packed beds. Fuel, 83(11
12), 1553-1562.
Yusoff, S. (2004). Renewable Energy from Palm Oil:
Innovation on Effective Utilization of Waste.
International Journal of Cleaner Production, 14(1),
87-93.

REFERENCES
Bignal, K. L., Langridge, S., & Zhou, J. L. (2008).
Release of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon
monoxide and particulate matter from biomass
combustion in a wood-fired boiler under varying
boiler conditions. Atmospheric Environment, 42(39),
8863-8871.
273