Production of Bio-Char from Plantain (musa Paradisiaca) Fibers Using an Updraft Biomass Gasifier with Retort Heating

Plantain (Musa paradisiaca) fibers are cheap and readily available residues in tropical West Africa currently with little competitive use. Production of bio-chars from plantain fibers is a potential avenue to recover the energetic content of the biomass. For this purpose, an updraft biomass gasifier with retort heating was designed and fabricated. The plantain fibers were gasified for 150 min with a peak temperature of 220°C to obtain a 6.98 wt% bio-char yield. The feedstock was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyses while the bio-char obtained was characterized by FTIR, XRF, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Branueur-Emmet-Teller (BET) analyses. The bio-char produced was highly porous and has a large surface area of 424.8 m2/g. The product finds relevance in multiple applications.