Title: Impact of renewable energy on environments

Abstract:

Date palm trees, being an important source of nutrition, are grown at a large scale in Saudi Arabia. The biomass waste of date palm discarded in a ungreen manner at present, can be used for biofuel generation through fast pyrolysis technique. This technique is considered viable for thermochemical conversion of solid biomass into biofuels in terms of initial investment, production cost, operation cost as well as power consumption and thermal application cost. In this study, a techno economic analysis has been performed to assess the feasibility of converting date palm waste into bio-oil, char and burnable gases by defining the optimum reactor design and thermal profile. The results from the previous studies concluded that at an optimum temperature of 525oC, the maximum bio-oil, char and gases obtained from pyrolysis of date palm waste contributed 38.8, 37.2 and 24% of the used feed stock material (on weight basis) respectively, while fluidized bed reactor exhibited high suitability for fast pyrolysis. Based on the pyrolysis product percentage, the economic analysis estimated the net saving of US$ 556.8 per ton of the date palm waste processed in the pyrolysis unit. It was further estimated that Saudi Arabia can earn US$ 44.77 million per annum, approximately, if 50% of the total date palm waste is processed through fast pyrolysis with a payback time of 2.57 years. Besides that, this intervention will reduce 3618 tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, contributing towards a lower carbon footprint.

Biography:

Sulaiman Alyahya is an academic professor by by profession and works with one of the govrnment univerities in Saudi Arabia. He holds a BSc in Agricultural engineering from King Saud University (Saudi Arabia) and MSc and PhD in agricultural engineering from Iowa State University(USA). Sulaiman has 30 years of experience in education, research and administration.  Curently, his main interest is in biomass energy. Sulaiman grew up in one of the agricultural cities of Saudi Arabia