Prediction of Heating Values of Oil Palm Fronds from Ultimate Analysis

The heating value is one of the most important properties of biomass materials, as it can be used for design calculations or numerical simulations of the thermal conversion systems of biomass. The heating value can be determined experimentally or numerically. The determination of the heating value experimentally (by using a bomb calorimeter) involves laborious measurements while an ultimate analysis can be performed using automatic equipment. In this study, a multiple linear regression analysis was used to develop an empirical equation for the estimation of the higher heating value of Oil Palm Fronds (OPFs) using an ultimate analysis. An empirical equation based on the main elements carbon, hydrogen and oxygen (HHV = 0.879C+0.321H+0.056O-24.826) was the most accurate model, with a correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.92, Average Absolute Error (AAE) of 1.4% and Average Bias Error (ABE) of 0.16%.