Possibilidade de carbonização do bagaço da cana-de-açúcar para uso como substrato de plantas.

Abstract

Sugarcane bagasse is one of the most abundant agro-industrial residues in the Northeast, and this fact is worrying, as it can be a major environmental problem. The carbonization process is seen as a solution to reuse waste from agribusiness, transforming it into a substrate for the production of commercial seedlings. Therefore, this work aimed to establish a physical standard to carbonize sugarcane bagasse, aiming at its use as a substrate in the production of plant seedlings. The work was carried out at the Federal University of Paraíba, at the Center for Agricultural Sciences, from November 2019 to March 2020. Sugarcane bagasse was donated by a local cachaça industry; it was sieved manually in No. 2, 4, 6 and 8 sieves then carbonization was carried out. Chemical and physical characteristics were analyzed in the four granulometry of bagasse, before and after carbonization, totaling eight samples with ten repetitions of each. The physical analyzes were: water retention capacity, density, microporosity, macroporosity and total porosity; the samples were weighed in different steps and calculated in equations available in the literature. The chemical analyzes were: pH and electrical conductivity, both measured on a digital device. Chemical analyzes showed that only samples P3 'and P4' had pH within the standards considered ideal for substrate levels, with values of 6.31 and 6.10, respectively. The analysis of macroporosity, microporosity and total porosity, despite not being within the ideal standards, obtained higher values after the carbonization process. The results showed that the bagasse carbonization process did not present physical and chemical standards compatible with the ideal standards for substrates already available.