MODELLING AND OPTIMISATION OF COCONUT SHELL DRYING AND CARBONISATION USING MULTI-RESPONSE TAGUCHI METHOD WITH MRSN PROCEDURE

The main purpose of this work is to optimize the biomass drying and carbonization process in terms of both proximate analysis and biomass calorific value, simultaneously. The biomass material used in the study is coconut shells. The independent variables are the drying temperature, the drying time, the carbonization temperature and the carbonization holding time. The dependent variables are proximate analysis and calorific value. The primary methods used to gain the expected result are Taguchi and multi-response signal-to-noise (MRSN) procedure. Simultaneous optimization by using MRSN generate a value of 2.48 and the result corresponds to a drying temperature of 100 °C, a drying time of 24 h, carbonization temperature of 650 °C, and carbonization time of 120 mins. These results are best achieved by using configuration A1B3C3D3. The optimal expected values obtained in this study are maximum calorific values and fixed carbon of 7744 cal/g and 92.934%, respectively, and minimum moisture, volatile matter, and ash content of 0.354%, 2.318%, and 1.437%, respectively. All indicators are satisfied since the resulting model is deemed to be valid and feasible. The novelty of this work is the simultaneous parameter optimization of the five response variables, which have different quality characteristics into a single best parameter.