Optimization of palm oil mill sludge biochar preparation for sulfur dioxide removal

In this study, palm oil mill sludge was used as a precursor to prepare biochar using conventional pyrolysis. Palm oil mill sludge biochar (POSB) was prepared at different preparation variables, i.e., heating temperature (300-800 degrees C), heating rate (10-20 degrees C/min) and holding time (60-120min). The prepared biochars were tested for sulfur dioxide (SO2) adsorption in a fixed bed reactor using 300ppm of SO2 gas at 300ml/min (with N-2 gas as balance). Response surface central composite experimental design was used to optimize the production of biochar versus SO2 removal. A quadratic model was developed in order to correlate the effect of variable parameters on the optimum adsorption capacity of SO2 gas. The experimental values and the predicted results of the model were found to show satisfactory agreement. The optimum conditions for biochar preparation to yield the best SO2 removal was found to be at 405 degrees C of heating temperature, 20 degrees C/min of heating rate and 88min of holding time. At these conditions, the average yield of biochar and adsorption capacity for SO2 gas was reported as 54.25g and 9.75mg/g, respectively. The structure of biochar and their roles in SO2 adsorption were investigated by surface area, morphology images, infrared spectra, and proximate analysis, respectively. The characterization findings suggested that POSB adsorbs SO2 mainly by the functional groups.