Design of Pyrolyzer for the Production of Fuel Oil Using Palm Kernel Shells

Design of pyrolyzer to process 1000kg/day of palm kernel shells (PKS) to fuel oil, water and char was carried out. The PKS was collected from different geographical locations, identified and authenticated before it was washed, sun dried and crushed to a standard grade of 425 μm. The PKS was later pyrolysed in the reactor from 400 – 450oC. The fuel oil product was passed through a condenser submerged in ice bath for cooling to 10oC. The products were assumed to be a parallel first order irreversible reaction. Rate constants (koil, kwater, and kchar) and overall constants k were calculated from the laboratory pyrolysis results and were used to obtain the reactor volume which lead to the determination of the height and diameter of reactor. The thickness of reactor shell was calculated using standard design equations from literature and laboratory data. The heat required for pyrolysis of 1000kg/day of palm kernel shell was obtained from scale up of heat requirement obtained from laboratory results. The lagging thickness was determined through equations of heat transfer resistances across the reactor cross section. The volume of reactor required to pyrolyse 1000kg/day was 107.143m3, the decomposition reaction constant Koil of the fuel oil was 1.153×10-4min- 1while the overall constant K was 3.17x104min-1. The energy required to pyrolyse the PKS was 14025kJh-1 while the product temperature and the atmospheric temperature were 723K and 378K, respectively. Total heat transfer resistances across the reactor cross section were found to be between 2.798×10-6 K/W and 2.51 x 10-4 K/W