By Devin Pathavi
11504007
BACHELOR’S DEGREE in
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING - SUSTAINABLE ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT CONCENTRATION
FACULTY OF LIFE SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
SWISS GERMAN UNIVERSITY The Prominence Tower
Jalan Jalur Sutera Barat No. 15, Alam Sutera Tangerang, Banten 15143 - Indonesia
July 2019
Revision after the Thesis Defense on 19 july 2019
Devin Pathavi STATEMENT BY THE AUTHOR
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge, it contains no material previously published or written by another person, nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at any educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis.
Devin Pathavi
_____________________________________________
Student Date
Approved by:
Dr.-Ing. Evita H. Legowo
_____________________________________________
Thesis Advisor Date
Dr.-Ing Diah I. Widiputri, S.T., M.Sc
_____________________________________________
Thesis Co-Advisor Date
Dr. Dipl.-Ing. Samuel P. Kusumocahyo
_____________________________________________
Dean Date
Devin Pathavi ABSTRACT
Biogas Production from Oil Palm Mesocarp Fibre with Alkaline Pre-treatment
By Devin Pathavi
Dr.-Ing Evita H. Legowo, Advisor
Dr.-Ing Diah I. Widiputri, S.T., M.Sc, Co-Advisor
SWISS GERMAN UNIVERSITY
Oil Palm production is very important to the economy of Indonesia, it was produced over 34.5 million tons in 2016. High productions of Oil Palm lead to high production of waste. Oil Palm Mesocarp Fibre (MF) is one of the most wastes that produced by the Oil Palm plant, and created a major disposal problem. Converting it into biogas through anaerobic digestion process is a solution for more valuable wastes.
Unfortunately, the digestibility of mesocarp fibre is low. Hence, pre-treatment is needed. The objective of this research is to find the most optimum alkaline pre- treatment for the mesocarp fibre. Two pre-treatment methods were applied in this research, which is mechanical and alkaline pre-treatment. In mechanical pre- treatment, mesocarp fibre was pulverized with a disk mill. For chemical pre- treatment, mesocarp fibre was soaked for 2 hours, 3 hours and 4 hours at 70oC using 6% of NaOH solution. Biogas sludge was used as the inoculum. The highest CH4
produced achieved from the mesocarp fibre with 4 hours of retention time and produced 4170 mL of methane gas. The raw mesocarp fibre acts as a reference produced 337 mL of methane gas. This experiment shows that alkaline pre-treatment can increase the CH4 production.
Keywords: Mesocarp Fibre, Alkaline Pre-treatment, Biogas, Oil Palm, Anaerobic Digestion.
Devin Pathavi
© Copyright 2019 by Devin Pathavi All rights reserved
Devin Pathavi DEDICATION
I dedicate this works for my families, friends and lecturers that always support me.
Devin Pathavi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, I praise God, the almighty for His guidance throughout the months and successfully accomplish the thesis work.
I want to express my deepest gratitude and special thanks to my advisor Mrs. Dr.-Ing Evita H. Legowo, for the patience and guidance during my thesis work. Also to my Co-Advisor Mrs. Dr.-Ing Diah I. Widiputri S.T., M.Sc, for being really kind and helpful for the suggestions during consultation.
Another big gratitude for all of the lecturers and staffs of Life Sciences and Technology Faculty who always helped and support me, especially Said Hudriyi and Rizal Pauzan Ramdhani as the laboratory assistant who always helped almost everything in the laboratory.
To the class of Sustainable Energy and Environment 2015for the friendship, holidays, laugh and tears during my study in Swiss German University.
Last but not least, to my beloved girlfriend and family for always supporting me and give motivation in my hard times during thesis.
Devin Pathavi TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
STATEMENT BY THE AUTHOR ... 2
ABSTRACT ... 3
DEDICATION ... 5
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... 6
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... 7
LIST OF FIGURES ... 10
LIST OF TABLES ... 11
CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION ... 12
1.1 Background ... 12
1.2 Research Objectives ... 13
1.3 Significance of study ... 13
1.4 Research questions ... 13
1.5 Hypothesis ... 14
CHAPTER 2 - LITERATURE REVIEW ... 15
2.1 Oil Palm ... 15
2.2 Mesocarp fibre ... 16
2.3 Pre-treatment ... 16
2.3.1 Mechanical Pre-treatment ... 18
2.3.2 Alkaline Pre-treatment ... 19
2.4 Biogas production through anaerobic digestion ... 19
2.4.1 Hydrolysis ... 19
2.4.2 Acidogenesis ... 20
2.4.3 Acetogenesis ... 21
Devin Pathavi
2.4.4 Methanogenesis ... 21
2.5 Fermentation Test Apparatus ... 22
2.6 pH ... 23
2.7 Temperature ... 24
CHAPTER 3 – RESEARCH METHODS ... 25
3.1 Venue and Time ... 25
3.2 Materials and Equipments ... 25
3.2.1 Materials ... 25
3.2.2 Equipment ... 26
3.2.2.1 Mechanical Pre-treatment equipment ... 26
3.2.2.2 Fermentation Equipment ... 27
3.2.2.3 Biogas Analyser ... 28
3.2.2.4 pH analyser ... 28
3.3 Design of experiment ... 29
3.4 Equipment Preparation ... 31
3.4.1 Sealing liquid preparation ... 31
3.4.2 Fermentation Apparatus Setup ... 31
3.5 General Procedure ... 32
3.6 Sample Preparation ... 34
3.6.1 Total Solid content ... 34
3.6.2 Pre-treatment processes ... 35
3.6.2.1 Mechanical pre-treatment ... 35
3.6.2.2 Chemical pre-treatment ... 36
3.6.2.3 Heat pre-treatment ... 36
3.6.2.4 Stirring mechanism ... 36
CHAPTER 4 - RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ... 38
Devin Pathavi
4.1 Preliminary stage of experiment ... 38
4.1.1 Total Solid Content ... 38
4.1.2 Inoculum and Substrate input for digester ... 39
4.1.3 Microorganism population ... 39
4.2 Data of both experiments ... 40
4.2.1 Summary ... 40
4.3 Biogas Production ... 42
4.4 Daily methane content ... 44
4.5 Cumulative Result of Methane Volume ... 45
4.6 Cumulative result of CO2 production ... 47
4.7 Cumulative Results of H2S production ... 47
4.8 Theoretical value compared with the results ... 49
CHAPTER 5 – CONCLUSIONS AND RECCOMENDATIONS ... 51
5.1 Conclusions ... 51
5.2 Recommendations ... 51
REFERENCES ... 52
APPENDICES ... 55
CURRICULUM VITAE ... 67
