Paper Title
Hydrochar Production From Hydrothermal Carbonization of Raw Palm Shell

Abstract
Oil palm industry produces a large amount of biomass wastes in the form of EFB, fronds, trunks and palm shell. In this study, raw palm shell is converted into hydrochar using hydrothermal carbonization process. Hydrothermal carbonization of palm shell was carried out at 200 oC for 60 min with biomass to water ratio of 1:10 wt. %. The hydrochar product is further characterized using heating value, elemental, BET and FESEM analysis. The results show that heating value of raw palm shell was improved from 12.4 MJ/kg to 21.7 MJ/kg after hydrothermal carbonization. The results of elemental composition reveals that carbon content was increased whereas hydrogen and oxygen contents were decreased with hydrothermal carbonization temperature. The figures of FESEM show that the surface of raw palm shell was rough and didn�t contain any pores while after hydrothermal carbonization, the pores were produced on the surface of hydrochar which shows that the palm shell was eroded significantly by hydrothermal carbonization. Keywords- Oil Palm, Palm Shell, Hydrothermal Carbonization, Hydrochar