Hydrothermal carbonization of biomass waste under low temperature condition

In this paper, the use of banana peel for energy purposes was investigated. Banana peel is a lignocellulosic waste since it is the most widely produced and consumed fruit in Indonesia. Among the others, hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) was chosen as alternative themochemical process, suitable for high moisture biomass. Through a 1 L stirred reactor, hydrothermal treatments were performed under low temperature condition (190, 210 and 230 °C), residence times (30 and 60 min), and biomass to water ratio (1:3, 1:5, and 1:10). Three of product were collected from the process with primary material balance. Solid phase (hydrochar) was evaluated in terms of calorific value, proximate and ultimate analysis. The results suggested that the hydrothermal carbonization of banana peel gave high heating value (HHV) of 20.09 MJ/kg for its char after dried naturally.