报告人：Suchithra Thangalazhy Gopakumar (University of Nottingham Malaysia)
报告时间：2024年12月6日（星期五），上午10:00-12:00
报告地点：工学院267教室
联系人：史苏安 13001290561
专家简介：
Suchithra Thangalazhy Gopakumar is an Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham Malaysia. Dr. Suchithra's research focuses on the development of liquid biofuels and the extraction of chemicals from various biomass feedstocks through thermo-chemical conversions and catalytic upgrading. She has authored more than 70 journal papers. She is also the recipient of some research grants at the university and national levels. Suchithra has the status of ‘Fellow of the Higher Education Academy’, UK, Charted Engineer and Charted Scientist from the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (I.M3), UK. She has membership with IChemE (UK), I.M3 (UK), IIChE (India) IEM (Malaysia), and BEM(Malaysia). She has been listed in the World's Top 2% Scientist, in The Standford List 2021 (Single Year Achievement).
报告主要内容：
Biomass is the only renewable source for organic carbon and thus, for carbon-based liquid fuels. Malaysia is the second largest exporter of Palm oil in the world. There are around 450 palm oil mills in Malaysia. Palm oil industries are aiming for zero-emission and decarbonization from palm oil mills. Ample amounts of palm biomass such as palm mesocarp fiber (PMF), palm kernel shell (PKS), empty fruit bunch (EFB), and palm kernel cakes are formed during the extraction of oil from palm fresh fruit bunches. The effective utilization of these by-products provides opportunities for emissions reduction from palm oil mills in addition to providing energy. The yield, physical, and chemical properties of bio-oil for the non-catalytic and in-situ catalytic and co-fast pyrolysis of EFB will be presented. Hydrothermal operations are believed to be the natural processes to produce fossil fuels. In hydrothermal reactions, water at sub/supercritical conditions reacts with biomass to break into smaller components. Since water is near critical condition, its properties will change dramatically and behave like an excellent reacting media. Hydrothermal experiments of palm EFB in a high-pressure reactor will be presented. The presentation also includes some torrefaction studies involved in underutilized biomass from palm oil plantations: palm frond. In addition, palm oil industries generate palm oil mill effluent (POME) is a major concern, where approximately 50 – 75 million m3 are generated during sterilization, clarification, and oil extraction stages in palm oil mills. The study on the benefits of torrefaction as a pre-treatment for palm frond (PF) biomass before its co-digestion with POME in an anaerobic environment will be presented.