A techno-economic assessment of biochar production from date pits in the MENA region

Aisha Al-Rumaihi, Mohammad Alherbawi, Prakash Parthasarathy, Hamish R. Mackey, Gordon McKay, Tareq Al-Ansari

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) is the largest global producer of dates, with an annual production of more than 8 million tonnes. The date palm has been an iconic part of this region's culture since 3000 BC and played a key role in its development over the centuries. Incidentally, date pits account for approximately 10% of the fruit, representing a vital biomass resource due to its high carbon and low ash contents. Several studies investigated the valorisation of date pits into biochar via pyrolysis and the product applications as solid fuel, adsorbents, or soil enhancers. However, few have evaluated the economics of pyrolysis using date pits as feedstock. As such, this study presents a techno-economic assessment of biochar production from date pits. Proximate and elemental analyses of date pits samples are conducted in the laboratory, while a 500 tonne/day biorefinery is designed and evaluated using adapted pyrolysis prediction models. In addition, the process is evaluated in two modes: slow pyrolysis at 250 °C and fast pyrolysis at 400 °C. The obtained results are promising, where slow pyrolysis yielded 50 wt.% of biochar with 62 % elemental carbon content. Besides, it achieved a return on investment of 19% and a 5-year payback period. Whereas fast pyrolysis yielded 24 wt.% of biochar with 77 % elemental carbon content, while the return on investment is 17% with a 6-year payback period. Both modes of pyrolysis using date pits proved to be feasible in the MENA region for the production of high-quality biochar.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationComputer Aided Chemical Engineering
PublisherElsevier B.V.
Pages805-810
Number of pages6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2022

Publication series

NameComputer Aided Chemical Engineering
Volume51
ISSN (Print)1570-7946

Keywords

  • Biochar
  • Biocrude
  • Date pits
  • MENA
  • Pyrolysis

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