Fossil fuel as the world dominated energy source is depleting and posing environmental issue. Therefore, Synthesis gas (or syngas) which serve environmental clean fuel characteristic is expected to play a major role as one of the potential renewable energy in the future. Syngas, produced from solid feedstock (such as biomass, coal, refinery residual, organic waste and municipal waste) via gasification process can be used directly as fuel for power generation. Besides, syngas also acts as key intermediary to produce transport fuel depending on their quality. The chosen feedstock for syngas production determines the composition and heating value of the syngas produced and hence will be reviewed in general. This paper then review critically palms biomass as the potential source of feedstock for syngas production, as it is widely accessible in the context Malaysia. Palm biomass presents a solution that is sustainable and eco-friendly that is yet to be fully capitalized in the palm oil industry. Some of the palm biomass including oil palm frond (OPF), empty fruit bunch (EFB) and palm kernel shell (PKS) are identified to contain high heating value which indicate their potential use as solid biomass feedstock for syngas production.

The present paper aims to study the possibility of dispensing an auxiliary power unit (APU) in an aircraft powered by fossil fuels to reduce air pollution. It particularly seeks to evaluate the amount of power generated by the ram air turbine (RAT) using the novel counter-rotating technique while characterizing its optimum axial distance. The ram air turbine (RAT), which is already equipped in aircrafts, was enhanced to generate the amount of energy produced by the APU. The approach was implemented by a CRRAT system. Six airfoil profiles were tested based on 2D models and the best airfoil was chosen for implantation on the RAT and CRRAT systems. The performance of the conventional single-rotor RAT and CRRAT were analyzed using FLUENT software based on 3D models. The adopted numerical scheme was the Navier–Stokes equation with k–ω SST turbulence modeling. The dynamic mesh and user-defined function (UDF) were used to revolve the rotor turbine via wind. The results indicated that the FX63-137 airfoil profile showed a higher performance in terms of the lift-to-drag ratio compared to the other airfoils. The optimum axial distance between the two rotors was 0.087 m of the rotor diameter and the efficiency of the new CRRAT increased to almost 45% compared to the single-rotor RAT.

Plasma gasification technology is one of the potential methods to decompose dangerous wastes and turn them into non-leachable slag due to it greater energy efficiency and bottom ash prevention concerns. However, a fundamental study of CFD simulation on the reaction flow characteristic using the operational of plasma gasification process was scarce. The present study aims to investigate the gasification characteristic of municipal solid waste (MSW) component including food waste, paper, and yard waste to produce synthesis gas using a 3-dimensional CFD simulation method in the downdraft plasma gasifier. The reaction model of non-premixed combustion, Euler-Lagrangian approach and K- ε turbulence model was used as a setup parameter. Plasma being consider as hot gas with 1173K, coal as 293K and air inlet on 673K. Flowrate of feedstocks, plasma gas flow and air flowrate are set to 0.029 kg/s, 0.0438kg/s, and 0.0029kg/s respectively. Based on the result and comparison between those feedstocks, food waste typically produced higher CH4, CO, and CO2 than paper and yard. Yard wastes yield the highest H2 content which consist of 0.544 mole fraction, with 539.24% higher than food waste and 79.76% higher than paper. The result showed that gasification of different component from MSW produced different characteristic of syngas based on the properties of the feedstock.