Energy Recovery from Palm Leaflet Waste by using Anaerobic Digestion and Thermochemical Conversion

Due to the increasing population around the globe, requirements for energy are increasing day after day. The conventional approaches for energy production may not be sufficient to meets these requirements. This necessitates energy production from different renewable sources through suitable techniques. In the present study, energy recovery from palm leaflet waste (PLW) in Morocco was examined. PLW is the by-product of palm farms and is usually burnt in the field or barren lands. This causes the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) and of other air pollutants, as well as the outbreak of fires in the fields, which destroy a large number of palms. The purpose of this study was to identify and calculate the theoretical energetic potential (Ep) that can be recovered from PLW using anaerobic digestion (AD) and thermochemical conversion (TC) i.e., combustion. To estimate the theoretical heating value for TC, an elementary analysis was used. The processes of AD and TC on PLW led to the generation of energetic potentials (EP) of 69.81 GWh/y and 235.5 GWh/y, respectively. This work could be used as a guide by the countries having the same nature of biomass to make a preliminary energy study. This would ultimately lead to the development of processes that can end the energy crisis worldwide.