Economic analysis of biochar production from date palm fronds

More than 50,000 tons/year date palm tree fronds are collected from these fruitful palm farmlands and date processing plants. Previous analysis have shown that it is feasible to prepare biochar with relatively high BET surface areas from date palm fronds, which is favorable for microbial communities to grow and therefore enhancing fertility of the soils, as a result of their involvement in the cycle of nutrients like carbon and nitrogen, which are required for plant growth.

Economic analysis is made for demonstration pilot scale and industrial scale biochar production from date palm fronds waste. Industrial scale plant can produce 13,849 tonne/year of biochar with 4.3MW of electricity. The minimum biochar selling price of $0.20/kg (0.75AED/kg) will give payback of capital investment in 3 years.