Cinética não-isotérmica de gaseificação com Co2 do resíduo da acerola

Abstract

Energy consumption has increased over the years along with the growth of the world population. The dependence on fossil fuels needs to be reduced and the search for alternative sources became strategic to diversify the energy matrix of a country. In this context, biomass arises as a potential source of energy especially in countries where agroindustrial wastes are produced on a large scale. Brazil has an economy mainly based on agriculture and it is a world reference when it comes to renewable energy, once it has almost half of its energy obtained from alternative sources. This study aimed to identify the physical and chemical properties and study the gasification of acerola waste using CO2 in order to evaluate its potential as a source of energy. The biomass chosen was acerola waste (RA), donated by a local industry of fruit processing. Before starting the tests, the biomass was dried, crushed and sifted. Next, it was performed several tests to characterize the waste. The pyrolysis process was performed under a heating rate of 30°C/min from room temperature until 900°C, staying in this condition for 30 minutes. Then, gasification was performed into a thermogravimetric analyzer through a nonisothermal method under a gas flow of CO2. Kinetic parameters were obtained by fitting the data from TG according to the Homogeneous, Unreacted Core, and Random Pore models. The results showed 2,48% of A, 75,09% of VM and 19,02 MJ/kg for HHV, which indicate the potential for using this waste in thermochemical conversion processes. In addition, average activation energies of 325,49 kJ/mol, 240,78 kJ/mol, and 243,73 kJ/mol were found for the Homogeneous, Unreacted Core, and Random Pore model, respectively. These values enable the reactivity to be high. Therefore, acerola waste presents itself as a promising alternative source of energy