Peningkatan Karakteristik Biopellet Kayu Kelapa Sawit Sebagai Sumber Energi Alternatif

Fossil energy sources are increasingly expensive and scarce, because of this alternative energy needs to be sought. One alternative energy is biomass from oil palm wood. Utilization of palm oil waste can be processed into solid biomass (pellets) as a substitute for alternative energy. But the problem often faced with oil palm wood bio pellets is that the characteristics of the oil palm wood bio pellets are still low due to the characteristics of the oil palm wood itself which is low-quality wood. The purpose of this study is to improve the characteristics of oil palm wood bio pellets through the addition of carbon elements and densification of bio pellets mold passes. This research method starts with making molds by making counterbore-shaped passageways. Palmwood particles are filtered with a mesh size of 81. The carbon used comes from coconut shell charcoal. The size of the coconut shell charcoal is 200 mesh. Tapioca flour is used as a binder. The process of forming palm oil bio pellets uses a pellet machine. Biopellets are varied based on the addition of shell charcoal 10%, 20%, and 30%. Binders are used as much as 15%. The test refers to the Indonesian wood pellet standard SNI 8021: 2014. The results showed variations in the addition of shell carbon percentage affect the heating value of the palm oil bio pellets produced. The characteristics of palm wood bio pellets with carbon addition from coconut shell charcoal, namely; the value of water content ranged from 11.5% - 11.8%, the heating value ranged from 4550 cal / g - 4644 cal / g and the density ranged from 0.39922 g / cm3 - 0.4127 g / cm3. The best variation of the formation of palm wood bio pellets with carbon addition from coconut shell charcoal is in the variation of adding coconut shell charcoal 30% and tapioca flour 15%.