www.astesj.com 365 Characteristic, Thermochemical Behaviors and Kinetic of Demineralized and Torrefied Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB) Nur Nasulhah Kasim *,1,2 , Khudzir Ismail 1,2 , Alina Rahayu Mohamed 3 , Mohd Azlan Mohd Ishak 1,2 , Razi Ahmad 2,4 , Wan Izhan Nawawi Wan Ismail 1,2,5 1 Coal and Biomass Energy Research Group, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), 40450, Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia 2 Faculty of Applied Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia 3 Faculty of Engineering Technology, Unicity Alam, UniMAP, Padang Besar, 02400 Perlis, Malaysia 4 School of Environmental Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, 02600 Arau, Perlis, Malaysia 5 Department of chemistry, University York, Heslington, YO10 5DD, United Kingdom A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: Received: 13 August, 2018 Accepted: 30 September, 2018 Online: 18 October, 2018 A sequential pre-treatment of demineralization and torrefaction, was carried out on palm empty fruit bunches (EFB). EFB and demineralized EFB (DEFB) were torrefied in a vertical tubular reactor in the temperature range of 200 to 280 °C for 30 mins under nitrogen (flow rate:100 mL/min. The pretreated samples were characterized using proximate and ultimate analyses, fuel properties, and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy techniques. The thermal and kinetic study on the torrefied samples were carried out using thermogravimetric analysis. The results showed that sequential pre- treatment enhances the properties of solid EFB by increasing the carbon content and reducing the oxygen content with increasing the calorific value. Fuel properties of torrefied samples showed the mass and energy yield decreased, with an increase in energy density. In addition, the FTIR spectra showed the decomposition of hemicellulose occurring for torrefied samples as evidenced by the disappearance of the vibrational features belonging to hydroxyl and carbonyl groups. The kinetic study carried out using Coats-Redfern method on torrefied samples suggested that the activation energy can be transferred by the sequential pre-treatment, indicating that the abundant energy it has can be converted into bio oil of high quality. Apparently, torrefied samples bear high potential to be used as biofuel feedstock when exposed to further thermal decomposition and pyrolysis processes. Keywords: Demineralization Torrefaction Empty fruit bunches (EFB) TGA Coats-Redfern method 1. Introduction This paper is an extension of work the originally presented in 4th IET Clean Energy and Technology Conference (CEAT 2016) [1]. The extended work was focused on sequential pre-treatment of demineralization and torrefaction of empty fruit bunches (EFB) feedstock. Characteristic and fuel properties of pre-treated EFB were investigated and its kinetic study was performed using Coats- Redfern method. Depletion of energy resources is a crucial issue which has been challenged worldwide. Fossil fuel energy resources such as petroleum, natural gas and coal are expected to last for approximately 35 years, 37 years and 104 years, respectively [2]. Utilization of agricultural waste seems to assist the shortage of energy resources especially for countries having such resources [3]. Malaysia is the second largest producer of palm oil giving rise to abundant oil palm wastes during the refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palm oil processing[4]. Previously, many researchers have focussed on the utilisation of the oil palm waste such as empty fruit bunches (EFB) [5], oil palm fronds (OPF) [6], mesocarp fibre (MF) and palm kernel shell (PKS) [6,7,8] due to their potential benefits for energy sources. However, hygroscopic behavior and higher content of alkali and alkaline earth metals (AAEMs) particularly in EFB limits the ASTESJ ISSN: 2415-6698 * Corresponding Author: Nur Nasulhah Kasim, Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia, +604-9882000, nurnasulhah@perlis.uitm.edu.my Advances in Science, Technology and Engineering Systems Journal Vol. 3, No. 5, 365-373 (2018) www.astesj.com Special Issue on Multidisciplinary Sciences and Engineering