A research team, UAEU was able to accomplish a qualitative research project to extract the largest possible quantity of date seeds’ oils for the biofuel industry. This project completed within two years and at a cost of one million dirhams, and it published in top ranked journals.
For his part, Dr. Emad Eldeen Elnajjar, an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the College of Engineering and a chair of the Research Team, confirmed that the research findings was valuable for utilizing 100 percent of date seeds waste in the UAE.
Dr. Emad Eldeen Elnajjar pointed out that the chief goal is to examine the possibility of principal use of the largest possible amount of oils resulting from date seeds in the biofuel industry. The study found that 90 percent of the output of date seeds waste after oil extraction is used in the pyrolysis process, so that fuel such as hydrogen gas can be extracted. As well as methane gas , carbon monoxide gas and the remaining product from the waste as the key component of charcoal. that has numerous practical and industrial applications, and thus 100 percent of the date seeds can be used. As there are more than 40 million palm trees in the UAE that annually approximately produce one million tons of date seeds, 10 percent can be extracted as oils, so we have 100,000 tons of oils that can be converted into biofuels. The waste about 900,000 tons can be used in gaseous pyrolysis, and the final waste is used in other applications, particularly agriculture as fertilizer.
The Chair of the research team explained that most of the data analysis were carried out in the UAEU’s laboratories. This study intended to conduct a full analysis to characterize Date Seed before and after oil extraction, which cover: element analysis, proximity analysis, surface morphology, metals and minerals that exist in the date seed and their impact on the environment.
It is noteworthy that the research team consist of Dr. Emad Eldeen Elnajjar, Mechanical Engineering Department from the United Arab Emirates University. Dr. Ali Hilal Al-Naqbi – Director of Abu Dhabi Polytechnic, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Prof. Suleiman Al-Zuhair, Chemical Engineering Department, Eng. Sheerin Hassan, and Prof. Salah Al-Omari, Mechanical Engineering Department from the United Arab Emirates University.